Prof John Pitcher was only 67, and a Shakespeare scholar of great distinction, when he was forced out of his job three years ago. By modern standards, 67 is the prime of life: if he’d been a Rolling Stone, he could have looked forward to another decade of stadium tours and making babies with hot ballerinas.

But the Academy is less forgiving than rock’n’roll towards ageing. In 2011, when the government abolished the default retirement age, Oxford University hastily adopted something called an employer justified retirement age (ERJA) policy, which means it can force older employees to retire in the interests of the institution. The aim was to promote “intergenerational fairness and improvements in diversity” – in other words, to clear out some of the male, pale and stale academics in order to bring in a younger and more diverse set.

A tribunal judge has just dismissed Prof Pitcher’s age discrimination case against the university. Other employers may now adopt ERJA policies, enabling them to winkle out older employees in order to diversify their workforce.

This is, of course, horribly unfair on old white men. Why should anyone be forced out of a job they can still do well, purely because of their age or ethnicity? And besides, aren’t we all supposed to be working until we drop these days?

Britain, like the rest of the world, is growing older. By 2066 a quarter of our population will be aged 65 or over. We simply can’t afford to become a nation of retirees. The longer each of us keeps earning and paying tax, rather than claiming a pension, the less strain we will put on the public finances.