Excerpt:
One of the most common mistakes people make about cultural and politics is suggesting that history is inevitably heading in one direction. We hear it most commonly in the argument made that "we can't turn the clock back" to the 1950s, as if anyone is planning to ban garlic bread or continental lager. (I don't see why achieving 1950s levels of crime would be either undesirable or impossible).
History does not work like that, and in a strange way London today is even more conservative than it was in the 1950s – thanks to liberals.
This week London Metropolitan University's vice-chancellor suggested that parts of the campus be made alcohol-free because some Muslim students believe it is "evil" and "immoral".