The Liberal Democrats are leading the fight against cliff-edge Brexit – Christine Jardine

The Liberal Democrats are now leading efforts to protect liberal parliamentary democracy from two parties, Labour and Conservative, who have been taken over by their extremes, writes Christine Jardine.

No one who meets Jo Swinson is left in any doubt about the values that she stands for

This is a big week for the country.

This morning we got up to find ourselves still stalled at the same crossroads that we have been deliberating over for three years now.

Not just arguing over which way to go but arguing over who wants to go in which direction.

On one side, the Conservatives fighting over who should take the steering wheel and whether it is better to go straight ahead over the cliff, or take the bumpy downward path and get stuck in the sand while the tide comes in.

On the other side, led by the Liberal Democrats, are the Remain parties pointing out that there is an alternative, safer, route. And the Labour party? Well that depends.

But, over the next 48 hours, all of that will change. By tomorrow night, we will know who the two people are who will have the job of galvanising each side of the argument for the final push.

Today we will know who the new leader of the Liberal Democrats will be and, 24 hours later, we will know the name of the next Prime Minister.

Those decisions could dictate not just how, but whether, we are able to get the country out of this Brexit mess.

Both successful candidates will also have the potential to set a new tone for our politics in the years to come.

As I write this, the votes for both leadership elections are still coming in and being counted but there is, of course, one to which I am paying particularly close attention.

It’s no secret that in our Liberal Democrat contest, I’ve thrown my support behind my close colleague and friend Jo Swinson.

It was Jo who encouraged me to follow my desire to get involved in politics, who gave me the push I needed to stand.

But more than that, with the SNP winding up for another damaging independence campaign, Jo has the skill and understanding of the reality of Scottish politics to offer an effective alternative voice for both the UK and the EU.

People in politics talk a lot about leadership qualities and what they might be. How to define what makes those with it stand out from the rest of us.

I’d say you need someone who you recognise, as soon as you hear their name, what they stand for.

When you meet them you can be in no doubt about their commitment or the ability to make people believe in them. That’s Jo Swinson.

But the Liberal Democrats are also in the fortunate position that, whichever of the candidates becomes leader, Jo or Ed Davey, the party is now in a much stronger position and able to offer a real alternative to Brexit Boris and the lemming faction of the Conservative Party.

I’m absolutely confident that they will bring our party together with a fresh style of leadership to take us forward and build on our electoral revival.

And our renewed strength in Brussels will also allow us to demonstrate what a dynamic and unashamedly pro-European delegation of British MEPs can do for the country.

Ironically one of the benefits of Theresa May’s refusal to compromise is the fact that, well, we haven’t actually left the EU yet.

Three years after the referendum, we still have access to all the rights and benefits that membership brings.

Even those of us who count ourselves amongst its biggest fans accept that the European Union is not perfect, but that continued membership has meant that the 16 new Lib Dem MEPs are now able to work at pushing through the reforms we can make from within the EU, including an EU-wide ban on fracking.

Back here at home, we’ll continue to stand up for an outward-looking country, and for our young people and their future.

Whoever becomes our next Prime Minister, the Liberal Democrats will do everything in our power – in Parliament and out – to prevent him or her from taking us over the cliff-edge with a catastrophic no-deal Brexit.

The two big parties have been lost to their extremes and so, as the only true social democratic voice left in the UK, we will welcome all those who want to see a political party that fights for what’s best for the country, and not just its own internal interests.

And in Scotland, as we look towards the Holyrood elections in 2021, we will continue to be the only pro-EU and pro-UK party.

We know that Scotland is better off staying in the UK, and for that UK to remain in the EU.

As the SNP Government continues to put the nationalist agenda before the problems in the NHS, our education and transport infrastructure which affect us every day, we will fight for the political change that will actually make a difference to people’s lives.

That’s what is needed now. To bring our country together, stop tearing it apart.

Some in Westminster like to suggest that we’ve seen it all over the past three years.

The total upheaval of the established political system.

But, with the prospect of a Johnson-led government on the horizon, determined to leave the EU on 31 October regardless of the consequences, we ain’t seen nothing yet.

That’s why it’s our job in Parliament to do everything in our power to protect liberal parliamentary democracy.

We can weather this storm, but it will mean colleagues on all sides of the House abandoning tribal inclinations and coming together to find a way through.

Today we can start. We have to.