Presidential view is not welcome over here

1995 library filer of Chris Moncrieff. Photo by Peter Smith/PA

There was the usual, gushing crop of pleasantries, but this time it was interlaced by Obama shamelessly intervening in the argument over the forthcoming EU referendum.

I always thought it was a principle among politicians - those that have any principles at all - that you did not meddle in another country’s domestic elections or referendums, and certainly not take sides as blatantly as Obama has done.

Was he simply doing the bidding of the Prime Minister, a fervent Remain campaigner?

Or, more likely, was he merely expressing what he believes to be America’s best interests in this matter?

He certainly raised the temperature of what Brexit supporters call ‘Project Fear’ by saying that if Britain left the EU, we would go to the back of the queue in reaching a trade agreement with the US, which may take 10 years to achieve. Boris Johnson has denounced the president as ‘ridiculous and weird’.

Admittedly, David Cameron has intervened in the US presidential battle by saying rude things about Donald Trump (which will not cause the property billionaire to bat an eyelid), but that is no excuse for Obama to follow suit.

I do not wish to be patronising, but Obama should really mind his own business.

Are the Liberal Democrats, like the dodo, about to become extinct?

All signs point to the fact that the future of this once-lively offshoot of the great Liberal Party of Gladstone, is now over.

Their catastrophic performance at the last general election has made them not simply irrelevant, but impotent as well. Tim Farron, the newish leader, tries his best to make their voice heard. But nobody listens, and nobody cares.

The former leader Nick Clegg was one of the eight who managed to retain their seats last May. He is now delivering speeches around the world, while many of his ex-colleagues are writing kiss-and-tell books and cashing in on their not very distinguished years in power as coalitionists.

Gladstone’s grave must be erupting with shock at this spectacle of these pathetic has-beens now seemingly doomed to oblivion.