I think I am with Richard Bridge. A conservative is one who strongly believes in all the personal freedoms but would, with a clear conscience consistently deny them to others. I always think of it as pulling the drawbridge up behind you. Those who are not conservative, may still do the very same thing but it would at least bother them more and they would struggle a lot with their conscience.

This split is very deep in us, but narrowing? The following may seem not to have a lot a relevance to the question asked but my brain tends to widen things out a bit.

There was a series of TV programmes on the history of keeping exotic wild animals in Britain. This practice went way back, hence all the lions, elephants and bears depicted in heraldry. The most popular early books, other than the Bible, were illustrations and fanciful descriptions of both these real and mythical creatures.

Our fascination with them continues but our attitudes towards this have developed from ignorance of their requirements, to public shows and cruel baiting, to scientific interest and compassion for their welfare. This progress has been slow but generally welcomed to the point where we now tend to question the whole practice of keeping animals in captivity.

But baiting and exploitation of all types of animals for sport, betting and pleasure does still occur. If Don King organised something like a large-scale public contest, of bear baiting and this were to be legally possible to be staged, in one of our more 'civilised' countries. There would still be some people who would be in favour of it and whose conscience would not at all be troubled by, the unnecessary infliction of pain on the poor animals…… Fact. Unpleasant one but a fact never the less.

I am not suggesting that all conservatives are in favour of torturing animals. I just use it to demonstrate how deep the split can be between the way people look at things.

There appears to me in politics, to be those who appear to hate and as consequence, appeal to those I would describe as, 'haters'. Or at least to appeal to that mean spirited side of all us. You do not have to look too hard or far to find examples of this and of the resulting carnage and on-going misery caused.

The lesson we can learn from our changing attitudes towards the keeping of wild animals does give me some hope for the future, if only we have enough time to learn. For seeing the full knowledge of our past mistakes, does present the opportunity for us to do it better.

Which is why it is so important that we never allow certain individuals and groups to re-write history.