The Patter of Tiny Press Releases

There was a time when politicians in love-me-for-I-am-human-also mode were content to be seen kissing other people's babies; these days they seem to feel an unhealthy obligation to spawn and parade their own. The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick "Who?" Clegg, appears to be nearly as principled an environmentalist as he is an atheist. He and his wife "are lucky to have two wonderful little boys"; but for some people two of anything just isn't enough, and Nicky and his wife "always hoped to have a third child". Clearly, the problems of planetary overcrowding and exhaustion of resources take a poor second place to the spread of the Clegg-Gonzalez genome. Fortuitously, the announcement of the imminent new consumer (classed as "News: Politics" by the country's leading liberal newspaper) comes a week before Clegg's first Liberal Democrat conference as leader, where all those present will doubtless be invited to be thrilled to bits with Nicky before they go back to their constituencies and prepare for government by somebody else.