The last question comes from a well-spoken young woman of quite spectacular rudeness and ignorance. Still at university, she languidly attacks Scruton for an idea of culture which consists, she declares dismissively, of just "dead white men". Her claim is such an affront to speaker and audience that a certain amount of hissing goes up across the hall. "Of course that is what you think," says Scruton with a mild note of exasperation, "because it is what you have been taught to think." He is far too polite to ask the girl the question which I wish someone had put to her: in what circumstances would she consider it remotely acceptable to turn up to a discussion between two philosophers and sneer at a culture of "dead black men"?

***

An American friend who is a lawyer and academic describes the ordeal of submitting work to the California Law Review. The boxes to be ticked on the accompanying form include a section on "gender of the author". The available options are: "Prefer not answer; Male; Female; Neither; Both; Genderqueer." Given the obvious reasons for this list, there are only a limited number of things any decent person might do.

One is to submit the most illiterate article possible while ticking "neither" or "both" on the author's gender list. Or perhaps "neither" and "both". However, there is one possibly harsher lesson. I recommend adding to the available options, drawing a whole new box and ticking "Other". The breakdown of the system this will cause is the perfect way to usher in the return of the forces of sanity.

***

For those who consider the burka a little too revealing, Sheikh Muhammad al-Habadan has an answer. Replying to questions on the Muslim satellite channel al-Majd, the cleric agreed that any covering which reveals both eyes of a woman is just too arousing. Even in these garments, he said, a woman can make herself attractive by using eye make-up. His proposed solution is a burka which reveals only one eye.