Harriet Harman took the only sensible decision on the welfare bill | Simon Jenkins

If Labour had voted against the welfare package as a whole, she would have walked into the irresponsibility trap set by the Tories and hamstrung any future leader

What was Harriet Harman supposed to do? As Labour’s stand-in leader she took over a party in disarray, its senior figures at each other’s throats. She had to muster her demoralised troops for the first battle of the new parliament – over George Osborne’s budget – and not make policy on the hoof that would hamstring a successor when e...