Michael Blackburn: ‘In its eagerness to fulfill EU directives the British state will be closing down a number of coal-fired power stations before it has worked out how to replace their output. Sticking up wind farms on every available acre of the land will not be enough.’

Michael Blackburn: ‘Nothing cracks. No quivering lips. No emotion. He plays it like he’s ordering burgers and French fries in a suburban drive-through. This is everyday stuff to an important guy like himself. When he’s finished he folds up his papers and strides out all determined and statesman-like. Done. No questions for the Pres. No need. Too cool for that.’

Michael Blackburn: ‘Now when sensitivity needs to be shown there has to be someone endued with such an excess of it they‘re deemed to require special treatment. In the gulag of post-Christian white liberal guilt you can guess through which minefields of sensitivity we are now tiptoeing.’

At the heart of this minor clash between two opposing views on sexuality, religion and marriage lies a profoundly important idea about liberty. Progressives deliberately conflate disapproval with intolerance. In their world-view that which is disapproved of cannot be tolerated. The essence of liberty – of thought, speech and religion – is that one may tolerate something of which one disapproves. In the words of Milton, it’s that “many be tolerated rather than all compelled”.

Michael Blackburn: The prospect of no real change topped off with an elected head of state in the figure of some self-important ex-politician and a revamped House of Lords equally stuffed with elected party goons is not appealing. Sometimes acquiescing in the status quo is not just the easiest but the most sensible thing to do. Long may the republic remain a distant dream of the bilious few.