The Sunday Mirror has an amusing account of Nick Clegg discussing rather too loudly the strengths and weaknesses of his frontbench team on a plane flight to Scotland. He is apparently flirting with idea of demoting his old leadership rival Chris Huhne. He’s also no fan of Steve Webb, he apparently said of the Lib Dems’ energy and climate change spokesman:
Clegg reportedly concluded that David Laws—“ probably the best brain we have”—should be moved to energy and climate change. Interestingly, Clegg said Laws was not enjoying education and bemoaned how the “Tories have left him no space.” When you combine this with the news in Martin Ivens’ column that New Labour types concede that Gove has “outflanked them on school reform” you see what an impressive political and policy job Gove has done; there is no other policy area where one party has such a comprehensive advantage.“He’s a problem. I can’t stand the man. We need a new spokesman. We have to move him. We need someone with good ideas. At the moment, they just don’t add up.”
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