Lib Dem reshuffle: Carmichael in – Moore out

It’s the second snub Nick Clegg has delivered to Michael Moore.

Mr Moore was left out of the original coalition government and only vaulted into the cabinet when Danny Alexander had to leave the Scottish Office to take over at the Treasury from David Laws.

Mr Moore went to see Nick Clegg straight after the government was formed to ask what he had against him and whether it was worth him hanging around. Now Mr Clegg has decided the independence battle needs a more pugilistic approach.

Mr Moore was reasonableness itself but not combative and perhaps not colourful. Even when he’d been in the Cabinet for months, the Times published a generic picture of a civil servant walking down Whitehall unaware that it was a picture of the Scottish Secretary.

Alastair Carmichael is a sharp-witted and sharp-tongued politician. In his regular warm-up routine, fund-raising ahead of the leader’s speech at conference, Mr Carmichael joked about Ed Miliband going dress-down “tie-less” and said people should be checking he’d had his shoe-laces taken off him.

Things are going to get very physical in the referendum build-up and Mr Clegg has decided his party needs more of a street-fighter for the job.
 
Ever helpful, the SNP’s Angus Robertson has reminded the world that Alastair Carmichael once said that the Scottish Office was a bit of a waste of space.

The Whitehall office in Dover House is certainly a very nice space and with Nick Clegg currently squatting in the smart first floor office there he will find Mr Carmichael, his former Chief Whip, just a short walk downstairs.
 
There could be other changes to the Better Together campaign team as well in the coming weeks as the clock ticks towards 2014.

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