An overshadowed Nick Clegg found himself hosting what soon became a disinterested press conference this morning when he urged political colleagues to "resist any temptation to impose knee-jerk, short-sighted restrictions on the media". It was a concept which sat uneasily alongside his earlier expressed preference for ‘blaggers’, i.e. journalists and their familiars found guilty of obtaining personal details by deception, should all be jailed.
Such inconsistencies are no longer a surprise to the Westminster press pack who see a deputy PM feeling distinctly upstaged by practically everyone. The strain of re-establishing visibility was evident and the outcome was no more effective than his entertaining efforts of the other day when he sought to gain house points by claiming he had 'warned' the Cameron camp about the inherent dangers of Andy Coulson’s appointment.
Sadly for the Lib Dem leader, his attempts to get out of the shadows only served to put his shortcomings in the spotlight. Having allowed himself to be casually ambushed by a question about his different recollections to Gordon Brown on details of press intrusion he pretended not to hear a query as to why he had failed to give Vince Cable full backing when the Business Secretary had tried to see off the Murdoch threat to media plurality.
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