The timing of Clegg's speech appeared to break one of the golden rules of a government "grid" – the timetable for announcements – which says that ministers should not send out mixed messages.
The timetable for tax reform, which would likely have a bigger immediate effect on over-all economic growth, is also highly uncertain.
Nominations for the race to succeed David Cameron open on Wednesday when backbenchers meet to approve the timetable for the contest, which is due to produce a new prime minister by 2 September.
The first two repatriation flights from Sharm to the UK touched down on Friday afternoon after a day of conflicting information from airlines, embassy staff and Egyptian officials over the timetable for flights, during which the ambassador, John Casson, was heckled by furious tourists.
One sticking point might be the timetable for moving the base, which is now pushed back another nine years.
The Israeli officer said this week's handovers did not signal a speeding up of the timetable for the Israeli withdrawal, which is supposed to be completed by July.
He borrowed the phrase from the UK minister Greg Barker, who attended a previous round of talks in 2011 at Durban at which the timetable for a deal in Paris was hammered out.
The timetable for even these modest changes — which, for all we know, will preclude any meaningful changes during the phase-in period — is laughable: it will take place in 30 to 50 percent of 20 major markets within three years and the remainder of those markets by 2020.
Suggesting that the timetable for a free-trade zone, which was agreed on in 1997, should be speeded up, he invited his colleagues to meet again in Cairo for a special economic summit.But the Arabs have been talking of forming a common market since the 1950s.
He called another summit for the end of August to try to resolve the deadlock, which threatens the timetable for getting a new EU regime in place by the autumn.
