Is there such a word as rudery? If there isn’t one, there should be, as I and others witnessed a spectacular display this afternoon.
Bedfordshire University journalism students came to Parliament today. They spent time in the public gallery and I had thirty minutes with them in a room in Portcullis House.
They were a great lot. All smiles, chatty, intelligent. And asked very incisive questions.
The lecturer had arranged for Phil Willis, the Lib Dem Chair of the Innovations and Skills Select Committee, to follow me and talk to the students, as the Committee is conducting an enquiry into universities.

Phil walked into the room looking like thunder. I ended my session with the students quickly and the lecturer suggested a photo. I asked if we could have one for the local press and it was agreed the students would write the press release.

At this point Phil Willis, who hadn’t even responded to the lecturers as they said hello when he walked into the room, announced he had better things to do than hang around there all day, and stormed out.

To which the students, some of whom were Liberal Democrats, shrieked, “that’s our story”.
It is a fact that apart from a handful of Lib Dem MPs, the majority are thoroughly nasty. Disliked by both Conservative and Labour MPs, they have managed to pedal this unbelievable lie of being the nice woolly people.

They aren’t. They are downright unpleasant. I didn’t need to mention that to the students today, not that I would anyway. The Lib Dems managed to do it all by themselves.

The students' lecturer was an ex-lobby journalist. Once a journalist always a journalist. I wouldn’t be surprised if she has that in a diary by the weekend.