Shirley Williams: Nick Clegg is above all the victim of the Rennard scandal coverage

A crime reporter friend enjoys telling the story of his first black eye at the local Magistrates’ Court. Like so many, it occurred as he was leaving, and bumped into a convicted defendant. The conversation ran along these lines:

Man convicted of awkward crime: You’re not putting this in the paper, are you? You can’t do this, it’ll ruin my business.
Reporter, in his first job and in a chippy mood: You should have thought about then when you did it, mate.
Man convicted of awkward crime’s right fist makes contact with reporter’s eye.

I remembered this story this evening as the Lib Dems started their party’s spring conference in Brighton with a rally for International Women’s Day. Awkward timing for the party, given the claims that the leadership managed to ignore allegations about Lord Rennard when he was its chief executive. Nick Clegg did the right thing by opening the rally with an address on the allegations and what the party was now doing about them.