To the media the deputy prime minister has been Two Jags; good for the occasional kicking on a slack news day with his fisticuffs, croquet and Texan ranching. But one group that will be genuinely sorry to see him go, perhaps surprisingly, will be inland waterways enthusiasts. His support wasn't high profile, but it was enduring.

He was the person who launched both the Unlocking the Potential and Waterways for Tomorrow policy documents for British Waterways (BW), the latter being the first fresh inland waterways policy since the 1960s, allowing BW to operate more freely and take a long term position on revenue from property deals, also enabling it to tackle and eradicate a £100m backlog of safety work.

At the first launch he was seen with a windlass, showing that he knew what to do with it.

He visited Newark to see aggregate being moved by barge and inspected renovated listed buildings being used for new BW offices. Ahead of the 2001 Easter holidays he reopened the canals in Hertfordshire in the wake of the Foot & Mouth crisis, celebrated BW's stewardship during the crisis and used the canals as a model of the way the countryside could recover.

The same month he selected the canal town of Market Drayton to launch the Market Town initiative. The following year he returned to his birthplace to pull the plug draining the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct at the start of a £3m restoration project.

Thus, it came as an unexpected disappointment when he did not give the proposed Bedford - Milton Keynes link his full support.

Surely a first for any acting prime minister (during Tony Blair's summer holiday) was going white water rafting on the Afon Tryweryn with his aides, an activity which might have passed unnoticed had he not rescued an injured canoeist and driven him to the doctor in Bala.

The one place he will be remembered undeservedly is on the Bow Back Rivers around the 2012 Olympic site, the Prescott Channel to be precise, named long before the deputy leader had any involvement. It will make up for the credit which has passed by him elsewhere on the inland waterways.