Sayeeda Warsi attacks incompetence of Cable, Huhne and other Liberal Democrat ministers...

By Tim Montgomerie
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...Actually she hasn't. She hasn't done anything of the sort. The Tory Chairman wouldn't dare launch such a fundamental attack on the party's Coalition partners. David Cameron wouldn't tolerate it.

One of the principal aims of the Liberal Democrats in entering government is to prove that they are grown up politicians. If the Tory Chairman questioned their basic competence that would amount to a shot at their head.

Liberal Democrats might like to remember this the next time that they launch an attack on the Conservative Party's compassionate credentials. They have their political objectives and one of the principal political objectives for David Cameron is to show that today's Conservative Party is different from the Left-wing two-headed, baby-eating caricature. It repeatedly appears, however, that Liberal Democrats are determined to reinforce it. Eg here, here and here.

Tory frustration at this appears to have bubbled over. What Sayeeda Warsi has done today - in an interview with the Independent on Sunday - has warned the Liberal Democrats to stop the demonisation. She's focused on Tim Farron, the Lib Dem President, but her remarks could easily have been aimed at a large number of other senior Lib Dems. Here's what she said:

"It's actually bad taste and mean to say: 'We will take credit for the good stuff and you did all the bad stuff.' What [Mr Farron] is referring to as 'bad stuff' – the spending cuts – was necessary stuff ... which effectively keeps people's mortgage interest low, keeps people in their homes and jobs, keeps families together. It's almost like going to somebody's house, eating their meal and then slagging it off afterwards, like a bad episode of Come Dine with Me."

Good feisty stuff from the Party Chairman.

There will, of course, be a time - closer to the election - when the two Coalition parties will need to make clearer distinctions between themselves but Sayeeda Warsi is right to warn the Lib Dems against too much "slagging off" now.