Snow train to Georgia

OK, terrible pun, I know. Yesterday's weather forecast promised 10-20cms of snow overnight, and I kept waking up to look out of the window, so excited was I, only to be disappointed each time. Luckily, a few cms fell this morning and The Dark Place doesn't look as surly as usual.

In other news, the coalition's falling apart as the Daily Telegraph tries to pull it to pieces. This very rightwing newspaper has always hated the Lib Dems and distrusts Cameron, so it despatched pretty female journalists disguised as constituents to the offices of various susceptible Liberal Democrat ministers. Lo and behold, they revealed that Lib Dems don't like or trust what their Conservative colleagues are up to, and Vince Cable said some true but undiplomatic things about Rupert Murdoch.

Ho hum. It's not a great day for democracy: it means that any MP will no longer say what they think to their own constituents, because they might be undercover journalists. Replacing Vince Cable with a Tory bastard (Jeremy H-h-hunt) means that Murdoch's bid to dominate Britain's airwaves will probably be waved through, so that's bad too. But at least it'll be harder to maintain the coalition.

More mischievously, it means that Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg is left between a rock and a hard place. As an economic conservative he's trapped between the Tories - whom he strongly resembles - and his own party, which is largely to the left of him. Does he stay with his tribe or move closer to his spiritual home with the other privileged millionaire neoliberals?

Moore, the Berwickshire MP, describes the increase in tuition fees to a maximum £9,000 as "the biggest, ugliest, most horrific thing in all of this … a car crash, a train wreck".

Speaking to reporters posing as constituents, Moore said: "I signed a pledge that promised not to do this. I've just done the worst crime a politician can commit, the reason most folk distrust us as a breed. I've had to break a pledge and very, very publicly."

Moore said the move was "deeply damaging" to Lib Dems, who had promised to abolish fees, but he added: "What we've all had to weigh up is the greater sense of what the coalition is about." He added that Conservative rightwingers "hate us with a passion".

Splendid.

Oh yes: some Uppal news. I wrote to him asking him to inquire about the moronic decision to remove scientists from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. He hasn't advanced an opinion either way, but has written to the Home Secretary for clarification.