Yes, it’s true. If Labour’s 45% or 50% female quotas had been in place in 2011 then, as Patrick Gower cannily points out, some current male Labour MPs would have missed out.

It’s also true that if Napoleon’s army had had tanks and machine guns, he probably wouldn’t have lost the Battle of Waterloo.

And if Barack Obama hadn’t stood for election as US President in 2008, then someone else would have been elected instead.