The Lib Dems #Sigh#

Like other parties The Liberal Democrats have two wings, the economically liberal wing and the Labour-lite wing. In opposition this does not matter as they can unify around a few civil liberties and constitutional reform issues and fudge the rest. In government though you get this:

12.23pm: Danny Alexander has just started his speech. Now. He started with a tribute to his grandfather, who is in the audience and who has been a Liberal since 1936. But then he had a couple of rocky moments. He told a rather lame 'it's all Balls" joke about Labour (which was very funny when Michael Heseltine first tried it in the 1990s, but which made us groan in the press room). And then, when he talked about Gordon Brown's "unsustainable spending", someone shouted "rubbish".

 For a coalition whose unifying purpose is to rescue the economy, having one of the parties fundamentally split on whether there even is a problem is worrying.