Now Saif Gaddafi is beyond his help, Mandy has turned back to domestic affairs to dispense advice. And it’s not good news for Ed.

Pitching his stall behind the pay wall over at The Times, the Dark Lord declares that there isn’t much that Labour can do about the riots, given how recently they were in power. Instead of working out a strategy around this, Mandy instead dissects the problems barring the coalition from being a “joined up government”. Looking at the inter, and internal, party problems. Many in Labour will be upset that he looks to be offering the government, not Ed, help to get out of their problems:

“The coalition’s programme will hardly be advanced if every time a Tory minister floats ideas of reform it draws an indignant riposte from a Lib Dem colleague who feels left out of the discussion.

Since May, Mr Clegg has succeeded in looking less meek and hard done-by. He has found a stronger voice and has benefited from this. But if he and his colleagues forget their collective responsibility to make the coalition work, and that government by hissy fit is not the way to make good policy, they will be as much the losers as everyone else.”

Telling Team Ed that they can do nothing but attack cracks in the government is just what the Labour leader needs in the run up to increasingly difficult looking conference…