© Matthew Buck HackCartoons

A long running embarrassment to Liberal Democratic party has flared up again following publication of a report into allegations of sexual harrassment made against the  former Chief Executive of the party, Chris Rennard.

Despite the ‘broadly credible’ allegations of sexual harassment recorded in the report  which were made by several female would-be Lib Dem parliamentary candidates, party leader and deputy prime Minister Nick Clegg seems unable or unwilling to do anything.

If there’s much more of this, the story might start feeling like the broken promise on student tuition fees from the start of this coalition parliament.

As this pithy television interview makes clear, perhaps Clegg needs to ‘man up’ a bit. Mind, after you’ve read this, you’ll understand why politics is always a filthy business.

Updated: 21st August 2014. The suspension of Lord Rennard from the party has been lifted although the issues, the specific incidents and their legacy will linger.

There has been a lot of valid criticism of the very hight bar of criminal proof applied to the internal party investigations conducted by Alastair Webster QC.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of the ‘broadly credible’ victims have left a life in politics, leading, I speculate, many more bright, articulate and potentially useful people with them.

Screenshot of Bridget Harris speaking about the Rennard issue.

There is a good round up by James Kirkup of The Telegraph here if you would like to take a larger view of this long running mess.