The good doctor takes a firm stand against the seemingly arbitrary arrest of the former leader of the Scottish National Party, Nicola Sturgeon, as another example of the deterioration of the rule of law in the West.

But to arrest someone and then release him or her almost immediately without charge seems to be the procedure of a police state. It’s no excuse that Sturgeon was herself no friend of freedom, that in fact she circumscribed freedom by promoting draconian laws against hate speech. The point about the rule of law is that it extends its protection to everyone, whether or not they personally deserve it: for it’s precisely this that makes it morally superior to arbitrary rule.