There is no word more mangled in the political lexicon than ‘liberal’. It’s the only word whose definition first requires answers to two other questions: ‘what country?’ and ‘what era?’

Around the world today there are 46 political parties that include the word liberal in their name. In Britain, a liberal means a political centrist and the last time that nation’s Liberal Democrats held the balance of power (in 2010) they formed a coalition government with the Conservative Party.