It seems only last week - in fact, it was - that a letter signed by the great and good men in our community implored readers to pay more attention to the under-representation of women.

We could not agree more, which makes the composition of this week's delegation to meet the Queen, at the opening of her Diamond Jubilee year, even more perplexing. Besides Her Majesty, there was only one woman at the Lambeth Palace event. Just one woman out of a 14-strong delegation, several of whom were the signatories to last week's letter.

Perhaps the men have never come across any women leaders. So let us help. Karen Pollock, who heads the Holocaust Educational Trust; Elaine Kerr, at Norwood; Caroline Bogush, who runs Limmud; Abigail Morris, now at the Jewish Museum: all, and many others, would have been eminently suitable for such a delegation. The press release from the Board of Deputies claimed that the group represented "the diversity of the community". We had not realised that women comprised only one-fourteenth of British Jewry.

Or perhaps - perish the thought - they are happy to talk about action, but when it comes to following through they would rather do absolutely nothing.