The sclerotic defence

Amongst the weighty matters of political debate on Liberal Democrat blogs at the moment is the question of whether “sclerotic” is too recondite a word for Nick Clegg to have used.

Stephen Tall posts a case for the defence, a view echoed by Brian Appleyard (in a post no-longer on the internet):

I would have thought that, since arteriosclerosis is so common, almost everybody would have come in contact with the word … Ignore the knockers, Nick, swallow a thesaurus that we may engorge on your recondite multiloquence.

P.S. A quiz question for Iain Dale: can you guess what word is not only used on the Conservative Party website but also been used in Parliament by Graham Brady, Douglas Carswell, Edward Gariner, Dominic Grieve, Stewart Jackson, Richard Spring, Andrew Lansley, David Ruffley, Nicholas Soames, Caroline Spelman, Andrew Tyrie, John Wilkinson, David Willetts and – in the spirit of cross-party harmony I should add – that favourite photogenic MP James Purnell? I think you can.