Manning Clark must be mightily vexed from wherever he now exists (as an admirer of Soviet Man, Manning did not, of course, believe in God) with ANU Vice-Chancellor Brian Schmidt.

Last Friday Schmidt informed that he had taken a difficult decision, to withdraw from negotiations with the Ramsay Centre for the teaching of an undergraduate degree on western civilisation, over concerns on the level of autonomy the ANU would have over the course, that, in keeping with its eponymous course title, teaches, well, the History of Western Civilisation.

According to Schmidt, the ANU “approached the opportunity offered by the Ramsay Centre in...