Feminist support for abortion has come back to bite the gender.

Bras have been burned, certain forms of misogyny made illegal, and corporate glass ceilings shattered. But if parents want boys, then boys will be boys.

I’ve been saying for years that all the more anal rubbish which comes with hard-line Feminism isn’t going to change attitudes – apart from turning more women against the Wimmin. Advertising today is even more sexist than it was in my heyday during the 1970s – the braindead Renault Megan ‘Shakin’ that ass’ campaign being a classic example.

But ultimately, if the culture is anti-women – and what’s required is testosterone and muscle – with the advance in foetus-sexing (and the acceptability of abortion, for which the Sisters fought so hard) no amount of Hatties are going to change the way things are.

In both atheist China and Islamist Bonkersland, women aren’t highly valued. So more and more couples are aborting anything without a willy. The result is that bachelors unable to find a bride are now a major social problem in China – where (according to the UN) there are now 22% more men than there would be if the whole process was left to chance. Armenia and Azerbaijan are not far behind with an index at 117; and even Hindu India is 8% weighted towards lonely chaps.

According to messrs Park & Cho, Asian parental preference is massively biased towards a desire for sons – once they’ve got one of each gender. Behaviourally, in South Korea for example the index for 3rd children being sons is 193; in China it’s 155. And the numbers are rising.

Now as this isn’t happening in the UK (although a new survey of Islamic families might prove interesting) clearly Harriet Harman is infinitely more necessary in the Far East than she is here. Perhaps if the actorrr manager Chilcot Brown’s troupe is still treading the boards after May, Gordon might banish sorry appoint her to a domiciliary role in Beijing.