PMQs sketch: Nick Clegg heats up in the hot seat

Cameron is away in Ankara. His mission is to annoy the Germans by inviting Turkey to join the EU as soon as possible. It all sounds like fun. Let’s hope the Turks know they’re being used as pawns in a much bigger game. His absence left Deputy Clegg facing Deputy Harman at PMQs.

Clegg’s chief gift at the dispatch-box is for coining and distributing insults. It’s not a winning talent though, and his manner is far too prickly for national leadership. His attractive looks, posh schooling and agile tongue should have resolved themselves into something softer and more generous. Yet he still comes across as a Leninist crusty who happens to have been mellowed by a nice salary, a staff car and a foxy wife.

He got so riled by Harman that his hair nearly caught fire. She accused him of abusing women, of shriving their pensions, of clobbering their tax credits and of closing down sex discrimination tribunals.