Yes as you will no doubt be aware Yorkshire peer Baroness Warsi quit the Cabinet and her position at the Foreign Office this week citing the government’s pusillanimous approach to the ongoing slaughter in Gaza.

In a fairly incendiary resignation letter, extracts of which have appeared in the media, she described the government’s inaction and failure to criticise Israel as “morally indefensible,” “Not in the national interest” and argued that it would serve to foster terrorism and undermine British influence in the Middle East.

So far so good you may think, finally a member of the coalition with a few scruples and certainly it’s hard to dispute any of those points.

Warsi, who had a stellar rise through the ranks of the Tories and became the first-ever Muslim member of the Cabinet, has received plaudits across the board and there is no reason to believe that her decision was anything but a principled stance.

She went on to say that “Our (the government’s) approach in relation to the current conflict is neither consistent with our values, specifically our commitment to the rule of law and our long history of support for international justice.”

And that’s where things get slightly more problematic.

You see, when it comes to consistency of values, the rule of law and support for international justice Warsi has shown herself to be somewhat … flexible.

You may recall that it was Warsi who accepted assurances from the head of the infamous Afghan secret police, the NDS, that prisoners handed over to them would not be tortured.

Assurances given by Asadullah Khaled, the head of the NDS, were accepted by Warsi despite his having been publicly identified by a senior Canadian official as the head of a “criminal gang” who was “known to be running a narcotics operation” and had a “dungeon under his guest house.”

 In 2007, Khaled was identified by the deputy UN special representative in Afghanistan as having ordered the deadly bombing of a UN vehicle in Kandahar, which killed five of the organisation’s workers.

The details emerged during a court case in which the government sought to remove a moratorium on the handover of prisoners to the NDS and cover up its own complicity in torture.

The case involved an Afghan man, Serdar Mohammed, who was captured by British forces in Afghanistan and handed over to the NDS, whereupon he was repeatedly tortured and forced to sign a false confession.

It emerged during the trial that during multiple visits to NDS interrogation centres in 2011, British officials found torture equipment including whips made from electric cables but did not raise objections “for fear of causing a scene.” 

That Warsi so blithely accepted assurances from an infamous murderer and torturer, and then sought to cover up the fact, puts a somewhat different complexion on her much vaunted commitment to “the rule of law” and “international justice.”

Warsi was also an enthusiastic cheerleader for the attempted illegal military intervention in Syria which was only thwarted by mass public outcry and a narrow Commons vote.

Her concerns for the people of Gaza and the suffering of innocent civilians may well be genuine and if so should be respected. 

It’s just a pity she didn’t give a damn about the poor and needy in this country when she zealously backed increasing tuition fees and the coalition’s draconian welfare reforms.

Warsi is also a rabid proponent of that most benign of things — more religion in politics, which according to her would solve most of the world’s ills.

Addressing the assembled Catholic hierarchy in the Vatican in 2012 she railed against what she described as the evils of “intolerant secularism.”

Yes, because Islam and the Catholic church are notoriously tolerant of dissenting opinion.

And let’s face it religion has never caused any trouble in the Middle East has it?

Labour wheeled out Douglas Alexander in a vain attempt to capitalise on the situation.

The shadow foreign secretary said that: “Most reasonably minded people across Britain will agree with the sentiments expressed by Baroness Warsi in her resignation statement today. It is a sad reflection of the Prime Minister’s misjudgement of the crisis in Gaza that this capable minister has felt the need to leave the government.” 

So, a bit like when Robin Cook quit over the illegal war in Iraq then?

Or maybe that now legendary moment when the entire Labour cabinet resigned over Britain’s spineless capitulation to Israel over Operation Cast Lead in 2008. 

Oh, wait a minute, that didn’t happen did it?

That’s the problem with getting on your high horse. It’s easy to fall off and make yourself look an arse.