Nick Clegg, you chose to be coalition arm-candy, so accept being a punchbag | Simon Jenkins

Instead of bewailing his lot, Nick Clegg should sniff the daffodils and be grateful he missed the golden era of political venom

Oh dear. Nick Clegg has had another Shylock moment, bewailing his lot to the New Statesman. Has a Lib Dem not hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? "If you prick us," he wails, "do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?"

The short answer is no, not if you are a minority leader in a coalition. Then you are...