The Liberal Democrats are claiming that their vicious briefing against their coalition partners was sent out “in error”. Apparently it was an update to an old briefing. Guido is calling bullsh*t. Firstly the briefing was deliberately sent from a party branded account, separately from a coalition friendly briefing moments before. When the LibDems slag off the Tories they do it with the bird logo. When they are behaving they do it, rather splendidly, with a blue version of their logo:

Secondly it went out on their website. Hardly a case of bad trigger finger. They have quietly deleted it online now, but have not corrected their original email. They tell Guido “we may feel the need to issue a print retraction” in due course, but for the time being they are only telling anyone who asks. When it was put it to the masters of spin that their explanation did not “have the ring of truth to it” they promptly and swiftly cleared the whole matter up: “well… [PAUSE] that’s what we are saying.” Not just Balls that is having a bad day…