Then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Gaddafi is:

“statesmanlike and courageous”

In what was to rapidly become his custom style, Cameron was late to the Libyan crisis. British oil workers were stranded for a hairy few days in the middle of the desert. However credit where credit is due, he was quick to get the No-Fly Zone plan discussed, risking an international kicking  at the early stages when other NATO countries were not so keen.

Back at the very end of February and into the first days of March, Labour were quick to try stop Cameron’s No-Fly Zone plan from getting off the ground. Miliband, conscious of the anti-war vote he hoovered up in the leadership election, tried to humiliate the Prime Minister at PMQs on 2nd March by suggesting that firstly nobody supported his plan, and secondly that our armed services were unable to cope:

“On Monday, the Prime Minister floated the idea of a no-fly zone. On Tuesday, however, a number of foreign Governments distanced themselves from the idea…

Can he reassure the House and the country that any increase in our military commitments that he is talking about, including in north Africa, can be met at a time when we are reducing capability?”

And it wasn’t just Ed. The Shadow Foreign Secretary took to the pages of the Observer to mock Hague for“talking up” plans for a No-Fly Zone, only to be forced to climb down on them. Remind us how that worked out again wee Dougie?

Ed eventually fell into line and had to resort to having his big brother advise him on how to deal with the crisis. Just remember all this when you see the Labour leader pop up on television any moment now to praise the end result…

UPDATE:

http://twitter.com/#!/Ed_Miliband/status/105572388967694336

He didn’t believe it enough to stop him trying to score points…

Before the 2010 general election Guido had a sense that we were heading towards coalition government, stuck his neck out, and called it a month before the election. Reading the runes again it seems to Guido increasingly likely we are looking at a one-term Tory-led government.

Right now the bookies favour no overall majority, polls suggest Labour could be the largest party, in that event the LibDems, probably without Clegg, will in all likelihood support a Labour government.

The primary cause will be the economy, the probability of a double-dip recession is rising. The US economy is in trouble, the Eurozone is in turmoil, growth is faltering at home and abroad. Inflation is out of control, real incomes are actually falling in the UK. By 2015 the answer the electorate will give to Ronald Reagan’s “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” question may well be “No.”

Osborne’s plan was to bear down on the deficit for a couple of years, restructure taxes a little, revolutionise education policy, tinker with welfare to make work pay, give tax cuts in 2013-14 once the fiscal picture was improved and go on to win the Tories a governing majority. In the second term, free of the LibDem drag,  they would really press on with radically remaking government and the Big Society. Alas they may only have one term.

Things are not turning out so well. Osborne may need to have a root around in his desk to find some of Gordon Brown’s old lines about “it started in America” and “global economic downturn”. Osborne’s hawkishness on the deficit is being rewarded by the international bond markets, but there is little he can do about international demand. US confidence has been shaken up by the downgrade and even German GDP growth was only 0.1% last quarter, Europe may well go into recession within a year, assuming the continental banking system doesn’t collapse next week. None of this will enhance Tory election prospects.

It gets worse for Downing Street; Andy Coulson could be in the dock the year before the election, or worse still, in jail. This will of course tarnish Cameron and Osborne. There is also the possibility that Coulson, as well as other News International figures, could sing about matters that would be excruciatingly embarrassing for the Tories. Osborne, who was really responsible for getting Andy Coulson his job, will be in a particularly uncomfortable position, perhaps even more so than Cameron. Coulson knows where the bodies are buried…

This week 94,821 visitors made 270,314 visits to view 413,036 pages – the Silly Season low methinks, almost 100,000 fewer hits than last week’s riot packed news flow. Sally Bercow on Celebrity Big Brother not quite the same kind of ratings draw. If you want to read Guido’s weekly email round-up of the week’s news from behind the blog. Subscribe (for free) to the Guidogram email here.

The top  stories  in order of popularity were:

• Was Starkey Racist?
• Totty Watch: Right Wing Headbanger
• Red Ed’s Cuts are Dead
• Why The Cuts Are Needed
• Who the Ed are You?
• The Tears of a Clown
• So Long Sally

You’re either in front of Guido, or you are behind…

Regular readers will recall how Guido often wonders how it is the Guardian gets their hacking scoops. Well it turns out their rivals and the Met itself have been wondering the very same thing…

This recent exchange between the Times’ Sean O’Neill and the BBC’s Gaetan Portal, who both cover crime, reveals their suspicions:

http://twitter.com/#!/GaetanPortal/status/104588299267608576

The proper source of information for journalists is of course the Met’s press bureau. The Indy’s Oliver Wright observes

http://twitter.com/#!/oliver_wright/status/104580767509786624

Lo and behold today a 51 year old police officer, working on the phone-hacking inquiry named Operation Weeting, was arrested and suspended for leaking to the Guardian.  Given that David Leigh has already confessed to phone-hacking, the Guardian’s squeaky clean reputation is collapsing at a rapid speed. Was this blatant corruption of police integrity sanctioned?

Just last month the Guardian issued a lofty and updated guide to ethical standards for intruding into private matters, such as a police investigation, rule four stated: “There must be proper authority – any intrusion must be authorised at a sufficiently senior level and with appropriate oversight.” 

Guido looks forward to Rusbridger’s imminent statement on what he knew and when…