Nick Clegg: As incisive as ever

With the UK government in freefall, MPs standing down over expenses all the time and with Iran drifting into violence over disputed elections, it is good that we can reply on the Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, to offer his sage analysis on the issues of the day:

Nick Clegg has called for the Trident nuclear deterrent to be scrapped, saying it is too expensive and no longer meets the UK's defence needs.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of Trident and alternative "deterrents" (one of my favourite euphemisms, that one) I can't help but think that there are better times for Clegg to put his oar into the debate. Sure, pretty much everything Nick Clegg says is irrelevant as he has as much chance of actually being at the heart of political power as I do (which is no chance whatsoever), but he could still offer up-to-date commentary on what is going on, rather than picking on random issues at random times. It makes Clegg look like a man who has just woken up after a very long sleep, and has decided to babble on about the first issue that springs into his tiny mind. Mind you, for all I know, that could be the truth.

It is bad enough when our elected leaders are out of touch with the people. When they appear to be out of touch with the issues they are meant to be dealing with if they are ever elected, well, then I guess we've got an even worse problem.