Sometimes our party or, at least, its leadership, leaves me with my head in my hands. This past weekend and, indeed, today is one such occasion.

On Wednesday at Prime Minister’s Questions, or deputy PMQs as it was as Starmer was at the G7 in Canada, our own deputy leader Daisy Cooper reminded the House of Commons of the Lib Dems brave and right leadership of the opposition to the Iraq War back in 2003 and warned against the UK once again backing another United States misadventure in the Middle East.

Well all I can ask is: what happened between Wednesday and Sunday? Did we think the UK should oppose action against Iran when it was only a theoretical idea? Has Ed overruled Daisy? Or have our leadership as a collective had a case of the jitters and (as always, some might argue) are they running scared of Tory voters in the shires?

The statement our leader put out yesterday managed to basically use up quite a number of words to absolutely nothing at all.

Do we support the action? No answer.

Do we oppose it? No answer.

We are sitting on the fence, yet again, when we could be, in the spirit of Charles Kennedy, leading the opposition to a President of the United States who is chaotic, unhinged, and who is riding roughshod over Congress and the usual way things are conducted.

A convicted felon who cares not one jot about checks, balances, and due process, who cares only about himself and his agenda. He apparently doesn’t even care about his own MAGA base to whom, pre election, he made very clear his opposition to American military participation in other people’s wars and who stridently made clear that, in his view, America should not act as the world’s policeman.

Then again, Trump is using the American military against U.S. citizens using their first amendment right to protest his disgraceful stances on immigration including ‘deporting’ U.S. citizens (which is rightly being challenged in the courts).

One of the things I’ve been most proud of since Trump’s relection is Ed Davey’s consistent opposition to Trump and his politics; often using at least one of his questions at PMQs to attack Trump’s latest misguided action or dangerous rhetoric. Why now, at this pivotal moment, has now gone back to the old Lib Dem favourite of ‘on the one hand, on the other hand’? In fact, it’s even worse than that. It’s not even setting out what the two different hands are. It’s just noting the U.S. action and calling for diplomacy.

Do we as a party back the action or do we oppose it? Does Ed know? Does Daisy? Do our Foreign Affairs or Defence spokespeople?

What is our position?!

And today it’s got even more laughable (if it weren’t so very serious). The Party’s social media accounts are demanding the PM comes to the Commons to make a statement.

I agree. He should. But when Mr Speaker calls the Lib Dems to reply, what are we going to say? “Umm, er, well, er, yes, right, er, something has happened, we, umm, er, don’t have a position on it, but, er,…diplomacy!”

For goodness sake! We should be on every TV and radio programme going making clear our opposition to this action. Not because we support Iran, because of course we don’t. They should not get nuclear weapons and we must make that clear (as a unilateralist I believe we should lead on encouraging all powers with nuclear weapons to agree to destroy them), but because this is another American President riding roughshod over international norms, the rule of law, and over Congress.

We must allow Iran back to the table (where they had been) and seek a settlement between Israel and Iran to bring the conflict to a peaceful resolution.

On Iraq Charles Kennedy was brave and right and he won our party new support as a result. Ed Davey has a chance to do the same now. But will he?

I pray for peace and for brave leadership.

Give peace a chance!

We hear some Tory MPs might defect to us, what about Labour MPs?

I’ll be honest, I’m not always a fan of parliamentary defections from one party to another. I recognise that it makes for good headlines for a day or two and suggests political momentum for the party defected to and a slide in fortunes for the party defected from. But I think you can always tell whether the person really should have been in your party all along or if it’s all a bit of a fudge.

The most recent defection to our party, I’m pleased to say, that of former Tory MSP Jamie Greene seems to very much be in the former camp. He was always too liberal for the Tories, certainly after Ruth Davidson ceased to be leader of the Scottish Conservatives.

But some of the defections to our Commons caucus during Jo Swinson’s brief tenure as party leader very much left a lot to be desired, and now there are rumours that a number of Tory MPs are seriously considering jumping ship to us.

I can certainly understand why. If you’re a ‘One Nation’ Tory your party has long since ceased showing any willingness to want to keep you in the fold. Badenoch’s Conservatives are all about culture wars, a race to the bottom on immigration, and appealing to the Faragists (seemingly forgetting that the Tories lost scores of seats to us at the last election and could yet lose scores more).

But what about some Labour MPs? Might they also see us as an attractive option? I think possibly so. We rightly oppose the disability cuts and other welfare changes which are going to decimate so many lives and, ironically, mean many people in work will no longer be able to do so, though we must be honest that our Ministers in the Coalition government should have been far more robust in opposing the welfare changes of the time.

On any number of issues, we are comfortably to the left of Starmer’s Labour (not that that is particularly difficult) and some soft-left Labour folk might well not be able to take much more of what Starmer and Reeves are delivering.

Time will tell.

Who is looking out for Larry?

One of the genuinely most heartstopping moments of last week was when the car taking Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner from Downing Street to Parliament very nearly ran over Larry the cat. Video of this went viral and apparently Rayner even shared it with the PM who was at the G7 in Canada.

As I tweeted at the time dear Larry, in my view the nation’s favourite cat, must be protected at all costs. So, I ask, who on Downing Street is looking out for Larry?

Until next week!

* Mathew Hulbert is a former Councillor, is a regular commentator on TV and Radio, and is Co-Host of the Political Frenemies podcast.