According to Evans, the Lib Dems allowing Arrowsmith to stand is entirely in line with their libertarian approach to pornography. "The party views porn as an issue that speaks to freedom of speech and individual choice — this is an approach that utterly fails to address the issue of sex and gender."

Yet this is a party that enjoys the forgiveness of its supporters, however sleazy the behaviour of its politicians. Take Lib Dem member for Birmingham Yardley, John Hemming, a former heavy-metal drummer. Hemming is Chair of the Justice for Families Campaign, which has links to groups such as False Allegations Support Allegations, and People Against False Allegations of Abuse, whose website reads: "We are concerned primarily with the current climate that makes it possible for anyone to be accused of abuse, especially of a sexual nature, and in particular against children."

Shortly after his election in 2005, he made headlines when it was revealed that he was the father of a child with his personal assistant and (then) fellow councillor. His wife, with whom he has stayed, said the affair was "about number 26".

Following the publication of details of the affairs, Hemming voted for himself in the News of the World's Love Rat of the Year competition. Hemming's behaviour received much press coverage in Yardley but he increased his majority at last year's general election, proving that his constituents did not hold such behaviour against him. 

Since the Jeremy Thorpe scandal the Liberal Democrat party as a whole appears to have all but abandoned traditional morality and adopted instead an approach to sexual politics and behaviour that is nothing short of extreme libertarianism. But there are those in the party, in particular women backbench MPs and a few men, who are concerned about the effects of pornography and prostitution on women and other vulnerable citizens. 

Some party activists are keen to return to an older tradition, when the focus was more on raising the moral standards of the nation than on debasing them. Let us hope that these are the voices that shout the loudest in the future.