The Mirror’s headline promised Coalition discord and rancour. The reality was a lot less interesting – a joke by the Tory leader as his Lib Dem counterpart enjoyed dinner with his wife. Here is that racy anecdote in all its “foul-mouthed” glory:
The PM’s foul-mouthed remark came as he heard the Lib Dem leader and his wife were enjoying a meal out – while he was still busy working. He made the discovery after calling a horse-training pal who happened to be in the same restaurant as the Cleggs.
Mr Cameron wanted information about an Arab prince’s horses – to help him make “small talk” in crucial trade negotiations with the United Arab Emirates. During the call, the pal said he was sitting at a table near the Deputy PM.
According to a senior Tory source, Mr Cameron then said: “Tell him he’s an idle f****r. I’m out here batting for Britain and he’s having a nice dinner.”
A Lib Dem insider said Mr Clegg never received the tongue-in-cheek message, adding: “Nick does not regard himself as idle.”
The insider didn’t clarify whether Nick regards himself as a f*****r, The Voice notes.
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12 Comments
Sounds like idle rancour to me.
And all this from the PM who once managed to leave his 8-year old daughter in a pub after a family meal??????
Seems to indicate that C&C are actually better mates than people realise – people are never that rude to people they don’t like when they still have to work with them – it’s typical city boy banter (a mix of profanity and hyperbole).
@HuwSayer
You can’t even spell the word properly in your headline! (The Guardian managed to print the word in full but I won’t write it here since the nambys who run LDV would censor it!)
Tony
@ Tony Greaves – “You can’t even spell the word properly in your headline!”
The headline is the Mirror’s, hence the quotation marks, the number of asterisks their headline writer’s (rather than LDV’s). I can only assume the full word must be “flipper”.
It’s clearly not “Flipper.”
How could Nick be both “idle” and “faster than lightning?”
We’re still in the Rose Garden…
Where did the story come from.. was the informant next to Cameron at the time; was the ‘horse-training pal’ less of a pal than Cam thought; or was the phone call hacked?
Silly. Very silly.
Cameron of course went on to say, “Whereas I am an extremely vigorous f*****.”
Fiddler? As in while Rome burns…
I look forward to the time when the only F word associated with Clegg is , FORGOTTEN.