It’s time for Lib Dems to accept that the party’s over

Who are you backing in the latest Liberal Democrat leadership contest then – Layla ‘you got me on my knees’ Moran or steady Sir Eddie Davey?

It’s an academic question really, as I highly doubt it will have punctured your carapace of indifference. The stewardship of what we once referred to as ‘the third party’ – in government as recently as five years ago – is now very much a minority interest.

But thanks to pressure from grassroots Lib Dem members – and allegedly there are still more than 100,000 of those – the party’s leadership contest is back on for this summer. A decision to postpone it until after the coronavirus crisis was over has been reversed and the field will now come under starter’s orders at the close of nominations on 9 July with a winner being announced in late August.

Moran says she will be standing for ‘an economy which respects key workers and leaves no-one behind, a world-leading education system that puts trust in teachers and a renewed fight against biodiversity loss and the climate emergency’.