First it was Raquel Welch denouncing the legacy of the Pill. Now Dame Joan Bakewell, a long standing liberal campaigner, has admitted that Mary Whitehouse, a noted campaigner against sexual and violent television programmes, was actually right to worry about the sexual revolution of the 1960s.

In an article in The Radio Times, Dame Joan admits that the introduction of the Pill had been largely to blame for the sexualisation of young girls and the prevalence of pornography.

She said: “The liberal mood back in the ’60s was that sex was pleasurable and wholesome and shouldn’t be seen as dirty and wicked,” she said.

“The Pill allowed women to make choices for themselves. Of course, that meant the risk of making the wrong choice. But we all hoped girls would grow to handle the new freedoms wisely.

“Then everything came to be about money – so now sex is about money, too. Why else sexualise the clothes of little girls, run TV channels of naked wives, have sex magazines edging out the serious stuff on newsagents’ shelves?

“It’s money that’s corrupted us and women are being used and are even collaborating. I never thought I would hear myself say as much, but I’m with Mrs Whitehouse on this one.”

Is money really the problem? It’s part of it certainly. But isn’t it also that, thanks to the Pill, sex became purely recreational for many people and was separated from marriage and commitment with disastrous effects for children in particular?

Turn sex into a commodity and you’re inevitably going to get early sexualisation, lad’s mags and the industrialisation of porn.

In the 60s, 70s and 80s, Joan Bakewell tackled social and current affairs issues previously considered taboo. Well it turns out that certain expressions of sex and sexuality were forbidden precisely because they can be destructive. (Infidelity, anyone?) This is one of the reasons that civilisations tied them to marriage.

Still, if a liberal grandee like Joan Bakewell is starting to grasp this point then maybe we should simply be grateful.