The Sketch: Simon Carr

They have a chance to make a difference. But will they? Â Lib Dems: Making a difference or just spanking the monkey? Â Will they make the difference, or merely spank the monkey?

Personally, I quite like the Liberal Democrat leadership. With very few exceptions, the Sketch takes a different view. I wish there was something I could do. Put in a word on their behalf. Speak up for them. The Sketch can be very difficult.

Mr Kennedy was launching his party as the party to replace the Conservatives as the official opposition. My notes have him saying: "Meeting here is just like old times. But they are new times. Changed out of recognition. There are three parties and that's what we're doing in the cut and thrust reflecting the sentiments is our wanting to be the official opposition which is what we're launching today.

"How? By highlighting background material where we made the running forcing the Government's hand on areas where we consistently demanded by sticking to our guns supporting military action against widening military action. We will look intelligently at the pulse of the heartbeat and ask where do they stand in comparison to themselves?

"That's the kind of opposition we have proved to be. Credible. Coherent. Costed. And that contribution goes back to what we were talking about yesterday. Practical answers. You need to go back to the starting point of commitment and take a look at what we've consistently been saying consistently. The Government has achieved nothing." That seems pretty straight talking. Be fair. I asked Lord Razzle why his party – which holds the balance of power in the Lords – allowed the Freedom of Information Bill to become law. It's the most restrictive such law in the Western world. Very illiberal. He said that the Government had threatened to withdraw the Bill altogether if it wasn't supported in its entirety.

The Sketch coughed up quite a lot of blood at this reply. Spineless monkey-spankers was the drift of the criticism.

Now. There's the Anti-Terrorism Bill going through the Lords. Will the Lib-Dem peers combine with the Tories to defeat the Government and amend the legislation? They can insist the Home Secretary drop the power to hold suspects without charge or trial. They can insist detainees get a judicial review. And they can drop the Religious Hate Crime from the Bill.

It's all there. They have the power to do this. So they say. The question is: Will the Lib-Dems make the difference? The Sketch has another question: Do bears take communion in the woods? The answers to these questions will emerge in the next fortnight.

What else? That Patricia Hewitt, minister at the Department of Trade and Industry was doing her question time yesterday. Why do people say Downing Street has her lined up to replace Gordon Brown at the Treasury? She's got the manner of a dental nurse and she talks amalgam.

But then Stephen Byers, her predecessor, was inconspicuous at the DTI and look at him now, the most prominent member of the Government with a track record second to none. He crashed a £1.5bn company, crushed an independent regulator, is aiming for default status on railway bonds, and is doing everything necessary to set up the London Underground for the same fate.

What an example for our dental nurse to follow, as a Lord of the Treasury – and without the anaesthetic!

Simoncarr75@hotmail.com