In the House of Lords last week, many of the peers on the Labour and Lib Dem benches (and I have to admit a couple on the Conservative benches too) were once again objects of wonderment to me.

Give them a chance and they will be on their feet demanding that Her Majesty's Government should "do something" about some affront to decent standards of conduct in one or another now independent former colonial territories.

Moments later they will be jostling to condemn Conservative "neo-colonialist" attitudes towards just such states. Especially would they condemn the thought that the peoples of Nigeria were not visited by the curse of Boko Haram, nor were female children threatened with execution in Pakistan, during the Imperial rule. Still, ministers are condemned for their failure to "do something" to stop those and so many other terrible things in places outside our jurisdiction.