Nick Clegg truly doesn't have a reverse gear

I wrote a piece for the New Statesman yesterday correcting Lord Tebbit's assertion that

"The abiding sin of the government is... that it seems unable to manage its affairs competently"

pointing out that he was confusing 'the government' with 'the Tories'  - for the omnishambles is entirely of their own making.

What seems to have grabbed most peoples attention is the current U Turn Count.

To date there have been 34 U turns.

33 of them have been Conservative U Turns.

The 34th - Lords reform - is technically a Lib Dem U turn. But I think we all know which party is to blame.

Today will see the 35th. The badger cull. Another Tory effort.

The 36th is likely to be Boundary Changes - again down to the Tories.

There's also the dropping of the recall powers - although there has already been a partial u turn on that (I have it at No 31) so that's now really just a U turn max

So; 36 U turns, 35 of them Tory and the last caused by them.

'Aha', some folk have shouted, Partridge like - ' what about tuition fees? what about the deficit reduction plan?

And yes - for better or worse, we have executed different policies as part of government than we had in our manifesto (and I'm not falling over myself to defend some of them).

But in terms of competency in government we have executed those plans with ruthless, steely-eyed efficiency. For better or worse.

You can call the Lib Dems in Westminster many things (lots of people do).

But our performance in governnment has been very effective.

The omnishambles is all of the Tories making.