Those are good words to remember at the moment as we continue to watch the fall out from Lord Browne’s difficult departure from BP.

As we all now know, the open secret at the oil giant was that he was a gay man in an industry not too tolerant of that kind of diversity.

For someone like myself, working in a relatively progressive sector like media, it’s difficult to imagine a place where being gay is so awkward, even though we read the reports from industrial tribunals every week.

Sadly, the professions, law and accountancy included, are perhaps not too dissimilar from the oil industry. Ashley Steel, the only known openly gay board member of a Big Four firm spoke to me about her surprise at the absence of professional service firms from a list of the most influential gay business people in the UK. That was two years ago and things don’t seem to have changed much.

They must be there, because there are gay people in every walk of life, it’s just clear that they remain nervous about coming out. Part of the problem is the current UK backlash against what is viewed as political correctness.

I can’t help feeling that the ubiquity of the anti-PC attitude is damaging and ignorant of history. After all, aren’t events like the civil rights movement and the fight for sexual equality really the origins of political correctness – and we wouldn’t argue with those points of view.

Perhaps what all of these sectors need is a bit more of Nick Montagu’s approach. You just have to keep banging on about diversity.

Gavin Hinks is editor of Accountancy Age