“When it reached the point where Mr Niven sought a vote of confidence in his leadership the dispute became one of freedom of expression after Ms Smith demanded an opportunity to refute allegations the president had made against her, but was refused.

She had allowed her letter appealing to members to be edited after objections from Mr Niven and PEN’s executive director, Susanna Nicklin. But Mr Niven’s counter-letter went out unchanged despite her complaints that it was unfair.

Ms Smith said last night: ‘The whole point of PEN is that you meet speech with speech. What Alastair Niven appears to have done is abrogate that principle to give himself an advantage in the confidence vote.'”

I have trouble taking ANY of this seriously. Sounds just like the kind of brouhaha that used to happen on the playground back in ye olde convent school.