There is a certain conceit or image or depiction that the left side of the Liberal party likes to wrap itself in. This is their desired public identity, as it were. This is how they want others to see them. For some of them, the naive amongst the Labor-lite Liberal MPs in the party room, they may even believe this portrayal.

And what is that self-image? Well, it amounts to some variant or other on this: that the Black Hand Gang ‘moderates’ are nothing more, or less, than good-hearted upholders of the great John Stuart Mill line of thinking. Call it ‘classical liberalism’ if you wish. They care about civil liberties and freedom, goes this portrayal. They care about small government. Not for them any Neanderthal social conservatism or indulging in unimportant ‘culture war’ issues. No, they are the principled ones in the Liberal party room. They are the ones keeping the Millian candle alight.

Now I realise that the paragraph I just wrote may have caused some readers to race to the loo with severe cases of gagging, then retching, then spewing. Sorry. But that self-image really is how these (implausibly) self-styled ‘moderates’ think of themselves. Or at least it’s how they hope others will see them. Go back and read just about any George Brandis account of his side of the party room. Or listen to the maiden parliamentary speech of Tim ‘I’m All About Freedom, Baby’ Wilson. Or the Black Hand Gang bossman Christopher Pyne. Or, to the extent she’s been able to articulate her worldview coherently, Sussan Ley. Or Alex Hawke. Or best of all, that giant walking ego himself, Malcolm Turnbull. All these and more want to paint themselves as inheritors, and today’s upholders, of the great J.S. Mill classical liberal tradition.

But it is codswallop. (I try to use the kindest and most polite labels available lest any young ones pick up your copy of this great publication.)

Absent such courteous, well-mannered and respectful considerations, I would have said this conceit and self-depiction by the lefty Labor-lite cuckoos in the Liberal party room is complete and utter BS – misinformation so patent and obvious that the only reason the eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant hasn’t gone after the Lib ‘moderates’ is that they created her.

After all, no one was more useless and incompetent in making appointments to the High Court, to the Human Rights Commission, to key offices like Ms Grant’s, to everything going than Liberal ‘moderates’, starting with George Brandis himself.

Let’s start with the self-flattering claim that these Labor-lite Libs care about civil liberties and freedom. Give me a break! Who remembers that during Covid these Lib ‘moderates’ were amongst the most thuggish, heavy-handed and civil-liberties-destroying elected legislators in the democratic world? They indulged in censoring and shadow-banning and trying to silence dissenting views in the name of authority – even though many at the time (me included) pointed out their errors and even though we now know, heck even Bill Maher knows, that Covid came from a lab; kids should never have been kept out of schools; masks offered no benefits and for a few were harmful; as anyone who understands how real vaccines work, natural immunity to Covid was at least as good as and usually better than vaccinated immunity; that vaccines never stopped transmission or catching the bloody virus; and that any direct or indirect vaccine mandates were wrong and downright evil.

John Stuart Mill wouldn’t have been caught dead supporting any of these precepts, especially the silencing of dissenters. Yet the whole Black Hand Gang of self-styled ‘moderates’ were all in. Or, at least, not a one was brave enough to dissent – again, unlike Mill.

So, too, when it came to the Voice –the ‘moderates’ were first cabs off the rank supporting a Yes vote.

Then there was the total sheep-like behaviour of the same mob in supporting Labor’s so-called ‘anti-hate group’ laws. Are you kidding me? They are so loosely defined you could drive an electric truck (their favourite kind) through the definitions section of what a ‘hate crime’ is. No half-decent safeguards. Hurt feelings of those in the target group now a trigger to putting someone in a ‘hate group’. Then massively over-the-top penalties and potential prison time. Nothing to stop the government picking on any group it dislikes. Procedural fairness jettisoned. Even some retrospectivity. John Stuart Mill wouldn’t have signed up to this horror of a bill even if he got dementia or was being waterboarded. And yet it was the self-styled ‘classical liberal’ wing of the party room that flocked to sell out our freedoms, civil liberties and free speech. (I’m not saying the supposed ‘conservative’ wing of the party room was much better, leave aside Alex Antic who was a star. But at least some of them abstained.)

Then there is the small government claims these Labor-lite poseurs try to connect to themselves. Yeah, sell me another one. No group is more all-in on net zero, the biggest increaser of government power and regulation of the economy ever. What about big spending and big taxing? Again, the ‘moderates’ are worse on that too. And it’s not as though the so-called conservative wing of the Liberal party is worth much of anything on that stuff to start with.

Let me, as an aside, try to inject a bit of balance (look up what that word means, any ABC employees) and say something about Andrew Hastie. Because he’s not in the ‘moderate’ J.S. Mill wing of this broken party. But he was just as bad as them when he opted to vote for this Labor party monstrosity of a bill. Having done so he then doubled down and tried to justify it by saying if the Libs hadn’t caved in and supplicated themselves at the feet of the Great Albo (my words, I don’t think his characterisation was as accurate), then Labor would have struck a deal with the Greens and the legislation would have been even worse. Are…you… kidding… me? You don’t justify your own authoritarian thuggery and breaches of all free speech concerns by saying, ‘Well, those guys might have done even worse if we hadn’t joined them.’ What you do is say, ‘Go ahead Albo and enact some God-awful law with help from the hard-left, socialist Greens. We’ll use what you do to win the next election. We pledge right now to all Australians to repeal this when we win, even if that requires a follow-up double-dissolution election. Because we have core principles and red lines this party won’t cross.’ Got that, Mr SAS? Because, and I mean this to be biting, your sell-out on this hate-groups bill makes you no better than your deluded colleagues in the party room who think they are latter-day incarnations of John Stuart Mill.

Let’s state the obvious. Anyone remotely concerned about free speech in this country, and reining in government, has only one choice these days. One Nation.