Oh, how we laughed

This time, it isn't the Australian subs who are causing problems at the Telegraph.

Clegg tells Cameron he's 'talking complete bilge' over AV

Nick Clegg told David Cameron that he was "talking complete bilge" over the proposal to introduce the Alternative Vote system in a comment that indicates the tension over the issue at the top of the Coalition. (src)

Oh noes! Politicians in government disagree with each other! It's the end of the monarchy and all that is right with Britain!

Except, um…

[Clegg] said: "We were very good humoured about it. We mutter to each other. We were just joking. We disagree on this one."

Yep, politicians at the top of government are able to smile and laugh about their disagreements. This isn't tension, it's actually very healthy.

Still, we learn that "a phalanx of some of Britain's leading historians warned a move to AV … could destroy the principle of “one man or woman, one vote”." Yes, the Telegraph names some of the historians:

The historians included Professor Niall Ferguson, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Dr David Starkey, Professor Antony Beevor and Dr Andrew Roberts.

It would be fair to say that the list includes some of the most right-wing historians currently operating in the United Kingdom. They're entitled to their opinions, as are we all, and I'm not criticising either the holding or the expressing of those opinions. But really, this is hardly an impartially-selected group of scholars expressing a nuanced, scientific opinion on a matter of bald fact.

Nevertheless, as cheerfully as the Telegraph named the historians, so strangely coy is it about the source for their quote: "In a joint letter to a newspaper, they wrote…" Not naming the newspaper, in the Telegraph, is as good as naming it: for to which other paper can they therefore have written than the old nemesis, the Times?

No, Andy Bloxham isn't a Journalidiot. He hasn't been trying hard enough for that coveted accolade. But I needed a good giggle. Thanks, mate.