42 days

In 2003, there were far too many Labour MPs who voted to invade Iraq not because they believed it was right, but because they lacked the courage to say they believed otherwise. Next week it's going to be the same from the sound of things, and our illiberal Government will pursue its quest to deprive us of hard-won civil liberties with ever more vigour.

Since I'm deeply cynical, I suspect that most of the MPs who end up supporting the proposals will do so in the belief that they will never get past the Lords anyway, thus providing further grounds for knocking that institution, as well as for accusing the Tories of being 'soft on terrorism'. They're gutless far beyond contempt, yet they still don't understand why people are not going to vote for them next time around.