In Wednesday's Guardian Simon Jenkins posited that "Ipswich proves how badly we need Tory libertarians". He does not recognise the current Conservative Party as being able to make the case for an increase in basic civil liberties:

What is the matter with the Conservative party? It once claimed a nodding acquaintance with the cause of liberty. Now it runs with the corporatist pack. If there is anything to be banned, regulated or computerised, it howls from the dispatch box for "something to be done". Be it prostitutes, drugs, prisons, NHS computers, data protection or civil rights, the Tories are desperate not to be seen as out of the action.

Just like Blair, Cameron seems content to have his agenda shaped at the behest of focus groups and the press. As Jenkins continues:

The Tories could tell us exactly what a modern Conservative means by a free society, and list the regulations and restrictions they intend to repeal in their bonfire of controls. They could seize the moment of the Ipswich headlines by declaring their determination to end counter-productive bans on consensual crime. Merely preaching an end to government interference in the private affairs of citizens is hypocritical if, when case after case comes along, Cameron funks mentioning it for fear of the press.

Indeed. Project Cameron is not about any sort of principle, as Cicero argued so persuasively earlier this week. It is solely about securing a return to power for the Conservatives, who have finally come to the realisation that the "Natural Party of Government" finds loss of power more painful than the triumph of the viewpoint of one their disparate sects (although, of course, if power was secured these internal tensions would surface immediately).

Yet what is the point of this power, if the Conservatives will not act?

If the Tories spend every day dancing attendance on the tabloids, they will get absolutely nowhere with wavering voters. If oppositions, especially those professing an aversion to an overwhelming state, cannot see how specifically to curb it, who will?

The answer is obvious - it has to be the Liberal Democrats. A clear and urgent expression of Liberty has to be our rallying cry in the run up to the general election. We owe it to the voters to offer them this choice; they will not get it from the Blue Labour parties.

It is distinctive, but it is also right.