He was just conservative.

The thing was, he wasn't "just conservative" - more especially in the sense in which that is now taken to be defined. The general assumption is that all theb issues about which the world is divided can be bubndled up in a straightforward way, so that when you kbnow where people stand on a coupoel of themm, you know where they stand oin the rest.

And it just wan't like that for JP, and I don't think it's actually like that for most thinking people, if we're honest with ourselves. Typically the temptation is that we find we agree with people on a couple of issues that are high on our list of priorities, and decide that's the side we are on; then we hold our peace when the discussion gets on to other issues where we don't see things the same way as the allies. Or we might even try to persuade ourselves that we really agree with them. Anyway, we avoid rocking the boat.

JP didn't do it that way. He had no worries about rocking the boat. He's launch out against the things he thought were wrong, regardless of whether the people promoting them were people he agreed with on other issues.

I think that's a good way to opoerate - and that's one reason I feel that though I might disagree sharply with some of the views he took, that is no reason to see him as in some kind of opposing camp.