diff --git a/synapse/api/auth.py b/synapse/api/auth.py
index e159e4503..c1b3ae173 100644
--- a/synapse/api/auth.py
+++ b/synapse/api/auth.py
@@ -189,6 +189,12 @@ class Auth(object):
             auth_events,
         )
 
+        # TODO(paul): There's an awful lot of int()-casting in this code;
+        #   surely we should be squashing strings to integers at a higher
+        #   level, maybe when we insert?
+        if user_level is not None:
+            user_level = int(user_level)
+
         ban_level, kick_level, redact_level = (
             self._get_ops_level_from_event_state(
                 event,
@@ -269,6 +275,7 @@ class Auth(object):
                         403, "You cannot kick user %s." % target_user_id
                     )
         elif Membership.BAN == membership:
+            print "I wonder how user's level of %r compares to ban level of %r" % (user_level, ban_level)
             if user_level < ban_level:
                 raise AuthError(403, "You don't have permission to ban")
         else: