The writer, Naomi Schaffer Riley, paints a depressingly familiar picture of university lecturers who won’t even close their office doors when alone with a female student.

It would be easy to dismiss this as yet more campus lunacy, yet Riley claims this rot runs to the very top of American society. And how soon before we start feeling ripples cross the Pond?

Riley cites a US National Journal survey where a male Congress aide said: “Several female aides have been barred from staffing their male bosses at evening events, driving alone with their congressman or senator, or even sitting down one-on-one in his office for fear that others would get the wrong impression.”

In a lawsuit-happy culture, where claims can seemingly be made on a ‘he said/she said’ basis, men are now trying to ensure their actions are always covered by a third party witness. Increasingly, they want to make sure the walls have ears – just in case something “inappropriate” is said.