Clegg condemned

IT IS nothing short of disgraceful that the Deputy Prime Minister and his young family cannot spend time at their Sheffield constituency home because of fears for their safety. And it is quite unbelievable that this threat comes not from terrorist groups but simply from people dissatisfied with Government policy.

Nick Clegg has become the focus for public anger over the Government’s austerity programme in a way that is quite unfair. After all, not only has Mr Clegg led his Liberal Democrat Party into power for the first time in almost a century, he has also grasped the nettle of reducing the deficit produced by Labour’s profligacy when it would have been far easier to stay out of government and snipe from the sidelines.

Courting cheap popularity, however, is clearly not Mr Clegg’s style and he is now paying the price.

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Nor can he look to his own party for much sympathy. After the spring conference in Sheffield, which necessitated a £2m security operation by South Yorkshire Police, he must now go back to his Conservative coalition colleagues and challenge NHS reform, one of the Government’s flagship policies.

But while Mr Clegg does not deserve the public opprobrium being heaped on him, he is realistic enough to accept that much of it is inevitable. Indeed, the sin for which he is being vilified is essentially one of recognising reality and of seeing that government demands hard choices even though many in his party prefer the easy options of opposition.