Privileged upbringing not his fault

Nick Clegg's privileged upbringing makes him an easy target for charges of hypocrisy.

He deserves credit for being open about the help he had from his father to secure his first internship, an event that he could easily have covered up.

But the reason such attacks hurt politically is all to do with his U-turn on student fees, which Labour argues will hold down people from less comfortable circumstances.

Mr Clegg's family background is far from ordinary. His maternal grandfather was a friend of the Dutch royal family and became president of Dutch banking giant ABN. His father, Nicholas, the son of Russian-born Baroness Kira von Engelhardt, is a banker who rose to chair the United Trust Bank. Brought up in Chalfont St Giles in Buckinghamshire, Mr Clegg was sent to independent Caldicott School and then Westminster School. The family also bought a 20-room chalet in the Alps and a chateau near Bordeaux.

None of these privileges is Mr Clegg's fault. But former St Paul's pupil Harriet Harman, who ragged him rotten in the House this afternoon, knows from personal experience how much harder it is for someone from a wealthy family to argue the case for social justice policies.