Another difficult weekend of cold weather over, it’s time for me to return to my editorial duties for another week, on the 739th anniversary of the Mongolian victory at the naval Battle of Yamen, which ended the Song Dynasty in China. Also, on this day in 1628, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was granted land for settlement.

Admittedly, this isn’t quite as much of a challenge as it might be, because the stocks of submitted articles are close to non-existent. However, we do have a report from Chris Bowers on the “Reclaiming Liberalism” fringe at last weekend’s Federal Conference, challenging you all to think more radically.

Elsewhere, Vladimir Putin has been re-elected as Russian President with nearly 77% of the vote, and whilst this is hardly a surprise – he didn’t feel it necessary to take part in the four Presidential debates that were organised, after all – the reality of six more years of Russian interventionism, both overt and covert, is something that the West needs to give serious thought towards a response.

For the record, the liberal candidate, Yabloko’s Grigory Yavlinsky managed 1%, and came fifth. It’s easy to forget just how difficult it is to be a liberal in some places, and given the power of the Russian State machinery, it takes some resolve to keep challenging the administration.

So, on with the day, as Parliament gathers again to find out what concessions the Government have made in their increasingly desperate attempts to get a workable Brexit deal without being caught blurring their red lines…