Nick Clegg has ordered a rebranding of the Liberal Democrats amid signs that he could face a challenge to his leadership if his party continues to slump in the polls.

The Deputy Prime Minister has commissioned a complete rethink of Lib Dem strategy amid rumblings about his stewardship at the highest level.
Insiders say senior party figures including Chris Huhne, a former leadership contender, have been jockeying for position behind the scenes.
Rumours about Mr Clegg's leadership have emerged after mounting discontent among party members in the country who are furious at the direction the party has been taking in government.
Rank and file activists, who are more left wing than Mr Clegg, reject many of the more right wing policies adopted by their leader since he entered into coalition with the Tories.
The rise in university tuition fees and the speed and depth of cuts to public spending are particular bones of contention.

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need to protect local pubs and traditional crafts in an age of "stultifying mono-culturalism".

UK countryside is "a national asset of incredible value" which could be lost unless greater care is taken of it, the Prince of Wales has said.

The prince told a conference in Cambridgeshire that farmers were the tourism industry's "greatest ally" because they preserved the landscape.

He also stressed the need to protect local pubs and traditional crafts in an age of "stultifying mono-culturalism".

Tourism Minister John Penrose said more Britons should holiday in the UK.

Prince Charles has long been a vocal campaigner on rural issues.

He told the meeting of tourism chiefs in Lode that "the delicately-woven tapestry of our countryside" was facing "unprecedented pressures".

"Start pulling at the threads and the whole thing could fall apart," he said.

"The greatest ally the tourism industry has is the farmer, who keeps the landscape looking as it does. This is especially true in upland areas.

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"My distrust just increased," said Mikiko Amano, a 55-year-old woman who had been recently evacuated from her home close to the quake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex.

"My distrust just increased," said Mikiko Amano, a 55-year-old woman who had been recently evacuated from her home close to the quake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex.

She was talking to Reuters at a town outside the 20-km evacuation zone around the complex, owned by the Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), which continued to urge calm despite broadcasters showing a plume of smoke rising from the plant.

"I was at home at the time of the first explosion. It was a huge sound. After that, I evacuated. I went for a radiation check at the hospital today and breathed a sigh of relief that I was OK," Amano told Reuters.

"The company has been saying such a thing would not happen and the plant was fine even after 40 years in operation...It only raised my distrust of TEPCO."

Amano's family and tens of thousands of others evacuated from their homes around the complex depend on the company for their livelihoods, and many were remarkably stoic at first in the face of what appeared to the rest of the world as imminent nuclear catastrophe.

Even as authorities waived Geiger counters over evacuees clothes and gave them doses of iodine as a precaution against radiation poisoning, local communities at first spoke confidently about their employer's ability to avert a crisis.

Hideki Kato, a 41-year-old worker at the Fukushima Daiichi complex, just wanted to get back to work.

"I think nuclear power plants are necessary. I am worried about the job," Kato said at a school gym serving as an evacuation center in Kawamata town, outside the evacuation zone in Fukushima prefecture.

"Can we make a living?Can I ever go back to work at the plant?" he asked as his two children lay on the floor beside him, wrapped in blankets. His son played with a cell phone while Kato's parents looked on.

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Foreign Secretary William Hague denied he has lost his "mojo".

Foreign Secretary William Hague has rejected claims he might resign over his handling of the Libyan crisis and

He told the Sunday Telegraph he had wide support in his party and people should "get used" to the idea.

Senior Liberal Democrat Sir Menzies Campbell is among those who have openly questioned his commitment to the job.

Mr Hague has been criticised over a botched SAS mission to Libya, and the slow evacuation of UK nationals there.

He told the paper: "If some of the people who write about mojo came with me for a week, they would drop dead on their feet.

"The prime minister is extremely supportive [of me], and so are the vast majority of Conservative MPs. People had better get used to the idea."


There were two reasons I came back into politics - to support David Cameron and to serve the country. I am not walking away from those things”

He also described the job of foreign secretary as "addictive" and said he had not returned to front-line politics just to quit so soon.

"I gave up lots of things I love doing: writing, and business, and playing the piano and so on," he told the paper.

"I wouldn't give up all those things and come back into politics because I wasn't interested in it. Why on earth would I do that?

"There were two reasons I came back into politics - to support David Cameron and to serve the country. I am not walking away from those things. People had better get used to the idea."

Mr Hague's appetite for front-line politics was questioned last week following criticism of his handling of the government's response to the Libyan crisis.

In heated scenes in the House of Commons, Labour leader Ed Miliband said there had been a series of mistakes, including delays getting UK nationals out of Libya and Mr Hague's incorrect announcement that Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi had fled to Venezuela.

Mr Miliband said there was an "issue of competence at the heart of this government".

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Nick Clegg will claim the Lib Dems "hold the freehold to the centre ground of British politics" in a speech to the party's spring conference later.

Nick Clegg will claim the Lib Dems "hold the freehold to the centre ground of British politics" in a speech to the party's spring conference later.

The deputy PM will attempt to rally party activists reeling from low poll ratings and public anger over cuts.

But he will resist calls from some Lib Dems to attack the Tories more often to emphasise the party's identity.

Instead, he will focus on trumpeting the party's achievements and say it is "from the middle, for the middle".

Mr Clegg will tell delegates in Sheffield: "We're on the side of the people I call Alarm Clock Britain. The side of everyone who wants to get up and get on.

"People who, unlike the wealthy, have no choice but to work hard to make ends meet."

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