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By Ned Simons - 18th January 2011
Deputy prime minister's question time has fast become the most acrimonious and rowdy of parliamentary occasions and today's outing was up there with the best, or down there with the worst.
The monthly half-hour sessions have become increasingly bitter affairs, with Labour MPs doing little to hide their contempt for the Liberal Democrat leader.
Clegg took to the Despatch Box today as peers took a break from their all-night savaging of his flagship Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill – and Labour MPs were happy to step in to fill their shoes.
The deputy prime minister had come prepared and said the shenanigans in the Lords overnight showed Labour's commitment to political reform was a "complete and utter farce" and attacked "dinosaurs in the Labour Party" for blocking people's ability to have a say on the electoral system they want.
And he observed that Ed Miliband is said to want to reach out to Lib Dems at the same time as his peers were trying to derail the piece of legislation closest to Lib Dem hearts.
"The leader of the Labour Party said he believed in political reform, and yet he can't control the members of his own party in the House of Lords," he said.
"You can't have meaningful political reform with such weak political leadership."
Leaping to the defence of the un-elected peers, Labour's David Winnick wryly asked if Clegg had "any words of congratulations to the Lords as it is, for the way in which they are defending democracy against gerrymandering".
While Paul Flynn described the coalition as a "Tory-Lib Dem junta" and Diana Johnson speculated as to why Clegg was so keen to defend a new electoral system that was not in his manifesto while "abandoning promises that were" such as not to raise tuition fees.
Anas Sarwar deployed a nifty little joke based on Clegg's coinage of the phrase 'Alarm Clock Britain' and apparent voter dissatisfaction with the Lib Dems.
"Will he heed the wake up call before his MPs and party are forced to face electoral oblivion?" he asked.
And of course no deputy prime minister's question time would be complete without Clegg-baiter in chief Chris Bryant popping up to get in little jab of his own.
"I know the deputy prime minister gets in a terrible lather when anyone has the effrontery to contradict him," he said. "But he could perfectly get his referendum by splitting the Bill".
Labour peers led by Lord Falconer have insisted they would be happy to let the section of the Bill which opens the door for a referendum on the Alternative Vote pass as long as they were given more time to scrutinise the part which cuts the number of MPs from 650 to 600.
At the half way point the Speaker had to intervene to remind Labour MPs to be courteous towards the deputy prime minister "whatever they think of him and his polices", to predatory laughter from the Opposition benches.
Miliband may want his party to "go after" Cameron, believing the prime minister has been shielded from criticism by his Lib Dem deputy for too long, but it his appeals are not going to stop Labour MPs having fun attempting to knock chunks out of Clegg.
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