Mark Pack

Paul Walter has picked up on some less than flattering comments, including from an anonymous Liberal Democrat “grandee”, about Danny Alexander:

Danny has gone completely native…He should be the Lib Dem man in the Treasury. But he has turned into the Treasury man in the Lib Dems. Perhaps Danny could look slightly less pleased with himself and wipe that smile off his face.

Paul’s full post is here but some better news is over in The Mirror, echoing a point also made in the report Paul quotes:

Cold weather payments to the elderly and the poor were saved yesterday in a dramatic ConDem U-turn.

There was shock earlier in the week when David Cameron said the cash, available to four million on pension credit or income support, was “not guaranteed”.

Parliamentary regulations were put down to cut it from £25 a week to £8.50.

But senior sources told the Mirror there had been a rethink after Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander intervened. The source added: “Payments will be guaranteed at £25 for the next four years.”

Smiling too much or protecting payments for the least well off? I know which one is the most important by far.