As I pointed out, people do seem to be putting "liberal" and "conservative" instead of "Liberal" and "Conservative" - which makes it confusing.

I mean, do all people who say they are Conservatives really want to be assumed to be "illiberal"? "Not befitting a free man; without liberal culture; vulgar, sordid; narrow-minded; stingy" as it has it in the Concise Oxford Dictionary. (Which is in its way an extremely conservative publication, as befits a dictionary.)