Last night’s statement went well then. As if today’s papers were not bad enough for the LibDems, the party leader and party president have given a masterclass in being unable to stick to the same line this morning. First, Tim Farron went for a straightforward approach on the Today programme, admitting “we screwed this up”. Minutes later Clegg refuted that suggestion, telling Radio Solent “we have nothing to hide as a party”. Last night Farron refused to deny this would be a resigning issue for his boss if last night’s revelations were true…

Clegg only talks about his office hearing the Rennard rumours in his statement: “I am angry and outraged at the suggestion that I would not have acted if these allegations were put to me”. ITV’s Lucy Manning and the Telegraph report that a LibDem raised concerns with Clegg personally in 2008:

“I was at an event with Nick Clegg and said Nick, you need to know that we have print journalists which I believe were, I think the Telegraph were chasing it, the Mail was chasing it and the News of the World was chasing it.

I said I believe there are three papers that are actively pursuing the Rennard story and he knew exactly what I meant, there was no ‘what are you talking about?’

As the party leader he knew exactly what I meant when I said it to him. He said, ‘Thank you very much, I will go and deal with it.’ And again nothing happened.”

Clegg’s clarification of his clarification needs…clarifying.

This from today’s Sunday Times magazine. Talk about amateur media management…

H/T @wallaceme

Could have been worse, all things considering. Though he did later admit to owning a green onesie…

UPDATE: And here it is…

Pic via @hmatthews92

Nick Clegg’s Christmas Card is the only political leader’s one that is Christmassy. The seasonal collage featuring Father Christmas and a snowman is by 8-year-old Caitlin Costello, who won a competition to feature on the LibDem leader’s card.  Both Ed Miliband’s card and David Cameron’s card are deficient in Christmas aspects. So it is good to see Clegg taking a more conservative line…

click to enlarge

Not only is UKIP eclipsing the LibDems in polls, according to LexisNexis Nigel Farage is winning a higher media profile than Nick Clegg…

Clegg is promising to keep promises.

He made a video about keeping promises once before:

While the sky-high union funding of the Labour Party will hardly come as a surprise, Guido was intrigued to note a sizeable donation to the LibDems in today’s latest figures. The largest yellow donation was generously given by a property development company by the name of Brompton Capital Limited. Brompton Capital – owned by millionaire businessman Rumi Verjee, an entrepreneur who made his fortune selling pizza - gave the LibDems £250,000 in the second quarter of 2012. Guido is sure that it is nothing than coincidence that last year Verjee dined with Nick Clegg at the LibDem leader’s posh home in Kent. Hopefully Verjee got more than a Domino’s for his money…

The Coalition are forever telling us how they want to get the country moving, but today the LibDems have firmly slammed on the brakes not once, but twice. This morning they conspired to lose the votes of just about anyone who owns a car by suggesting that the 30mph speed limit on residential roads be slashed to 20mph. The  baffling suggestion was dismissed by the AA as being “totally impractical and would impact on driving times and add to costs and delays“.

If that wasn’t enough, Team Clegg then picked a fight with Justine Greening by proposing a motion to oppose Boris’ Thames Estuary airport, or any new runways at any of the London airports. The LibDems have ground the government to a standstill, now they’re doing the same to the country too…