Do Britains stilll have a moral compass or have we degenerated into a nation of spivs and scammers? Radio 3's Night Waves invited Times leader-writer Oliver Kamm and John Milbank, a professor of religion and ethics from Nottingham University, to debate the topic two weeks ago.
Milbank lamented that because religious faith had waned "we may indeed be becoming more immoral than anyone else"; Kamm welcomed the decline in religion, since rational enquiry was needed to establish what's good and what's evil. "Professor Milbank is an example of what I mean," he added, "as he's a 9/11 truth campaigner, a conspiracy theorist."
"No I'm not," huffed the professor.
"Oh yes you are" said Kamm.
Milbank was indeed a founder signatory of a conspiracy group called Religious Leaders for 9/11 Truth, though he claims that he has now asked for his name to be removed. As soon as the programme was over he began shouting at the Times pundit, keeping it up all the way along the corridor, and then in the lift, and then as he followed him outside to a waiting car "You're going to be dealt with!" Milbank screamed "You're going to be dealt with!"
Can this really be what the professor of religion and ethics had in mind when asked, near the end of the discussion on Night Waves, how Britains could recover their moral decency? "I think," he had replied, "We've got to start by being gentle with each other..."