The personal is most definitely political

Lib dem leadership "hopefuls", Chris Huhne and Nick Clegg, went head to head on the BBC's Question Time on Thursday night.

Both were asked about the schooling of their children and whether they went to state schools.

Both are, of course, products of elite Westminster public school. So both were predictibly touchy about the question.

As only a Lib Dem could, Huhne said he sent his kids to both.

Clegg's two young kids go to a state primary - but he didn't rush to pledge that they would go to a state secondary. Instead he whined that the question had even ben put ('politicians entitled to a private life...etc')

Politicians who don't use our public services have no right seeking office to run them. If they're not good enough for them and theirs, they're not good enough for you and yours.

Clegg's whinging echoes David Cameron's slippery entreaty not to delve into his clearly misspent youth.

But politicians can't have it both ways. Nowadays, they are all selling themsellves as a brand and therefore stretch the boundary of what the public is entitled to know about them and the way they really live their lives.

I'm personally not bothered if our putative leaders are into fiddling with livestock - buying advantages for your kids at the expense of someone else's is, as far as this blog is concerned, a far graver crime.