But only by a scrape. Gordon Brown and Jacqui Smith won their commons vote on the reserve power to extend terror suspects’ detention up to 42 days. They got the votes of a few vital Labour backbenchers and of the DUP – at what cost? I expect announcements in the next few weeks about water charges in Northern Ireland and compensation for mesothelioma.

And now? The Counter-Terrorism Bill passes to the Lords, of course – where I expect it to be defeated. A fair number of Tory Lords will be sympathetic to the government, but I think they’ll be very disciplined, conscious that from a party political view they’d be mad not to strike against the government if they can. The LibDems will have a clear line (unlike in the Lisbon Treaty debate yesterday when they voted against a referendum – their counterparts in the Commons having abstained), and Labour dissenters will be less subject to pressure. And because the actual debate matters a little more than in the Commons, I think many will be persuaded by, for instance, Lords Goldsmith and Falconer.

I’ve had the debate on in the background this afternoon (while marking a never-ending pile of exam papers on free movement of goods and persons) – and it’s not been a bad one. Bill Cash has obsessively been intervening to talk about habeas corpus, I’m not sure to what point, and Michael Mates I thought made a fool of himself by suggesting that the government’s proposed Parliamentary trigger for a 42 day detention power, followed by an application to a judge for an actual extension of detention in a specific case, somehow offers less protection than an application to a judge alone. Dari Taylor and Gordon Marsden were pretty unimpressive Labour loyalists, too, Dari Taylor in particular being assailed by inverventions and challenges from her colleagues.

There have been quite a few good speeches too, though. Chris Huhne was good for the LibDems, but his old leader Sir Ming deserves praise for his serious speech, in which he criticised the government for scrambling around trying to buy votes, and urged members to look to their political consciences. Best of all today though has been Diane Abbott, who passionately laid in not only to the provisions, but still more effectively to the government’s motives in bringing back proposals to extend detention after they were rejected earlier this Parliament. She ridiculed the government’s whipping operation and the backroom negotiations and wound up with an intense plea to defend the liberty of the marginalised which may even, just, have influenced a Labour member or two.

There’s not been too much legalism I’m glad to say. A pity the Lords debate on the Lisbon Treaty is going on at the same time.

UPDATE: Mark Durkan, the SDLP member for Foyle, has just given a short speech that runs Diane Abbot close – drawing on the experience of internment in Northern Ireland he called the government’s proposals “madness” and urged the House not to feed what it wants to fight.

Jacqui Smith is on her feet as I write, opening the third reading debate on the Counter-Terrorism Bill: at about 7 o’clock tonight MPs will finally vote on the government’s proposed reserve power to extend detention of terror suspects without charge beyond 28 days, up to a maximum of 42.

Nick Robinson thinks the government will get its way tonight: it’s obvious from what ministers have been saying today that horse trading is going on like mad behind the scenes. The DUP MP Gregory Campbell said on Sky News not long ago that his party hadn’t yet made up its mind how to vote – they may end up being decisive.

At PMQs, Nick Clegg picked up on the CRE’s threat of legal action, and argued that the government was wasting its time in the House because the courts would ensure this bill can never be put into effect. If that were really right, he and other defenders of civil liberties could just relax about the bill, couldn’t they?