A round-up of the barking, the pompous and the out-of-date. - Andrew Gimson says El Gordo is turning into El Neville - Simon Hoggart can't resist making the same reference - Waste-of-space Sunder Katwala reckons he's convinced El Gordo to have an Iraq inquiry. Riiiiight. - Government missing carbon targets,… read more…

Robert Hutton, a London reporter from Bloomberg, has taken a valuable public service in hand: tracking the number of policy reviews in the Brown government. He's been given a hat-tip by venerable lobby-dude Michael White. Hutton reckons there have now been 31 policy reviews announced since June 27, including four… read more…

Clegg is set to announce his candidacy at 11.30am, as the Guardian reports that the non-appearance of Steve Webb at the starting blocks has boosted little Nicky's campaign. Quite how the Liberal Democrats will be able to keep up this level of excitement for the next two months, Westmonster really has no… read more…