So short politician provides clobber (5)
I believe the answer is:
thump
'clobber' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'so short politician' is the wordplay.
'so short' becomes 'thu' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'politician' becomes 'MP' (Member of Parliament).
'thu'+'mp'='THUMP'
'provides' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for thump that I've seen before include "(Sound of) heavy blow" , "Pound" , "Hit - defeat heavily" , "Whack" , "Heavy blow with the hand" .)