John Gray reflects on the controversial "safe spaces" policy being pursued by some universities.

It may have been devised to ensure that people of all identities are entitled to a tolerant environment ...but John Gray argues that the policy not only threatens a fundamental liberal value but represents a demand to be sheltered from human reality.

He says the point of education used to be to learn how to live well in full awareness of the disorder of life. "A lack of realism ...was considered not just an intellectual failing but also a moral flaw".

He says we ignore this lesson of history at our peril.

Producer: Adele Armstrong.