The government needs to stop trying to legislate for manners and common sense

Is there such a thing as the Loony Right? The reaction of those on the Left to Peter Bone and Philip Hollobone’s Alternative Queen’s Speech selection of bills certainly suggested so. But what defines whether something is loony? Is it lunacy because it is unprecedented, out of step with other civilised countries, incoherent? Or just that no one you meet or read advocates it?

I don’t support the death penalty, for instance, but in the case of murder it’s not wacky – most US states still practise it, after all, as does Japan. Some of the other suggestions are not just reasonable, but probable, such as withdrawal from the European Union. The Overton window on that changed rapidly so that by the early 21st century being in favour of an independent Britain was extremism, but it’s turning back.