They burned down a newspaper building but their frustration now is that they can’t burn down the internet

Whenever people begin nagging about divorce, gay marriage, the morning after pill and the rest of it, I always say the same thing: that the only true test of whether a politician or political party is liberal is in his, her or their approach to freedom of expression and the free press.

There is nothing else: that is the fundamental which underpins the rest, the starting-point from which all else flows. The Labour Party’s inability to handle criticism, its description of criticism as “hate” and “poison”, its portrayal of critics as isolated outsiders and dangerous enemies, its refusal to accept the sort of writing and pillorying that other politicians take in their stride elsewhere, has always been its undoing.

The Labour Party is not in the least bit liberal and never has been. It is intolerant and oppressive. But we can be grateful for the internet, because they can’t burn it down. And of course, that is exactly what is driving them mad with frustration.