Meanwhile, over in the Liberal Democrat camp, Lord - formerly David - Owen, who now sits on the cross benches, was being just a touch unkind to the leader of the party he helped to form, in an interview in The Parliamentary Monitor, a publication circulating among the political elite.

In his younger days, Owen was one of the Gang of Four who split from the Labour Party, a move that helped scupper that party's chances of re-election for many years, to form the Social Democrats which later merged with the Liberals. Now, he says, the LibDems need to get rid of Sir Menzies Campbell, who "is only a couple of years younger than me". Owen is 68.