Vince Cable has lost his second chief of staff in eight months after his most senior aide Fiona Cookson left last week. Cookson replaced Sarah Olney in the role at the end of last year – to be fair to Fiona, she lasted much longer than Lol-ney’s ill-fated six week tenure. Cookson was always supposed to leave after six months and she will be moving to a job nearer her young family. Sure applications will be flooding in… diary management a must…

UPDATE: Guido hears former LibDem MPs Simon Hughes and Dan Rogerson have confirmed they are throwing in the towel and will not be standing for parliament again.