The Right Dishonourable

I gave up browsing Twitter on a campsite in Dorset. It had been a long time coming, delayed unduly by the question of what would distract me while I was taking a shit. (Crosswords, as it happens.)

No great epiphany prompted it; rather the steady trickle of stupidity passing by my eyeballs everyday eventually took its toll. A website that is always running on full retard wears you down, and I was so tired, as the wokies say.

I’ve previously described my scepticism towards businesses weighing in on the culture wars, or even politics in general. As I put it, the mechanism for choosing ice cream should be distinct from voting.

One way of putting this policy into practice is to ignore any political messaging a company puts out. Whether Ben & Jerry’s is woke, based or indifferent you buy that ice cream.

The only surprise in the news that the Garrick Club is facing legal action over sex discrimination is that it took so long. This year no old institution has been off limits to progressive calls for radical reform, but boys’ clubs have been acceptable targets for much longer and nobody can deny that a men’s only members’ club qualifies.

The complainant is Emily Bendell, chief executive of underwear company Bluebella. The entrepreneur instructed lawyers last Tuesday to send a letter to the club, informing it that she is seeking to reverse its policy of only allowing women into the club as guests or employees.