I know I’ve already mentioned this once, but Ming’s demonstrated his U-turn again on Question Time last night.

He now says that setting an absolutely deadline (and I’m not sure either Simon or Chris demanded an absolute, no-going-back, final date) for the withdrawal of our troops from Iraq would be irresponsible. He also says we should stick around and help rebuild the country. But just one year ago, he co-wrote this:

Moreover, the longer we remain in Iraq the more our occupation becomes part of the problem for the security situation rather than the solution. The heavy-handed deployment of US firepower in urban areas, against repeated British advice, has not weakened the insurgency but strengthened the ambition of most Iraqis for an end to foreign occupation.

The UN mandate expires in a year’s time with the completion of the timetable for direct election of a representative government under an agreed constitution. Both Britain and America should inform the assembly elected this weekend that we expect to leave by the end of that UN mandate. Both the assembly and the occupying forces must then each do its part to fulfil the necessary political and security tasks to meet that timetable.

That seems as sensible a position now as it was when the article was written, and Ming Campbell, Robin Cook and Douglas Hurd – two of them former foreign secretaries – were lauded at the time for writing it. It’s also the view that Chris Huhne has been espousing during this leadership election. Is Ming now saying that he, Cook and Hurd were wrong?

It’s that time again, so buckle in: selected numbers from the latest Dewey Decimal subject mappings.

• Longest number: King Bladud (Legendary character) – 398.20936239802
• As close to being about the leadership election as I could get: Neoliberalism – 320.51
• But MPs’ private lives are private: Condom use – 613.9435
• Number closest to ITV1’s Saturday night line-up: Figure skaters – 796.912092
• And “spree” is such a nice-sounding word: Spree murderers – 364.1523092
• But the rat came back the very next day, the rat came back, they thought he was a goner but the rat came back, he just wouldn’t stay away: Rodenticide resistance – 632.951
• Most unexpected number: Surprise birthday parties – 793.2
• Whatever Happened to Scabies Pain?: Diseases in motion pictures – 791.436561
• Most vocabulary-expanding number: Rhombencephalon – 573.86
• Most poetic number and most South American: Ecuadorian Haiku – 861.041089866
• Number I’ve been to most often: King’s Cross Station (London, England) – 385.3140942142
• Watch out – books!: Libraries–Risk management – 025.11
• Go out with a bang: Pyrotechnists – 662.1092

More bad “diseases in motion pictures” puns are, of course, welcomed.

Sad news from Digital Spy: Amstell and Oliver quit C4’s Popworld. Who will make stuck-up “celebs” look foolish now? Apart from Celebrity Big Brother, obviously…

As a certain Mr Rennie just said.

Congratulation to all who worked so hard there – and to the friend who put £10 on at 11-1.

If I wrote the figures down right, that’s a majority of 1,800. The Liberal Democrats now have 63 Members of Parliament. Woohoo!