style="overflow: hidden; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; border: medium none;">The word “liberal”, with a small l, has acquired so many different and contradictory meanings that I tend to avoid it. The fact remains that it is very much in currency in some parts of the world. Leave aside the use in French political rhetoric of “neoliberalism” as a term of abuse for Anglo-American capitalism. Liberalism per se is used a great deal in both highbrow and lowbrow US debate. Former president George Bush senior used the “l word” to damn his Democrat opponents. On the other side of the fence, most American academics regard themselves as liberals of one kind or another.