Liberal Democrats should support the Labour motion to postpone BSkyB takeover

Last night I tweeted that the Liberal Democrat MPs should support Labour's Commons motion opposing Rupert Murdoch's takeover of BSkyB. Simon Hughes said the same on Sky News this morning, says Liberal Burblings.

Of course they should. As Simon said,  we are "a party that’s never been close to Murdoch, never been in this inner loop." He might have added "unlike Labour".

Simon did go on to say:

"I think we should make clear that we think there should be a postponement of the decision.

“There shouldn’t be a takeover while the investigations are going on and we should let the police investigations run their course.”

I would add that Murdoch, like the supermarkets I complained of the other day, has become over-mighty and the government must act.

We need not fear defeating the government. If there is a majority for postponing the takeover in Commons - and there clearly is - then it must be able to assert itself without bringing down the government.

Besides, largely because of the phone-hacking affair, the Conservatives are slipping in the polls and unlike to welcome the prospect of an election.

As I argued the other day, for the Coalition to work well we need the two parties to be equally scared of at the prospect of a general election. We are now rapidly approaching that happy state of affairs.