Taxi for Clegg... politics can be such a cruel game

THE FRIDAY THNG: WHO would be Nick Clegg now?

Walloped in the local and European elections that reduced him to a tearful, red-eyed victim, Clegg now finds himself accused of selling peerages for cash and is likely to be questioned by police. It goes to show just how far and how fast politicians can fall.


Politics is a ruthless game and Clegg may have to pay a high price for giving peerages to night-club owner James Palumbo — who gave the party £500,000 - and the Domino pizza magnate Rumi Verjee, who has donated £770,000 through his company.

Lib-Dem party members are expected to waste no time in passing a motion of no confidence in the leader who a couple of weeks ago was a shining political figure.

One minute you are basking in the sun; the next you are basking in relative anonymity.


It is not often that we include football in this column (unless, of course, to praise the splendid Latics), but we’ll make an exception for the intrigue that surrounds the 2022 World Cup in Qatar - the least likely place on the planet for a major football tournament.

Qatar currently has no football teams, no players and no stadiums but what it does have, thanks to some of its dubious friends, is enough money to buy entire countries, let alone build football stadiums or buy world-class players.

The temperature in Qatar will be around 50 degrees, which will pretty much fry anyone who doesn’t currently live there or isn’t used to it

There is nothing about Qatar that says it should ever host a football game. So why is it?