Of all the shameful episodes in Britain’s recent history of managed decline, few have been so humiliating and amoral as the Government’s refusal to grant asylum to Asia Bibi, the Catholic woman farm worker falsely accused under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, sentenced to death and finally acquitted by that country’s supreme court.

Despite the acquittal, Asia Bibi and her entire family are in acute danger of being murdered by Islamist mobs. She has been placed under protection at a secret location by the Pakistan government while the members of her family are reportedly moving from house to house in an effort to stay ahead of the lynch mob.