So farewell then, Lord Spudulike

The departure of Lord (Anthony) Jacobs from the LibDem party is very sad news. He's been a stalwart supporter of our party, and the Liberal party before it, since the early 1970s, including being a PPC. A jovial cove, he has been a regular figure at conferences, making the occasional impassioned speech.

But most significantly, he has been a huge player in keeping the party financially afloat over many years. Indeed, at one point it was wittily suggested that the party should be renamed the "Spudulike party" after one of the businesses which Lord Jacobs ran.

So, thanks for your great support and generosity over the years, Lord Jacobs. We're very sorry to see you go.

Maybe it's because I still have my Sunday head on and have just been checking up on how my Isle of Iona single malt is keeping, but I find Lord Jacobs' stated reasons for leaving the party to be utterly bizarre.

Lord Jacobs,77, told The Times that Mr Clegg was too timid and should offer lower taxes both for the poor and the better off.
Mr Clegg and Vince Cable “feel society wants the rich to pay more, whereas I’m arguing the rich could pay less provided the poorest pay nothing or very little indeed.”

Hang on a minute. Jacobs praises the Treasury front bench team to high heaven, but says he is leaving because of our tax policies. Eh?

And he says we want to tax the rich more. But he sat through conferences for donkeys' years as we voted to tax high earners at 50 pence in the pound. But we recently got rid of that policy and we are promising to take four pence off the basic rate in a package widely described as helping the less well off.

So something doesn't add up about Lord Jacobs' stated reasons for leaving the party.

I suspect he is being nice and actually is going because of general disenchantment, perhaps with the leadership. He is a Paddy fan.

Well, I'm a Paddy fan. And I am also a Cleggy fan and I really don't see how Paddy would do any better a job than Clegg is doing.