Clegg thinks attacking marriage is a vote-winner. He must have a death wish

Married: Mr Clegg will use a speech today to assault David Cameron's support for marriage

Does Nick Clegg have a political death wish? Not content with getting it wrong over tuition fees, voting reform and the Brussels veto, the Deputy Prime Minister has come down spectacularly on the wrong side of the fence - this time over marriage.



No wonder his puny political party the Liberal Democrats have lost half the support they enjoyed in the general election, when, in a mercifully brief moment of madness, the country was inclined to say that it agreed with Nick.



Well, it doesn't any more. Clegg's hatchet job on marriage coincides with his worst ever personal poll ratings. According to a YouGov survey for The Sunday Times, his net satisfaction rating is now minus 55. Only 7 per cent of people see him as a strong leader; 54 per cent think him weak.



Ed Miliband may have his problems, but even he can manage minus 31. As for David Cameron, his ratings seem stratospheric by comparison - minus 6.



Clegg is like one of the Bourbon kings of France, doomed to learn nothing and forget nothing, and so to spiral ever downwards.



Today he castigated Conservative proposals to restore the tax break for marriage. These are favoured by Cameron as part of wider moves to create more stable family structures and thereby reverse the kind of social breakdown that boiled over in the shameful and terrifying spectacle of the summer riots.



One has to assume that given all the publicity about research into the benefits of marriage, Clegg knows full well that a child raised by a married couple is about four times more likely to enjoy a stable upbringing that one born to a cohabiting couple.



Wedded benefits: A child raised by a married couple is about four times more likely to enjoy a stable upbringing that one born to a cohabiting couple

Masses of other evidence, compiled by the Centre for Social Justice think-tank, shows that a child brought up by a single mother is far less likely to do well at school, enjoy good physical and mental health and steer clear of a life blighted by drink, drugs, crime and unemployment.



This is particularly true among the poorer sections of society where there is not the time nor the money for a single parent readily to compensate for the absence of a father.



But this will not stop our gap year student of a Deputy Prime Minister.



He caricatured the Conservative proposals (kept on ice because of Lib Dem opposition but still Tory policy) as a bid by Cameron to turn back the clock to the 1950s' 'model of the suit-wearing, bread-winning dad and aproned homemaking mother and try and preserve it in aspic'.



Some of this is pretty ironic since we hardly ever see Nick out of a suit and one supposes his Spanish wife Miriam has been known to don an apron to whip up a family paella.



On the other hand, she is a high-flying lawyer and famously said during the election campaign that she would not be able to take time off work to help her husband win over voters.



So maybe chez Clegg is terribly right on after all.



But Clegg is wilfully missing the point - marriage confers great benefits on individuals, children, families and wider society. It makes for stability and civilised behaviour and gives children a sense of identity and responsibility - the very thing the teenage feral louts smashing shop windows in August so patently lacked.



He is also ignoring another key point. As the charity Christian Action, Research and Education (Care) points out, the British tax system is one of the least family-friendly in the Western world. Other countries are far more generous in using the tax system to support marriage and the extra costs of bringing up children.



The Tory idea of a tax allowance that could be transferred from wife to husband and vice versa would help to make us more like other advanced societies.



Do as I say, not as I do: Clegg has missed the point - marriage makes for stability and civilised behaviour

Of course, Clegg is playing politics all over again. He sees his poll ratings nosediving so he dreams up some crackpot speech to win back some of his ever dwindling band of supporters, many of whom have already defected to Labour and some of whom have moved in Cameron's direction.



But does he seriously think that attacking marriage is going to win him any friends?



Clegg may be playing politics. The trouble is he is not very good at it.



No doubt when this stunt bombs, he will wade into other well loved institutions and individuals. Perhaps he would like to insult the Queen, suggest that Sir Bruce Forsyth be pensioned off, take away Vera Lynn's winter fuel allowance, and deport Jeremy Clarkson to a car-free island like Sark?



But then Clegg's poll ratings can only fall so far.