Cable felt new deputy leader better for Lib Dems

Simon Hughes was straight in to see Nick Clegg after winning the deputy leadership. The two discussed how they’d keep in touch and the Deputy PM said he was pleased about his new deputy leader.

But the instigator of this contest was very much Vince Cable not Nick Clegg. The Business Secretary decided the party needed Simon Hughes in this post and that it was healthier and better for the party’s soul in the challenges ahead – one of which Nick Clegg was getting better acquainted with today as he shared a plane to Berlin with the arch-Eurosceptic Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Elsewhere in the coalition jungle, I hear Gus O’Donnell has been pronouncing himself very happy with the workings of coalition. The Cabinet Secretary believes that the nature of coalition means you can’t have so many surprises. There’s a contractual requirement for policy to go through a few certain processes, something that didn’t always constrain Tony Blair or Gordon Brown before announcing an initiative to pep up a speech or show empathy.

Sir Gus probably also enjoys the fact that, with the coalition agreement, we effectively had a manifesto drafted AFTER a general election and with civil servants in the room. Why can’t life always be like that, he may be wondering.