Did last week mark a sea change in British politics? For many, it did. The government’s U-turn on winter fuel payments signalled a welcome retreat. But the deeper shift may lie in the terrain that ministers are now forced to fight on: cuts hitting disabled people and their families. In the Commons, Sir Ed Davey raised the case of Ginny, a carer for her husband with myotonic dystrophy. He described the human burden of responsibility, exhaustion and love. Under the government’s planned cuts, he warned, her family stands to lose £12,000 a year. The prime minister replied with managerial platitudes. Sir Ed, by contrast, spoke of duty, dignity and the very real consequences of policy.

The Liberal Democrat leader isn’t trading in ideology; he’s drawing a line based on human decency. Caring has been a constant theme of his life, even more than politics. When he was a teenager, Sir Ed spent three years looking after his mother who died of bone cancer.........

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