“Tough slogans are soft options,” says the Lib Dems’ Mark Oaten. But the new slogan just demonstrates that the Lib Dems are not part of the reality based community. The REAL Alternative? A real opposition would have turned up to oppose Charles Clarke’s bill on Monday. Particularly since the Lib Dems present themselves as the leading defenders of civil liberties – not too hard to do when the leader of the official opposition flip-flops on the issues – it was after all Howard who “voted for ID cards, before he voted against ID cards” and who opposed the Terror Bill before saying the Tories would support it temporarily. Senator Kerry was more consistent…

Sixteen Lib Dem MPs, including Charlie Kennedy, were absent for the vote which cut Labour’s majority to 14. A third of the Lib Dem parliamentary party did not even turn up to vote on one of their main manifesto issues. Oaten admits the Lib Dems screwed up “It was a miscalculation by everyone at every level. There was chaos in the chamber and we had no idea at all…”