One too often wonders if there is any strategy guiding Nick Clegg and the Lib Dem leadership. Today ought to have provided an opportunity for Clegg and the Lib Dems to show that the coalition is simply a business relationship and the two parties involved are not joined at the hip.
Backing Cameron's actions on the Friday was bad enough and appearing to say the complete opposite over the weekend - while nuanced - was always going to be presented as a flip flop. And the tabloid press were always going to jump at the chance - see today's Sun for example.
Clegg should have sat next to Cameron - laughed off the inevitable jibes that would have headed his way - and in the unlikely event he was allowed to make an intervention used the opportunity to explain why he disagreed with the PM and the Euro-loony tunes behind him. But also made it clear that disagreement was healthy and the in the nature of a coalition between two different parties. Instead he comes across as weak, two faced and out of the inner circle of decision making. Which I suppose is where the Tory press want him.
It didn't look good on the news - Clegg on his own in a room full of books talking about the risks of isolation - who the hell advises him?
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