Ah. So it has come to this.

Chivalry has of course long been dead; the revolving door, invented in the 1880s, was by then probably merely urinating on its grave. I mean to say, things have been in a bad shape, for a long time.

But you can defile as well as bury a corpse. This it has now been decided we shall do. From 2012 we shall have female boxing at the Olympics. It was important not merely to knock Woman off her pedestal, but legalise a jolly good bop to her nose too. We must only be thankful that it is, at present, not mixed boxing. That will surely come in 2016 or so. (And in the forcibly dechristianised dens of poor Britain, never properly preached to or educated, I gather vigorous amateur leagues have long been underway, and the (dis)Establishment is by its actions quite happy about this.)

This news has made the frontpage of many a British newspaper today, and I probably would not have commented on it had it not done so. The images have a decided effect on you, whatever your pre-disposition on such issues. I suspect it is for this reason that they and the story made the frontpages; and it shows the good old pith of civilisation is not quite dead in everyone, but sleeps on in our bones, fit to be awoken now and then with dim inarticulate stirrings. (Though how many will voice such unease, give vent to such stirrings?)

The tense, frowning, crouched, gloved, bloody-nosed females, strike, I think, the average subject’s soul very profoundly. The only other desperate women we see, or expect to see, like this, are HM’s prisoners. But this is in the name of the highest physical endeavours and accomplishments of mankind. And so it has come to this. Beloved, astonishing woman - focus of sonnet and serenade - the sacred media of life - to be wooed, won, charmed, and kept devotedly - a lost greatness they somehow still feel in their widespread fiction and film choices, if scarcely in clothing or conduct - can now garner prize money and international medals by fighting in public. Excellent. Please assist all neighbours and passing strangers in administering a universal pat on the back. Aren’t we great?

When will someone call the horror show of the last 100 years off? Please.