"Clegg urges voters to ignore pre-election mud-slinging"

This headline was crying out for a re-write, but then I read the article and decided it was not necessary:

Nick Clegg has warned "a lot of mud" will be thrown in the run-up to May's election and said the Lib Dems will stand up for "optimism, not division" in the face of attacks from rivals.

In his New Year message, the deputy prime minister said his party deserved credit for "stepping up to the plate" in 2010 to form a stable government. Labour, he said, was still "in denial" about its economic legacy. And the Conservatives, he claimed, had "swerved off to the right".

So, not mud-slinging then?