The answer to Cherniss’s initial conundrum is very simple: humanitarians are often sociopaths and sentimentalists, who are more predisposed to ideological violence than the average person.

Laws on equality, “hate speech”, internet communication and COVID safety are so dense, vague and contradictory we are all guilty all the time, just by leading normal lives.

This classic warning from Huxley was echoed by Lord Sumption on BBC Radio Four last week when he reminded the public that free societies become tyrannies often because the people relinquish their liberties, rather than have them taken by force.