Anson Chan and Martin Lee have been in London. Veteran champions of freedom and the rule of law in Hong Kong, they were hoping for moral support in upholding the Joint Declaration under which the territory passed from British to Chinese rule in 1997. They were greeted instead like prodigal distant relatives trying to barge back into the ancestral home.

When Ms Chan, the former head of the Hong Kong civil service, and the distinguished lawyer and politician Mr Lee visited Washington a little while ago they were received by Joe Biden, the US vice-president. John Kerry was out of town, but the US state department offered a serious hearing. David Cameron’s Downing Street ruled they should see no one in London above a middle-ranking Foreign Office minister. The conversation went nowhere.

Thankfully, Nick Clegg, Mr Cameron’s Liberal Democrat deputy in the Tory-led coalition, has an independent mind and received the two campaigners anyhow. Number 10, though, had sent the intended message to Beijing. China could be assured that Britain is not taking sides in the dispute about Beijing’s tightening grip on the governance of Hong Kong. The Foreign Office merely notes concern among some “commentators” about China’s dilution of past guarantees.