Clegg’s revolution

At last, Nick Clegg got his chance to pretend to be PM today and he used it to give a dazzling impression of Gordon Brown.  Opposing him, Jack Straw was off-colour. Hoarse of throat and hunched of stance, he did his best to bring some clarity to Britain’s new mission in Afghan – Operation Leg It. He asked if the exit date of 2014 was ‘absolute or conditional’. Keen to offer value for money Clegg responded to a single question with two answers. He expected ‘no troops in a combat role’ by 2015 – not 2014 – although our departure was dependent on the Afghans’s ability to secure their own country. ‘Conditional then,’ said Straw repeating his question. Clegg repeated his double answer. Combat troops home by 2015 but ‘no timetable can be chiseled in stone.’ Yikes. We were getting bogged down here. We were being mired in someone else’s conflict.