Nick Clegg

In the run-up to the leadership election: I am a liberal by conviction and by upbringing.

A story from the Telegraph today outs him as a University Tory.

Now this doesn't really matter. Lots of us make mistakes at university... however, he did deny this during a very close campaign. If he had admitted this, could Huhne have won?

RS

A few stories

A New Year and, unsurprisingly, a glut of stories about the Labour Party...

Whilst he's not (stifles guffaw) saving the Middle East (sniggers) he's joining an Investment Bank as an advisor.

It is not known how much JP Morgan will pay him, but some estimates say more than $1m (£500,000) a year. The bank said he had a "unique perspective''

That is one way of putting it...

As my good friend, the Greek points out, there is speculation that Chuckles is in the running for the job of EU President. Just when we thought it was safe to get back into the water... I knew, I just knew, when he smirked his last smirk outside Downing Street that we would be seeing the man again. Not in the dock, as one would expect, but in some position where in some small way I would be contributing to his salary. Why can't he just fuck off?

Talking of criminality, what of Tango Hain? I was going to go over this but the Greek does it too well for me to bother.

I would say that if he is legally responsible, erm, he is legally responsible - he cannot delegate it (unless there have been maor shifts in jurisprudence since my university days). The idea that:

There is no evidence that Hain sought to break the law and he has already admitted "deeply regrettable" administrative failings.

is frankly laughable. Whether he intended to break the law is neither here nor there. It's a little like Wendy's 'I didn't know it was against the law'. Ignorantia legis neminem excusat, love. If I was caught driving at 130mph down the M8, I doubt me pleading 'But i didn't realise it was against the law....' would get me precisel nowhere'

We've also been told that ID cards may not be compulsory - what?! The only thing more pointless than a compulsory ID card is a non-compulsory ID card. Miliband was right all those months ago... sometimes, when Brown opens his maw, and the realisation sinks in that this behemothic idiot is actually First Lord of The Treasuy, you think was Blair as bad as him?Of course, dear reader, they are two sides of the same filthy shilling.

And what of the idea of ID cards for foreign nationals? What is to stop someone saying 'I'm not a foreign national that is why I don't have an ID card' How could we prove otherwise? By having a British job?

And this from Grandmother Goose? Remember Blears & Lewis sitting in on decisions then turning up on the picket line to protest against those decisions? It seems as if double-speak isn't reserved to Mancunian dullards.

It isn't just Labour, of course, they are all at it. Depending on which Lib Dem you are speaking to they are either for or against the legalisation of cannabis.

And people wonder why swearbloggers end up swearing...

RS