Third time’s the charm? Not when it comes it Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions
it’s not. Nick Clegg put in an effective performance this afternoon, but – just like the previous two sessions – there was rather more heat generated than light. So far as Labour
are concerned, this monthly Q&A is little more than an opportunity to barrack the Lib Dem leader – and they set about the task with undisguised relish.
Unfortunately for them, though, Nick Clegg bites back. Hard. Answering a question from Chris Bryant – in which the Labour MP referred to coalition housing benefit cuts as a “cleansing” of the poor from city centres – he glowered, “To refer to ‘cleansing’ will be deeply offensive to people who have witnessed ethnic cleansing in other parts of the world.” Later on, Clegg reminded the jeering Labour benches that, “[they] introduced tuition fees, having previously said that [they] wouldn’t.”
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