Labour need someone like Harriet Harman to dig them out of their mess

That is the question on the lips of many frustrated and aggrieved Labour MPs who wonder why Harman did not challenge Jeremy Corbyn as party leader, rather than the uninspiring Owen Smith.

There may be many good reasons, perhaps personal ones, of which we are unaware, that prevented her from standing.

But she certainly proved herself as acting leader when Ed Miliband quit the leadership. She not only stood up to the formidable David Cameron during question time in the Commons, but gave as good as she got - often more than she got.

Yet Corbyn regularly got flattened by Cameron at question time, and continues to lose his bouts with the new Prime Minister, Theresa May.

Labour certainly need someone of Harman’s calibre to dig themselves out of their present mess.

Corbyn is a perfectly decent man, but is a political protester rather than a leader. Many of his colleagues have described him bluntly as “useless” in his present role.

Judging by his performance so far, Smith is not the person to rescue Labour. You need someone with a bit of oomph - and Harman certainly has that. Even Angela Eagle, who set the leadership ball rolling, would have been a better bet than Smith.

But so long as the party refuses to be bold about who should lead them, I am afraid the prospects of restoring greatness to Labour remain remote.

• PM Theresa May, must be fuming. As she loudly proclaims to the world that Britain is open for business, her new International Trade Secretary, Liam Fox, who is paid to boost Britain, says parts of industry are fat and lazy, and that some top industrialists prefer playing golf on a Friday than getting on with their business of exporting.

Fox has already had to quit one Cabinet post - he was Defence Secretary. Now he is in danger of losing this one as well, if he continues to deliver messages of doom and gloom.

What he has said may be true, but it is Fox’s job to put it right, discreetly and not to trumpet all our alleged shortcomings to the world at large.

He also seems to be involved in some kind of running argument with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

In short, Fox is walking on eggshells. I know it is early days, but he needs to watch his step.

• In a few days’ time, we will be engulfed by the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton, the first of the three major political party conferences of the autumn. I say “major” but the poor Lib Dems are hardly entitled to that definition, having been nearly wiped out, and reduced to a mere eight MPs in the Commons.

Nick Clegg’s decision to coalesce with the Tories after the 2010 general election, enraged many Lib Dem members. But he did the right thing. There is no point in a political party existing if it does not aim for power - and that, to a limited degree, was made possible for them.

That is why I could never understand Jeremy Thorpe’s decision not to accept the offer of a coalition by Edward Heath in February, 1974.

What on earth will party leader Tim Farron say at Brighton? It will certainly not be along the lines of David Steel’s injunction to delegates when he was leader: “Go back to your constituencies and prepare for Government.”

Cynics are saying it will be more like: “Go back to your constituencies and prepare for oblivion.”

How cruel is that?

• Maria Fernandes, the wife of MP Keith Vaz, said she was so furious when she heard about his dalliance with rent boys, that she felt like throwing all the family crockery at his head.

Jane Clark, the wife of well-known Tory MP philanderer, the late Alan Clark, actually did throw their crockery about every time she heard about his latest acts of infidelity.

But she was careful to throw it in the kitchen sink. “It’s much easier to clear it all up that way,” she used to say.