That liberal society is not holding the Liberal Democrats to account tells us much about its double standards. Baroness Tonge is an extreme example of a liberalism that has turned sour and duplicitous, but she is not a freak. Like a fairground mirror, she exaggerates real faults in the Lib Dems which will have to be confronted with vigour now that Clegg is in power. Her concealed Little Englandism — the pretence to care for others while all the time avoiding true commitment on principled grounds — was in display everywhere during the second Iraq war. The party opposed it for good reasons, but even the best Liberal Democrats I know could not bring themselves to support those in Iraq who were struggling in the most awful circumstances to create a country worth living in decades of dictatorial rule. 

I cannot envisage such an insular party allying itself with the democratic movement in Iran now. And if Tehran's push to produce the nuclear bomb results in war, I would expect them to insist on Britain staying out of it. At home, we can study the record and notice that the vast majority of Liberals are simply not involved in the struggles against radical Islam and the BNP. Indeed, the party has historically played on white racism and Islamist religious reaction to undermine Labour in the inner cities. 

Despite all the coos coming from leftish intellectuals and centrist supporters of the Cameron project, Lib Dems are not always as nice or as moderate or as well-meaning as ignorant outsiders imagine. They are often duplicitous, selfish and irresponsible. Some of the nastiest ideas of our time receive a safe home in their party. Some of the most cowardly leaders in British politics allow them to say there.

To everyone who says that the Lib Dem presence in the coalition protects David Cameron from the Conservative Party's Right, I would reply: that's all very well but who is going to protect Cameron from the Liberal Democrat Party's extreme Right?