James Bond is a notorious British sex pest

In an article yesterday, Niall Ferguson tried to take a nuanced position on our changing sexual mores. I think he was right to refer to James Bond – I’m surprised other pundits have not. We’re still in quite a muddle, he says, while we revere this fantasy of droit de seigneur.

Indeed. Not long ago I turned on the telly on a Saturday afternoon, and found a Sean Connery Bond film. He was staying in a hotel – after flirting with an attractive maid he summoned her to his room, and after some sexy banter he pulled her into the shower with him – cut to the happy couple in post coital bathrobes.

It might sound like the scapegoating of a cultural icon, but I think we need to knock double O sex-pest from his pedestal. My hunch is that male politicians have believed in him a bit too much.