At last, the Lib Dems are behaving like liberals

Last night in the House of Commons, MPs voted to give the government six more months of emergency powers by a tally of 484 to 76. Simple maths will tell you that the Tories could not have achieved this on their own; Starmer whipped the parliamentary Labour party to vote the measure through. It makes one wonder why — or even if — we have an official opposition at all any longer.

The only party that voted as a bloc against the extension of emergency powers was the Liberal Democrats. This followed up on some fiery performances by Ed Davey in the media in the build-up to the vote, asking in stark terms why a government that has laid out a timetable to end all coronavirus restrictions in less than three months needs a whole further half a year of emergency powers to see us safely through to the end of this crisis.