The Lib Dem peer, Lord Oakeshott, said on Question Time 30/1/2014 that if he was put in the position of choosing between defying his party leader, Nick Clegg, by voting for the ban on smoking in cars with children present, or defying his wife who is a doctor, there was no contest. If he voted otherwise, he said that it would be the first time that he defied his wife. The audience laughed at it, but no-one picked up this servile attitude towards his wife and its serious implications for choosing politicians, although David Dimbleby was quick to pick him up on another throwaway remark, about concentrating on driving rather than smoking.

It reminds us of Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s quip: “The husband may be the head of his wife, but she is the neck that turns the head.”

Update:
28/5/2014: Lord Oakeshott has now resigned from the Lib Dems with a warning that the party is “heading for disaster” under Nick Clegg.