What none of these clever buggers say is that it is the job of men to police themselves. When my daughter's ex-partner threatened to become violent, she didn't bother the police, she told me and her brother instead. We had a 'word' with the arsehole and he's kept his hands to himself. It was that or end up face-down in the canal (nobody raises a hand to my daughter). He still engages her in battles of wits, but he'll not win those - he's only half-equipped for them.

My point, in so far as I have one, is that decent men have been socialised out of their basic instinct to beat the living crap out of any of their own who mistreat women. The anonymity of overlarge population centres without proper communities doesn't help.

Example: at a University departmental disco, lo these many years ago, I happened to see a couple closeted in a quiet corner. The man, who seemed to be rather older than his companion, was haranguing her about something. Well, folk do have rows, right? None of my business. But then he slapped her, so I dislocated his shoulder for him. I was then lectured, gently and earnestly, by feminist classmates about how wrong what I had done was. But he never hit her again, she split with him shortly after and he let her go without a murmur. He also stayed well away from me.

Just for the record, I was a mature student and around the same age as him.

I don't claim to be a knight in shining armour, just somebody who knows you can do more with a kind word and a two-by-four than you can with just a kind word.

So, without prejudice and as an ERA, was my intervention right or wrong?