Politicians' gaffes: don't you love 'em? Just when a stand-in columnist is casting around for a subject on which to declaim, along comes Slick Clegg. The leader of the third party at Westminster has got himself tangled in the bed sheets over his apparent revelations about his love life.

Suddenly, the burning topic of the week among the political chatterati is exactly how many "partners" young Nick, the dirty devil, may have had. Pressed in an interview about his present and past loves, he said he'd slept with "not more than 30" women.

That he said it in a jocular fashion cuts no ice. The throwaway line has been pounced on with glee by the tabloids.

But does it matter how many nicks on bedposts are attributed to Slick? No, not really, but it does have an oblique relevance. This interview is, in fact, revealing about more than just Nick's romantic past. It speaks loudly of the zeitgeist that sees ever more youthful leaders of our political parties. No longer do we revere maturity and experience. The wisdom that comes with years is hastily disregarded for the spurious advantage of a supposedly more telegenic phizog. Yet there is an inherent folly in demanding younger and younger leaders.

Having dispensed with the services of the estimable Sir Ming Campbell, the LibDems have been hoist with their own petard in choosing a man who has now demonstrated a serious error of judgment. First, why on earth did he have any truck with a line of questioning that probed how many lovers had shared his bed, whether he was good in bed, if said lovers had complained about his performance and so on? It is inconceivable that Sir Ming, for instance, would have agreed to or tolerated such an inquisition. But I suspect young Mr Clegg was trying far too hard to show his credentials as youthful and trendy, embracing, as he did, a top-shelf men's magazine and attempting to be open with his answers. Bad call.

You'd think there might have been lessons to be learned from the past. Paddy Ashdown, sound fellow that he is, suffered ignominy on a grand scale after a sexual indiscretion; indeed, he's still referred to as Pantsdown. And leadership hopeful Mark Oaten lost out when it became known that this bastion of family values had visited male prostitutes. Lesson for Clegg? Keep sex and your private life private.

On the other hand, you might argue that Clegg is merely continuing a long and admirable Liberal tradition. After all, according to my Chambers dictionary, "liberal" is defined as "generous; broad-minded; not bound by traditional orthodoxy; free from restraint; ample; licentious in speech or action". But in sharing the details of his love life with us, he has shown himself to be more of a silly Billy than a slick Nick.