In Europe, since the Dark Ages, the Christian moral order, though never obeyed to the letter, was accepted as the basis of British law and custom. When we lost that in the permissive 1960s, we lost the whole plot. Today, government and Parliament look to the think-tanks and their moral order is secular humanism. But the ideas of the intellectual elite do not persuade the ordinary voter. Its 'reforms' consist mainly in demolishing the previous moral order, but inspire no new self-discipline in its place.