If a week is a long time in politics, as Harold Wilson said, then a month must be the political equivalent of an age. It is coming up to a month since the general election and even though he has appointed MPs to other Shadow ministerial posts, the Liberal Democrat leader, Charles Kennedy, has yet to appoint a replacement for his party's higher education spokesman in the last Parliament, David Rendel. Mr Rendel lost his Newbury seat to the Tories, despite the Lib Dem's line against tuition fees being seen as one of the party's more popular policies with the electorate. So is Mr Kennedy short of volunteers for what should be a plum job?