Nick Clegg encounters the British birther movement

James Kirkup has just written on his Telegraph blog:

Say what you like about Chris Huhne, his remarks on AV are never dull.

Not content with his historical denunciation of the Conservative Party on Sky News, he’s just used a Radio Four interview to accuse opponents of AV of “made-up facts” similar to the ones which, he said, are common in US politics.

I didn't hear Chris, but it according to Kirkup he said:

"I don’t want to see us import bad practice from the American system where the Republican right has gleefully made up facts which then turn up to be complete nonsense, like President Obama not being born in America and all this short of rubbish."

Kirkup's comment on this is:

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and call the Cabinet Office and ask for a copy of the Nick Clegg’s birth certificate…*

* – Health-warning for for the sarcasm-impaired: that was a joke.

No doubt that was meant to be a wounding attack on Chris Huhne, but I suspect Kirkup has forgotten an article about Clegg that appeared in the Daily Mail during the general election campaign. Its introduction ran:

His wife is Spanish, his mother Dutch, his father half-Russian and his spin doctor German. Is there ANYTHING British about Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg?

Strangely, that article has disappeared from the Mail's website, but you can still read a discussion of it on Lib Dem Voice.

The moral is clear: when it comes to right-wing nutjobbery, we British can still show the Yanks a thing or two.