A s one surveys the Continent this Christmas it is hard to decide which once progressive state leads the race to the bottom when it comes to testosterone-fuelled muscular reaction. There’s a case to be made for Poland, whose ruling Justice Party has spent the last two years looking to strip back women’s reproductive rights. Then there’s Hungary, where Viktor Orban, the prime minister, has just shut down down gender studies.

My vote, though, goes to Italy, for a no-holds-barred, across-the-board assault on women’s rights: and I am especially thinking of them in this season of goodwill to all, as the ruling coalition seeks to weaponise “family values” in its crusade to put women “back where they belong”. To wit, on a pedestal, and in the kitchen, fulfilling their proper roles as mothers and home-makers.