Sir Nicholas Clegg: An apology

Embed from Getty Images

On Saturday 29 August this blog published a post under the headline Former Liberal Democrat leaders reveal themselves in their advice to Ed Davey.

In it we alleged that Sir Nicholas Clegg, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats, had "reduced the party from 62 to 8 MPs over two general elections".

It has been pointed out to us that this is incorrect.

We apologise to Sir Nicholas and to our readers for this inaccuracy and have corrected the post. We have made a donation to the Bonkers Home for Well-Behaved Orphans in recognition of our error.

You see, though the party emerged from the 2005 general election with 62 MPs, by the time Nick Clegg became leader Willie Rennie had gained Dunfermline and West Fife in a by-election.

So we should have said Clegg had "reduced the party from 63 to 8 MPs over two general elections".

In that post we also recorded Ming Campbell's advice to Ed Davey that he should choose a couple of advisers and then listen to no one else.

A reader has reminded me that on, becoming Lib Dem leader, Paddy Ashdown assembled a diverse group of people representing all shades of opinion in the party and met them every week - "a good example of open leadership".