I have remarked elsewhere that, at some point in a public career nowadays, one must expect to be made to apologise to Liverpool. It is not clear why this should be so, but it is. A newer hoop to jump through is that one will be asked if homosexuality is a sin.

Last week, I watched the Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, being interrogated by Channel 4 News on the point, as if the programme were the politically correct version of the Spanish Inquisition. Mr Farron deflected the question by saying: “We are all sinners.” That was not the right answer, and so the furies pursued him. A few days later, he stammered out agreement that homosexuality is not a sin.

Will this satisfy Channel 4, or will it want Mr Farron to come out against the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist or the rule that one should eat fish on Fridays?

Read also: It is not Tim Farron’s private beliefs that bother me by Laura Perrins, TCW