WE all figured George Orwell’s dystopian 1984 world of social engineering to be horrific, a society in which talk of politics is banned, and citizens are told what they can think.

But who would have imagined the writer’s Thought Police were in actuality a little bit of a soft touch? What George should have anticipated was an insane future world in which chat of Alfie Morelos’ Rangers’ future be banned, or indeed Leigh Griffiths’ position as a Celtic remainer be considered gender divisive.

And Orwell’s mind control theme didn’t even consider how water cooler talks over VAR should be forbidden – on the basis they will segue into talking about scoring with the blonde who’s just joined advertising?

No, I haven’t just booted the ball of credibility right over the bar with this argument because if we’re not careful we’ll end up taking the likes of Ann Francke seriously.

Ann Francke is the Chartered Management Institute head who argued on Radio 4 this week that sports banter at work can exclude women and lead to laddish behaviour, such as chat about sexual conquests. "A lot of women, in particular, feel left out," she told the BBC's Today programme. "They don't follow those sports and they don't like either being forced to talk about them - not being included."

Francke, in claiming that bosses should clamp down on sports debates, suggests herself to be both misandristic and stupid.

To say that women don’t follow, don’t understand, football is absurd, indicating she spent last summer on another planet while the World Cup was taking place. Has she not noted the intendant publicity, the number of female commentators and presenters on football television, such as Gaby Logan, or indeed the number of women working in the sports’ media?

Francke also does women a huge disservice by talking about females being “forced” to talk about sport. What does this entail? They go home at night and study up on the new contact laws in football? Does this also imply women have been banned from introducing their own blether subject matter into the office, that any mention of Love Island, for example, should result in being docked a half-a-day’s salary?

Ann Francke’s out-of-touch argument is either an exercise in self-publicity or a pathetic woke attempt to ingratiate herself with what she considers a feminist vanguard. (Or both) Either is pathetic.

But there’s a bigger picture to worry about here. The gender divide is being prised further apart thanks to the insanity attacks from Twitter. There are already too many attempts to widen the gap by citing the many, many faults of men. Yes, we all know the days of inappropriate behaviour in the workplace should be ended, the sexism, the inappropriate touching, but what we don’t need is a ban on talking up Mo Salah’s incredible penalty box touch.

What we don’t need are these endless suggestions on behaviour by people such as this Management person. Indeed, we need to cancel the phrase ‘We need to have a conversation.’ What we need is to let people breathe.

And we need to assume women are perfectly capable of forming conversations, and indeed cover subject matter that involves more than the anodyne.

I can recall women in our office once introducing that age-old talker ‘How much money would you want to sleep with so-and-so,’ chat, and of course it was fun – and revealing – to discover how little money was involved to get intimate with the office horrors. Would that be allowed nowadays?

Yes, Francke is right to urge chat based on commonality; but that’s simply an ideal. Here’s the reality; people talk about what is on their mind, whether it’s who’ll win the league – or why David Walliams feels taking his trousers down is the only way to achieve column inches.

Ann Francke’s comments will not help productivity in business. It will in fact further a schism which is not good for morale at all. And if she’s talking about a “crack down” does this demand HR staff in jackboots kicking against the office kitchen door and carrying off any man who has been heard to mutter the phrase ‘I’m really not convinced VAR works.’

What we all know is that the workplace can be a demanding, pressured, stressful environment in which we need moments of release. Depression rates are rocketing. We need release at work, and that release needs to be free flowing (so long as no one is abused in the process.

Former sports, gambling, charities and loneliness minister Tracey Crouch (thankfully) called the Chartered Management Institute's advice "a load of nonsense".

But it’s worse than that. It’s dangerous. Because if anyone listens to Ann Francke we’re all likely to become Winston Smiths. And Alfie and Leigh simply can’t be on the banned list.