Clegg gets the handbag out

I actually thought Clegg might cry at PMQs just now – he had a right old mare.

It wasn’t really his own fault. He was subject to what can only be described as group bullying.

His problem is his ‘angry man – I’m too serious for the silliness of PMQs when there are people dying out there’ persona that he wears every Wednesday.

Everyone knows that when a person is miffed, the way to make them look silly is to mock them and make them more miffed. And so when he started being all incensed the House roared “ooooooooooh!”

You know the noise. The action to go with it is holding your hands up as if you were gripping a handbag.

Clegg often draws this response at PMQs but today it happened repeatedly and each time the Lib Dem chief was getting a little more vexed and liable to trigger another “oooooooooh!” at any moment.

When Brown was answering his last question Clegg was so livid that he just kept on shouting “si’down,si’down,si’down!” while every time making a jerking move with his head, not dissimilar to that made by a walking pigeon.

I’ve heard Clegg actually has a bit of a temper, but on the main when I’ve spoken with him in person he comes across as passionate at most.

The angry man thing only works at PMQs every so often, try some wit next time.