Remember tuition fees?  Jacked up to £9000?  There was a bit of unpleasantness on the streets, I recall, after which Nick Clegg retrieved a shred of dignity with the announcement that, while £9000 per annum was the new limit, anything over £6000 had to be vetted first by the Lib Dem contribution to the story, OFFA (prop. Vince Cable, sort of), to ensure that the nasty old universities weren't profiteering.

The most appealing thing about Eric Pickles is the marvellous way he stands up for his department in the face of criticism.  Oh, hang on, that's not right, he shoves it off onto a reliable Tory attack dog, who skilfully turns it into a woofing waffle fest of accusation upon smear upon accusation straight out of Cold War propagandist central casting:

From the super-soaraway Currant Bun:

The centre-right Policy Exchange has urged the Government to give the Strasbourg court an ultimatum - two years to stop interfering or Britain pulls out of the Convention.

So what might the Government actually do, when they get around to having an economic policy in two months' time? Whatever Osborne's actual economic theory is, it's likely that the political imperatives (i.e. Downing Street) will force him to announce something.

It doesn't look like the BIS-led effort to define a growth strategy is going to come to anything - Vince Cable doesn't seem to have any authority left, and anyway any such effort would need a budget. Devolving any funds from the Treasury to BIS would probably now require a change of chancellor.

Here's something amusing. The Lords filibuster of the AV bill goes on, and it looks increasingly likely that they may manage to wreck the project or at least force the government to split off the changes to parliamentary constituencies. (That's the bit that lets the Tories help themselves to boundary changes as a side payment for letting the Lib Dems have electoral reform.)

But look who's full of principled concern for the constitution and for proper scrutiny of legislation.