The accompanying image showed a swingometer with Cameron looking decidedly prime ministerial on one side, and a confused looking Miliband, flanked by Salmond and new SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon on the other.
As for today, many German projects including the ministerial ones mainly focus on proprietary architectures and communication protocols, often justified with deficits in existing global standards.
The first job should be to avoid waste, such as parliamentary sessions in Strasbourg and ministerial ones in Luxembourg.
You should separate that from the ministerial positions," one source said.
But even by these hare-brained standards, last week's pronouncement by the health secretary, Matt Hancock, on the merits and implications of genetic screening represents a new low in ministerial ignorance, one that has rightly been denounced by the medical profession.
"Montenegro has lost yet another ministerial post, one of the most important for relations between Montenegro and Serbia," said Ranko Krivokapic, vice president of the Montenegrin Social Democratic Party, which is a member of the ruling coalition.
News agencies report his telephone conversations with world leaders, and his decrees on ministerial appointments, including one that was spurned by the appointee two days after its announcement.
