A benchmark for Clegg
James Forsyth 9:02am
The Lib Dem leadership result will be announced this afternoon and the general feeling in Westminster is that Nick Clegg has won, although folk aren’t ruling out an upset. The first test for Clegg will be whether he beats Chris Huhne by a more comfortable margin than Ming Campbell did in 2006, when the score in the final round was 57-42.
Clegg’s next challenge will be to seize the news agenda, something that he was surprisingly poor at during the leadership contest. As Charlie Kennedy argues in The Guardian today, Vince Cable has been particularly good at this as he did not have to worry about his long term prospects and so could instead play things for short-term gain. But Clegg will have to be prepared to take risks if he is to make an impact.
The Guardian reports this morning that Clegg will start being radical as soon as he’s crowned. His acceptance speech is apparently bold on public service reform and his reshuffle will be eye-catching. We will see. The timing of the leadership race, though, has done whoever wins no favours. Any momentum they build up over the next few days will be halted by the holidays.
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RW
December 18th, 2007 12:33pm Report this commentClegg (if indeed it is he) can be as bold, radical and eyecatching as he pleases. None of it will ever get put into practice and the minutiae of reshuffles will be of concern only to veteran LibDem watchers. Most normal people couldn't have said, if pressed, which Tweedle was which, or whether it mattered. Clegg's best chance of grabbing some headlines in the next few days is to beg the loan of Ed Balls's full Santa outfit and pose for some photo-ops.
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