The Times published an op-ed essay by Nigel Biggar arguing that free academic inquiry is undermined by a lack of civility in public debates between university scholars and urging a recovery of ‘habits of self-restraint’ for the sake of both the universities and democratic society more widely.  The article prompted a response from Kim Wagner and James McDougall in The Times Higher Education Supplement, which in turn elicited letters from Dr Zareer Masani, biographer of Indira Gandhi and Thomas Macaulay, and Geoffrey Alderman of the University of Buckingham.