Sir Nick Clegg taking a leading role at Facebook has attracted some predictable venom on social media. I have no one view or the other about Nick Clegg: I have never met him. I think William Hague was right when he said that going into coalition with the Conservatives finished off the Liberal Democrats. That's unfortunate if it is the case as they are a useful balancing flywheel in British politics.
What interests me is the more general phenomenon, the fact that for leading politicians (or even not so leading ones), a career in politics, even a relatively short one, leads to a good job afterwards. Has this become the real objective?
In all fairness it should be pointed out that politicians are dropping out at a much younger age these days. It's no longer the case that all they have time to do is to write their autobiography before they pop their clogs. Harold Macmillan prolonged the process by producing a multiple volume autobiography, but then he did have a stake in a publishers.
Actually, Dave Cameron seems to be having a fairly relaxed time in his shepherd's hut, but he was always one for chilling out. He is also heading a fund to improve transport links between China and its trading partners.
If I had a garden like that, I would want to spend time enjoying it
William Hague is actually also chilling out a lot of the time in his lovely home in Wales with its superb garden and fantastic recently completed library. However, he does write for the Daily Telegraph and is consultant to a couple of companies. I wonder if Ffion will ever go into politics?
Sir Danny Alexander is vice-president of the Asian Infrastructure Bank. But the prize really has to go to George Osborne who has something like seven jobs, admittedly some of them very part-time.
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