Nick Clegg is a human punchbag.
In the New Statesman, Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg complained about the harsh attacks leveled at him. Simon Jenkins is having none of it:
'Oh dear. Nick Clegg has had another Shylock moment, bewailing his lot to the New Statesman. Has a Lib Dem not hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? "If you prick us," he wails, "do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?"The short answer is no, not if you are a minority leader in a coalition. Then you are lower than a cur. You are a fence-sitter, a turncoat, a scapegoat, a liar, a pledge-breaker, a class traitor, probably a scumbag into the bargain. You are a stock-in-trade figure of fun and/or hate. Little old ladies quake at your name. When children won't go to bed and are threatened with a "right Clegging", they scream in terror.
His latest howl of pain breaks the number one rule of being on top: never show it hurts. Never say, as he did: "I'm a human being, I'm not a punchbag." You are not a human, you are a government minister. You lie for your country and are therefore a punchbag. Above all, never mention the children's question: "Daddy, why does everyone hate you?" It suggests that everyone does hate you, that the playground mafia is on message, and that you probably should have stuck to market gardening.
'
Ouch.
(AP Photo)