Clegg’s strategy in coalition has been to promote the LibDems as the party of fairness. Apparently with no sense of irony, he has attacked the Tories for failing to “adopt the politics of fairness”, told Martha Kearney he is the “voice of fairness” in government, and dreamt up that catchy-as-it-is-believable slogan “Building a fairer Britain”. Unfortunately for Nick, repeating something over and over doesn’t mean the public will believe him.

A YouGov poll out this morning finds only 6% think Clegg would be the most effective leader at making Britain a fairer place. Nearly double that, 11%, choose Nigel Farage as the fairest party leader. There’s bad news for Ed too, he comes second to Dave by 21% to 19%. Topping the poll is public apathy: 29% said no leader could deliver a fairer society. People might disagree about what fairness means, but nearly everyone agrees Clegg won’t deliver it…

If you were an ambitious multi-millionaire Tory backbencher secretly plotting against the Prime Minister, what better way throw your leader off the scent than bunging him £10,000 as a sign of your undying support? In January this year Adam Afriyie generously donated ten grand of his own cash to the Conservative Party. Just days later, Afriyie’s plan to steal Dave’s job was revealed in the Sunday papers. The rest, as they say, is history…

One nugget of news from James Forsyth that will be keeping them happy over at Telegraph towers: apparently the PM’s new favourite columnist is Ed-bashing Blairite refusenik Dan Hodges.

“At the moment, the Cameroons are whining about the Conservative party being ‘unleadable’. There is much quoting of Cameron’s new favourite columnist, Dan Hodges, a former trade union official who is equally scathing about Conservative backbenchers and Ed Miliband. But even those who are indulging in this pastime know that it is not serious politics: if they really believed the Conservative party was unleadable, they wouldn’t be spending their lives trying to lead it.”

As if he hadn’t got under Labour’s skin enough already…

Not for Guido to suggest that it might have been drawn up on the back of a fag packet in about half an hour, but there is one very interesting omission in the Tory EU draft Bill; there is no clause to actually mandate the government to do anything following the outcome of the plebiscite. The AV Bill had a section saying the the government must bring forward legislation if there were more yes votes:

8 Commencement or repeal of amending provisions

(1)The Minister must make an order bringing into force section 9, Schedule 10 and Part 1 of Schedule 12 (“the alternative vote provisions”) if—

(a)more votes are cast in the referendum in favour of the answer “Yes” than in favour of the answer “No”

This Bill has nothing. Heaven forbid a vote on the EU goes the wrong way, and they need to hold another one…

The date in the diaries of the remaining Tory MPs without some form of junior job is the 17th of July, so says Allegra Stratton. That is reportedly the current working date for Dave’s junior ministerial reshuffle, to be followed by the real thing in September.

Make a note…

So that Obama endorsement Dave was smiling about last night went well then. The PM is getting savaged this morning after jumping on his backbenchers’ bandwagon, only to be told by his new masters that his draft bill is not enough. For all the talk of parliamentary graffiti and time wasting, there is one small silver lining for the Tories; despite the short term pain there is a dividing line here. The LibDems look likely to vote against their 2010 manifesto, yet again, and Miliband is going to have to actually make a decision for once.

It’s not going to wash for Labour abstain or refuse to make a decision either way. They can let off steam today and are right to point out the ridiculous predicament Cameron is in, but it’s make your mind up time for Ed…

Everyone got something out of that Obama presser. Labour are pushing the President’s line that “I think the UK’s participation in the EU is an expression of its influence”, while No.10 will be cock-a-hoop with the endorsement of the renegotiation strategy: “You probably want to see if you can fix what’s broken in a very important relationship before you break it off.” Those Tory Eurosceptic backbenchers are such big Obama fans, a gentle chiding from the him will definitely get them to pipe down and fall into line. Needless to say Dave dodged most of James Landale’s four parter question.

UPDATE:

Dave trashing Chukapedia was the highlight of last week’s Queen’s Speech debate. In yesterday’s Sun column Guido revealed how Number 10 came up with the killer line during their pre-debate prep. John Hayes, Dave’s new senior parliamentary adviser, was in favour of a subtle, understated approach. Perhaps gently chastising Chuka as simply a typical Labour MP.  The Prime Minister was having none of it, Guido hears, banging the table and exclaiming: “No! Let’s get him.” Dave himself then came up with the body blow: “Can we change our Wikipedia entry? Yes we can!” Chuka’s face showed he made the right call…

Well it could be 1992 all over again. Dave’s attack on Tory “pessimists” this morning is worth nothing, given what has happened since. On Lawson and Portillo’s Brexit conversions, he insisted earlier:

“I think they’re wrong. There are some pro-European pessimists who say, you have to, in Europe, simply sign up to every single thing that anyone in the EU suggests. You sign every treaty, you sign everything – there is no alternative. I think they are completely wrong. The second group of pessimists say there is no prospect of reforming the EU, you simply have to leave. I think they are wrong too.”

Since then another former Chancellor, Norman Lamont, has joined in the fight and a Queen’s Speech pro-referendum amendment has emerged. No surprises to see Boris pop up either. Surely just coincidence that the Mayor of London, speaking at the very same global investment summit as the PM, offers some ankle to the Tory Eurosceptics.

Boris Johnson says PM is right to want to renegotiate UK's deal with EU, and if we don't get what we want we must be willing to walk away.—
Stephanie Flanders (@BBCStephanie) May 09, 2013

Boris says leaving EU would not be fatal for UK but "a shot in the arm" for democracy, though he's still "narrowly" in favour of staying in.—
Tim Ross (@TimRossDT) May 09, 2013

Boris Johnson says if PM cannot get better deal on EU.."We have to be prepared to go our own way."—
norman smith (@BBCNormanS) May 09, 2013

Helpful timing, as ever.

Graphic via @TJ22HATTER

Things have got so bad for one disgruntled Tory voter, going only by the name ‘Martin’, that he has taken out a full page advert in today’s Times laying into Cameron and Osborne as a “desperate and expensive cry for help”:

Click to enlarge.

“I am a natural Conservative voter who has become very disillusioned with my party over the last 3 years. I realise you are both terribly important and you really cannot afford the time to actually think about us mere taxpayers and citizens, which is why you have correspondence units and a phalanx of staff to shield you from the unpleasant realities of the real world. I am rather hoping however, that you read the newspapers. That is why I chose this rather unusual mechanism for trying to remind you that there are real people out here. Call it a desperate and expensive cry for help.

… Finally, no Mr Miliband. This does not mean that you, or indeed Mr Balls, would be likely to do a better job. Your party, in the form of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, got us into this mess by exploding government spending for little positive benefit. There is no reason to suppose that you would do any better.”

Ouch.