It's not Tim Farron who is illiberal: it's society

Was Tim Farron’s resignation as Liberal Democrat leader inevitable? He seems to suggest so, saying in his striking resignation statement that it felt ‘impossible’ to be a political leader and live as a committed Christian.

He spent much of the election campaign stuck in a strange political special of the Moral Maze, endlessly cross-examined about his beliefs on issues such as gay sex and abortion. He argued that religious beliefs are not relevant in a political context, telling Sky during the campaign that ‘the measure of a Liberal is someone who protects other people’s rights, no matter what your personal position is’. Many in his party admired him for this. Others, such as Brian Paddick, who resigned yesterday from a position few were aware he held, clearly did not.

But Farron himself was inconsistent in keeping his faith out of the public arena to such an extent that it is difficult to wonder whether his desire to make his beliefs irrelevant to a political interview was more motivated by a recognition that those beliefs are just too unpalatable for public life.