‘Anti-lad’ crusaders have begun a cultural cleansing of British universities

You can’t be on a campus for more than 10 minutes nowadays without hearing about inclusivity. Universities and students’ unions are mad for it. At the University of Sussex, a statement declaring that ‘The Union is committed to providing an inclusive and supportive environment’ has to be read, aloud, before every students’ union meeting. Students who want to set up a new society at the University of Bristol must satisfactorily prove that they will ‘respect and promote the Bristol SU values of equality, diversity, safe space and inclusivity’. It’s big in America, too. Not least at the University of Delaware, where, in 2007, it was revealed that the administration was making undergraduates fill out questionnaires about what races and sexes they tended to fancy, with the stated aim of getting them to be more inclusive in the bedroom.

But there’s one kind of British student who clearly doesn’t qualify for inclusivity, a nefarious group so toxic it’s not welcome at the students’ union circle time: rugby lads.