As much as I dislike slander in modern-day politics, sometimes I think reactions to name-calling can get even worse than the original infraction. Take the case of the recent nastiness involving Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne. It was not nice of the Huhne camp to coin the “Calamity” nickname. Perhaps more than not nice; irresponsible, even, to say something like that publicly about your fellow man, let alone your party-mate. Stupid too; it can further split an already disparate party. But the Clegg camp also had a choice to turn a deaf ear. Instead of bringing attention to the silly name-calling, they could have taken the better, unseen, unheard higher ground of ignoring something so petty and childish. By lodging the complaint, they helped it along to newsworthiness, and also helped to bring their own party into disgrace.

I don’t care which of these gentleman become the next Lib Dem leader. I just want the party to hurry up and become that third force of political power they’ve been struggling to live up to these last few years.