Indeed both big parties, having abandoned their own traditions, seem intent on a contest of illiberalism. They both defend our rotten voting system and other clapped out institutions, they both use disgraceful language about asylum seekers and other immigrants, they both are scared witless of Europe, they both bang the law 'n' order drum, and they both have no time for freedom of information. Most importantly of all, they are both in thrall to big business. The Liberal Democrats, with their unfortunate instinct for caution and incremental change, may be tarred to some extent with the same brush. But real liberals, or Liberals, have no truck with the squalid current order.
Real liberals believe in liberty.
In a truly liberal society, people would not just be free to make pots of money, which is our crabbed and narrow modern interpretation of freedom. They would be free of want and ignorance and injustice. Those who believe in such things should, on balance, be happy that Hague attacks them. For as his own party disintegrates, and the ruling clique transforms itself, Animal Farm-like, into the new Tory establishment, there is at least a glimmer of opportunity for the reassertion of liberal values. Among them is the far from radical notion that government should reflect the wishes of the electorate.