Here’s a ray of light for these benighted times in academia. Last night, Prof. Eric Kaufmann launched what he claims is the first explicitly non progressive-dominated social science research centre in Britain. The University of Buckingham’s Centre for Heterodox Social Science promises to promote open inquiry, viewpoint diversity and constructive disagreement in academic research — all of which is in painfully short supply at universities.

Past research by Kaufmann has found that one in three British academics would not hire a known Leave supporter for a job, and three in four conservative social scientists at elite universities self-censor. Perhaps this centre will go some way towards addressing that. We certainly live in strange times when it’s more acceptable to be a communist than a Leave voter at university…