FOR an insight into the character of our Prime Minister, the interviews he gave to Jeremy Paxman last week were hard to beat. Paxman asked Mr Blair if he had any qualms about the fact that New Labour recently received a donation of £100,000 from Richard Desmond, proprietor of Express Newspapers.

Being boss of The Express is, as it were, only Mr Desmond's day job. He also publishes pornographic magazines with titles such as "Asian Babes". Mr Blair repeatedly declared that there was no harm in receiving donations from a pornographer.

Now, also last week, the New Labour publicity machine announced that its trendy marketing strategy for our country as Cool Britannia is to be mothballed and the new buzz-word is to be "heritage".

The spin-doctors have got the public's message, given loud and clear in their overwhelming response to the death of the Queen Mother. Surprise, surprise! We are not a nation of airhead trendies and fashion freaks after all. A great majority of us is as traditionally-minded as ever. So here comes New Labour to declare that it is now the party of tradition and Mr Blair himself is described as "quintessentially British". Well, I have just one question: "Is it considered quintessentially British for the party of government, with the Prime Minister at its head, to receive donations from pornographers?" "Pornography" comes from two ancient Greek words which together mean "the writings of whores". And you know the name for those who live off the earnings of whores. Quite. So New Labour may be accurately described as the party of pimps.

Last Sunday morning David Sullivan, founder of the tabloids Daily Sport and Sunday Sport, and who also has published pornographic magazines and run a chain of sex shops, came on Radio Four to tell us that the right to consume pornography is part of our national freedom; and that pornographic photographs and videos give pleasure and are just a bit of a laugh. I don't think that most of the people who queued for hours to pay their respects to the Queen Mother would agree with that view. I don't think either that most readers of The Northern Echo would agree with it. It is not just a matter of personal preference: we need to rediscover the truth that certain images are obscene. Pornography is evil because it degrades the human form and intimate human activity and perverts sexual love.

Mr Sullivan was pleased to report that we are more "liberated" in Britain than we were. I don't think that the loosening of conventions in sexual morality which has happened since the Swinging Sixties has done anything but harm to our society. Promiscuity means pain - for those suffering broken marriages, for children, for whole families. I know there has always been immorality. What worries me is that what used to be regarded as immoral is now only a matter of "personal lifestyle". But wrongdoing cannot be whitewashed in this way.

* Peter Mullen is Rector of St Michael's, Cornhill, in the City of London, and Chaplain to the Stock Exchange.