Should Nick Clegg continue to be Mr Angry?

Any comment on the performance of a Liberal Democrat leader at prime minister's questions has to be prefaced with a recognition of just how hard the job is. Faced with a noisy, hostile house, and without a dispatch box to lean nonchalantly upon or much protection from the Speaker, it is close to impossible to shine.br /br /Vince Cable scores with his lugubrious humour, but then he is not treated with the same lack of respect.br /br /All that said, I wonder whether Nick Clegg's weekly display of synthetic anger has not reached its sell-by date. You may say that there is a lot to be angry about, but I am not sure that this approach is showing Nick to his best advantage - too often he threatens to topple over into petulance.br /br /Nor does this punctual anger chime with the sober approach and limited ambitions of a href="http://liberalengland.blogspot.com/2009/07/fresh-start-for-britain-smells-little.html"A Fresh Start for Britain/a.br /br /The a href="http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14140761"Economist article/a I quoted from earlier this evening begins by making a similar point:br /blockquoteIconoclasm does not come easily to nice and privileged men: this seemed to be a lesson of Nick Clegg’s early efforts as leader of the Liberal Democrats. Staged parliamentary walkouts and other attempts to distinguish himself from the Conservatives’ David Cameron, the other well-scrubbed young leader on the opposition benches, were mocked as the work of a rookie trying too hard./blockquoteBut it goes on to suggest that "Mr Clegg’s righteous ire should now be an asset".br /br /I wonder. More light and shade, and a little humour, might show Nick to better effect. Perhaps he should try a new approach when the next parliamentary season opens?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6606798-2863305524646229200?l=liberalengland.blogspot.com'//div

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