Hence its propensity to side against Israel in order to preserve good relations with the dictatorships and tyrannies whose co-operation is essential for the effective pursuit of multilateralism — the Holy Grail of the new class's global ambitions.

How the world has changed from the one Lord Hurd describes. Two centuries ago, Castlereagh, then Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, and Canning, then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, stood opposite each other, pistols drawn on a damp September morning on Putney Heath. They had disagreed over the Walcheren expedition to Holland, which Canning had seen as an unnecessary diversion from more pressing matters on the Iberian Peninsula. Even in those days, the two men's behaviour was considered scandalous. Today, it would just seem pointless.