Coalition relations are growing more fractious and sour. Even departments where the rapport between the Conservatives and the Lib Dems had been respectful, such as Justice, are starting to bicker publicly. Today the Mail splashes on a row between the two parties over knife crime, in the week of the stabbing of teacher Ann Maguire. Nick Clegg has refused to support mandatory minimum sentences for repeat knife offences, and the normally secret letters discussing the measures have made their way into the pages of a newspaper.
Only a few months ago, ministers and advisers thought things were going sufficiently well in most parts of the Coalition (aside from Education, which has long had plenty of dirty linen flapping about in public) that these sorts of letters, which are known as ministerial write-rounds, would probably stay private.
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