The last lines made my stomach drop, and I wanted to read them aloud to everyone in the room at ISTR. All of us in the sector should pay attention to why this works as a mechanism. Fewer programmes, fewer partnerships, fewer public commitments, fewer institutions willing to name inequality clearly. You all have such patience, they said, and I salute it, but are you not worried it will run out? The panellists answered with grace, drawing on their own work, but the question hung in the room.