Lembit - groan

Judging by this week's edition, the County Times is going to miss its role as Lembit's chief hagiographer. "Parliament's loss is undoubtedly television's gain", says Nelson. Some of us may quibble with the first assertion anyway, but after LO's performance on "The Sharp End" last night, maybe even the County Times may have to re-assess its judgement call on the second.

Hats off to Andrea Benfield for keeping a straight face as Mr Opik, who "never lies on shows like this", piled into the appointment of Cheryl Gillan as Secretary of State for Wales. Always after the telly reference, he referred to her as the "Weakest Link" and had a pop at her for not naming the date for the referendum on additional powers for Assembly.

Strange that Opik didn't have a go at Peter Hain for letting the referendum papers languish in his intray for months. But then, having a go at the Labour government was never his strong point. No, he thought Cheryl wasn't up to it because, just 24 hrs in, she hadn't named the day that we would be invited back to the polling booths to decide on one of Wales's most significant constitutional reforms.

In a painful performance by any standards, he continued to take gratuitous, unsubstantiated swipes at the new Secretary of State for Wales; hardly in keeping with the new Cam-Clegg special relationship. At one point, he even suggested that Roger Willams be appointed. Roger must have been shaking in his shoes - we all remember the Curse of Lembit.

Lembit seems to believe that, unless you're in a headline, you don't really exist. His essential criticism of Cheryl Gillan is that she isn't a headline chaser.

Well, thank goodness for that. We're all hoping she'll be a bit too busy and a bit too serious to be yesterday's chip paper