I was very pleased to see this morning that Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrats’ Acting Leader, is to boycott the state visit of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah – a move described in The Herald as unprecedented (“It is highly unusual for a leader of an opposition party to snub a royal visit. Foreign Office officials could not immediately recall any precedent”).

One of the perks of being a party leader is getting to go to state banquets and the like, and with only two months in charge of the party, Vince is unlikely to have many opportunities, which makes his gesture all the more significant.

Taking a stand for human rights and against corruption is absolutely what the Liberal Democrats are for – and the dismissive response of Liam Fox shows why the Tories, despite all their pleas, aren’t about to attract the liberal vote. It was, after all, the Conservatives who oversaw the Al Yamamah arms deal with Saudia Arabia in the 1980s.