The Danny Alexander story

Following on from David Laws, the Telegraph today pushed a "big expenses scandal" story about Danny Alexander, the new Lib Dem Chief Sec to the Treasury.

Except this is an astonishing non story. Alexander didn't pay CGT on a house he shouldn't have paid CGT on, he changed the definition of his primary residence not so that he could flip - like various high profile Tories have done - but so that he could sell his other residence. Nothing crooked, malign, or dodgy here. Nothing against the parliamentary rules, or even vaguely related to them.

But clearly the Telegraph are back on the warpath.

Now, it might just be coincidence, but it seems to me that it's unlikely that the two exposes they've pushed are about Lib Dems in the treasury - when the far more corrupt Osborne and Gove remain with the easiest of rides from the right-wing press - just happen to be the two biggest scoops in the Telegraph's locker.

It seems even less of a coincidence when you realise the Telegraph are heading the right-wing Tory campaign on the CGT issue, on trying to keep it below the levels of income tax: although they never quite explain why. But apparently it's a "bad thing". Yes, for all those buy-to-let landlords who're making obscene capital gains on properties whose value rockets because there are more buy to let landlords paying no tax. It's probably bad for all those wealthy Telegraph editors and journalists and owners who've been using low CGT to get around paying tax on income for ages.

Anyway, off from my sniping about it - the Telegraph are running a campaign against it; Lib Dems in the treasury are going to be much more deficit-hawkish than the Tories in terms of raising tax as well as cutting services to bring finances in order. So, I suspect the Telegraph is trying to bring them down. But it's powder is very, very feeble on this one. Expect them to try and find other ways to go after Alexander now.

Meanwhile, I feel there's a certain irony that they now have a much more liberal and less conservative Lib Dem in the higher ranking job, having disposed of Laws. My guess is that they were hoping Cameron would bring a Tory in. It's very funny that he hasn't, and the Telegraph and right-wing Tories might have ended in a worse position than before.