What does the great “gay cake” controversy tell us about our country and its laws? Within the space of 50 years we have gone from a place where it was illegal to be homosexual to one where it is now unlawful to refuse to bake a cake extolling the virtues of gay marriage on political or religious grounds.

In seeking to create a more open-minded society that accepts previously illicit predilections, we have merely replaced one set of intolerances with another. In particular, we have abandoned two of the fundamental principles that underpin our democracy and our liberties: freedom of expression and equality under the law. When I say “we”, I mean the governments that have brought forward ill-considered and illiberal legislation and the parliaments that have voted it through. MPs and peers, the supposed custodians of our liberties, have connived to diminish them.