It looks as though Nick Clegg is going to have a few more days minding the shop at 10 Downing Street following the birth three weeks early this week of Florence Rose Endellion Cameron, writes London Editor John Hipwood.

The Prime Minister kept his promise (politicians do sometimes) that he and his wife, Samantha, would bring a little bit of Cornwall into their fourth child’s name following the birth at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro, during their summer holiday.

They were staying near the village of St Endellion when Mrs Cameron went into labour. The place takes its name from St Endelienta, the daughter of a Welsh king, and, legend would have it, goddaughter of King Arthur.

Endellion may be her third name, but Miss Cameron is bound to be called Flo at school.

Mr Clegg, meanwhile, can do little right at the moment. He was ticked off by football commentators, one of whom called him a clown, for describing England’s 2018 World Cup bid as unbeatable.

This, they argued, was arrogant and denigrated the bids of Russia and Spain/Portugal.

Mr Cameron did not escape criticism. Before the news broke of the birth of his second daughter, he was given a yellow card for not breaking his holiday to suck up to the Fifa delegation.

Spending a little time with your family after months of non-stop hard labour ­ rather than racing back Vladimir Putin-like to the capital to welcome the Fifa inspection group ­ was considered bad form in the crazy, pumped up world of football.

And who was that chap the FA put forward at Wembley to shake hands with the Fifa representatives? A man whose command of English is so bad that he couldn’t communicate his thoughts to the players who subsequently failed the nation so badly in South Africa during the summer.

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The Lib Dem leader might not be flavour of the month even within his own party, but it emerged this week that Cleggie has a fan in the head of state.

The other Cleggie, that is. Last of the Summer Wine, the long-running series which comes to an end on Sunday, is one of the Queen’s favourite programmes, according to Peter Sallis, who has played Norman Clegg in 31 series over 37 years.

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Leaving aside Mr (Nick) Clegg’s difficulties, the hardest job for any Coalition Government minister this week fell to Owen Paterson, MP for North Shropshire and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Mr Paterson issued a “profound apology” on behalf of the Government for the failure to bring to justice the Catholic priest Father James Chesney, who was suspected of playing a part in the murder of nine people in Claudy, in July 1972.

A report by the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman concluded on Tuesday that the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the Catholic Church and the Conservative Government of the time, colluded to cover up the role of Father Chesney, who was spirited away to Donegal and died in 1980.

Despite expressing his sorrow for the victims and their families, Mr Paterson refused to condemn the actions of the then Northern Ireland Secretary, William Whitelaw, who took his decision six months after Bloody Sunday in a year when nearly 500 people were killed in the province.