The backlash was censorious, strict in its views on the family and personal morality, and predominantly suburban.

ECONOMIST: Lexington

Different attitudes to personal morality in politics are rooted in social and even religious differences, which may soon become starker.

ECONOMIST: Charlemagne

The politicians were not less likely to be churchgoers (many voters, after all, attended church), but they had developed their own standards of personal morality.

CNN: What if abortion became a non-issue?

When it comes to personal morality, Australia has moved away from the prudish censoriousness that was such a strong feature of national life until the early 1970s, and perhaps beyond.

BBC: Penny Wong: Australia's non-story of the week

Just as enforcing personal morality seems to be a unifying principle behind many conservative appeals for government interventionism, liberals seem to be driven by a desire to reverse perceived power imbalances.

FORBES: Power Imbalance: The Difference Between Liberal and Libertarian Philosophy

Americans may be holding tenaciously to a strict view of personal morality, but they say that they do not want to impose their views on others (abortion seems to be the big exception).

ECONOMIST: American values

Neat ideological labels have become harder to pin on parties since they have had to contend with the emergence of what some commentators call post-material issues (such as the environment, personal morality and consumer rights) which do not slot elegantly into the old left-right framework.

ECONOMIST: POLITICS BRIEF: Empty vessels? | The

The program quoted many young Brit bankers who said morality was a barrier to personal success in the City.

FORBES: Failure of Morality, Not Capitalism