Tim Farron, the last of the old-school liberals
Today the Assisted Suicide Bill returned to the House of Commons. Amid its many flaws and complications, perhaps most important is that it marks a landmark change in the state's attitude to the sick, the weak and the vulnerable.
Leading the charge for the Bill are many wealthy, privileged liberals in the Esther Rantzen mould who, as they reach the end of lifetimes of total autonomy, cannot countenance the idea that the all-too-human world of pain, inconvenience and constraint might apply to them.
This is a problem for one party in particular. Many Liberal Democrats in parliament and elsewhere view themselves as the true champions of the needy or overlooked. Wherever a neglected local library, footbridge or nature reserve stands, there you will find a Lib Dem wanting to bring its plight into the light.
Yet there is a curious blind spot – or rather paradox – when it comes to this, perhaps the most important debate of this parliament.
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