Clegg’s Obama regret?

There’s a hilarious item in Richard Kay’s diary today about Nick Clegg—and it isn’t an April Fool. Here are the key quotes:

“‘I am really annoyed,’ [Clegg] told me. ‘As it was not a state visit I understood I wouldn’t get to see [Obama]. But when I found out Obama was meeting the Queen and David Cameron I got on the phone to David Miliband to ask him what was going on.

‘Frankly, it doesn’t look good for Cameron to see him and for me not to.’

…

At one point he turned to Cable and told him: ‘If I do get to go, I will give Obama a copy of your book.'” Clegg’s office says that Clegg did not speak to Richard Kay. They also emphatically deny that he has called Miliband to try and get in to see Obama. In a way, what is surprising is that, when Obama announced his intention to meet with Cameron, the government didn’t try and get him to meet with Clegg as well to dilute the impact of the Cameron-Obama meeting.