The well-worn path from Liberty to being a Labour hack

When I was a teenager and had already decided I was a Liberal, two of the big names in civil liberties campaigning were Patricia Hewitt and Harriet Harman of Liberty - or the National Council for Civil Liberties as it then was.

Twenty years later they were both impeccably on-message New Labour ministers, sharing Tony Blair's exasperation with "libertarian nonsense".

Another 20 years on and I find Shami Chakrabarti is set on the same path. As one viewer put it last night:

It's incredibly sad to see Shami Chakrabarti the former head of Liberty, whose aim is to protect rights, actively supporting the removal of people's Freedom of Movement. Such a disappointment. #bbcqt #PeoplesVote

— You Broke It Mate (@YouBrokeItMate) December 6, 2018

The moral, I suppose, is that you should be wary of having heroes - or heroines.