Sometimes the elephant in the room is so huge that no one else can squeeze in, and the conversation has to take place elsewhere. So it is, I can’t help feeling, with the problem of Britain’s underachieving boys. There’s an awful lot of whispering and head-scratching going on out here in the corridor, while that great fat elephant lolls on the sofa playing World of Warcraft.

A new report by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) lays out the demoralising facts. Boys are falling behind academically from primary school onwards, and appear to be giving up on higher education altogether. This year, 94,000 fewer men than women have applied for a university place. If current trends continue, girls born in 2016 will be 75 per cent more likely than their male peers to go to university.