Since Saturday May 14, when a chambermaid at the Sofitel hotel in New York claimed she was the victim of attempted rape, the law of unintended consequences has been hard at work.

Some of these consequences have been rather large. With Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, holed up at home with an armed guard watching him 24 hours a day, the crisis in the eurozone looks even worse than it did before.

Some of the consequences are rather small. Now that the Frenchman is off the speaker circuit, all sorts of peculiar people are being asked to take his place on various podiums around the world. Last Tuesday, I received such an invitation. It came from a man who runs a course in diversity and inclusion at Sciences Po, the elite French university. He explained that DSK had been approached to talk to the students but that “Regarding the latest events, I have started to look for a new keynote speaker”. The upshot: could I step into the breach instead?