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So what if Nick Clegg cries to classical music? At least he's not a Robbie Williams fan
It's his party and he can cry if he wants to: Nick Clegg, according to this week's New Statesman, listens to classical music in the evening and sometimes cries. Good for him. As a hinterland for a Liberal leader that is healthier than Gladstone's search for fallen women, or Asquith's perpetual games of bridge. There's nothing weak about letting music enter the soul. Mr Clegg didn't name a particular piece and his choices on Desert Island Discs included only two classical items, neither particularly lachrymose, but at least that is one more than David Cameron, who chose a schmaltzy piece of Mendelssohn. It's hard to imagine the prime minister crying to anything much, though he admits to being a fan of the Smiths, whose dreary dirges ought to provoke tears of rage. What might bring a nostalgic glisten to Ed Miliband's eye? Disturbingly, he was reported to have picked Robbie Williams's Angels as a favourite during the Labour leadership election, which if true ought to have disqualified him from running. Gordon Brown would surely be stirred by something Scottish and emotional: Rod Stewart's Rhythm of My Heart, perhaps, "no never will I roam, for I know my place is home", which might account for his absence from the Commons. But for politicians, there is really only one appropriate English classical tearjerker: Purcell's When I Am Laid in Earth. Its lyrical warning about the perils of ambition ought to set them all sobbing: "Remember me, remember me, but ah! forget my fate."
