In over forty years of reviewing books this is a first: I am ensuring that no word or phrase from this review can be used by any but the most scurrilous publisher for a jacket quote indicating I think well of Liberal Fascism. But publishers are free to tweezer out these words: rant, slimy, smear, weasel.

Jonah Goldberg, a contributing editor to the conservative National Review, is also thin-skinned and mischievous. Thin-skinned because, he explains, having been publicly insulted about his politics he decided to write this 500-page book. And rather like the little girl who flicks up her skirts to flash her knickers,