Those eagerly rushing to put the boot into Nick Clegg would be well advised to put their own houses in order Is Nick Clegg a hypocrite? Or worse, as his loudest accuser, the widely quoted Labour MP John Mann has it, a “total hypocrite”, for deploring the use of interns when, three decades ago, the member for Sheffield Hallam benefited from an identical leg-up? Mann, who represents the nearby constituency of Bassetlaw, explains: “It is total hypocrisy and really desperate for him to attack internships now. His policies are holding down social mobility in this country but he enjoyed all the advantages of family connections himself.” So? Should Clegg be disqualified by his personal advantages ever from addressing social mobility? Or is there some way he might atone for the offence of early privilege, possibly through a formal denunciation of his parents or an act of self-flagellation in Parliament Square? It has occasionally been done. After choosing to embrace poverty and to call everything sister or brother, the total hypocrite St Francis of Assisi was not just
Those eagerly rushing to put the boot into Nick Clegg would be well advised to put their own houses in order Is Nick Clegg a hypocrite? Or worse, as his loudest accuser, the widely quoted Labour MP John Mann has it, a “total hypocrite”, for deploring the use of interns when, three decades ago, the member for Sheffield Hallam benefited from an identical leg-up? Mann, who represents the nearby constituency of Bassetlaw, explains: “It is total hypocrisy and really desperate for him to attack internships now. His policies are holding down social mobility in this country but he enjoyed all the advantages of family connections himself.” So? Should Clegg be disqualified by his personal advantages ever from addressing social mobility? Or is there some way he might atone for the offence of early privilege, possibly through a formal denunciation of his parents or an act of self-flagellation in Parliament Square? It has occasionally been done. After choosing to embrace poverty and to call everything sister or brother, the total hypocrite St Francis of Assisi was not just