10. Surely the liberals will file for divorce as soon as the bruises show through the make up

In the first year of the Lib dem/Conservative coalition, Smith said to WalesHome;

"The Lib Dem dowry of a maybe referendum on AV will seem neither adequate reward nor sufficient defence when the Tories confess their taste for domestic violence on our schools, hospitals and welfare provision.

Surely the liberals will file for divorce as soon as the bruises start to show through the make up?"

Someone in Smith's team must have pointed out that that kind of language is incredibly offensive to anyone who has suffered domestic violence, because he quickly issued a non-apology in which he said;

"I apologise if anyone has been offended by the metaphorical reference in this article, which I will now be editing. The reference was in a phrase describing today's Tory and Liberal cuts to domestic spending on schools and welfare as metaphorical 'domestic violence'."

Clearly whichever aide advised him to apologise couldn't make him understand that using a serious issue like domestic violence as a metaphor to proves one's point is completely unacceptable.