Has Clegg got what it takes?
Fraser Nelson 3:46pm
After perhaps the quietest leadership race in recent political history the Spectator/Threadneedle Newcomer of the Year has not disappointed us. I thought Nick Clegg would win by a mile: in the end his 510 votes are testimony what was (in my view) a superior campaign by Huhne (whom I underestimated). But the real winner was Vince “killer” Cable, who has had just enough limelight to shine and not so much that he’s had time to flop. He’s an economic expert on the economics brief: it shows what happens in the rare occasion where politicians have some expertise in their given area. There’s talk that Huhne would have moved Cable. I agree with Andrew Rawnsley that this would have been madness. He’s earned a senior role in the party. No one else lands punches like him.
The Tories are more relaxed about Clegg than I’d be in their shoes. “We need the LibDems to be irrelevant,” a Shadow Cabinet member told me last week, “And Clegg will oblige. He’s a mummy’s boy, not a fighter.” Now, votes are cast so early in the LibDem leadership race that Clegg had little incentive to fight. He may yet surprise us. We have not yet seen what he's made of.
When I met Clegg to record his acceptance ahead of our awards lunch (he was in Newcastle on the day for the head-to-head debate with Huhne) we spoke about the rather embarrassing revival in his party’s poll ratings – from 11% to 20%. He joked that the LibDems were like the Italian economy: doing best when no one is in charge. It’s now up to him to disprove his own theory.
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David Lindsay
December 18th, 2007 4:06pm Report this commentFirst the Tories pick a Blair clone, and now the Lib Dems pick a clone of that. Does anyone in the Political Class realise that Blair was, shall we say, not quite universally loved? Watch the figures for dedicated abstainers (factored out for headline purposes by the polling companies) shoot up after this, and possibly approach fifty per cent by the time that the Election comes. That's a hell of a lot of votes just waiting to be picked up. But will anyone bother?
Austin Barry
December 18th, 2007 4:35pm Report this commentFor one, almost facile, reason this result does present a problem for Brown: Clegg and Campbell form the youthful base of a triangle where Broon with his bulk, gloomy obsidian features and renovated teeth appears to be not so much the embodiment of gravitas, as a grumpy old geezer with incipient senility ("Er..now where did I put those personal records).
Austin Barry
December 18th, 2007 4:36pm Report this commentFor one, almost facile, reason this result does present a problem for Brown: Clegg and Campbell form the youthful base of a triangle where Broon with his bulk, gloomy obsidian features and renovated teeth appears to be not so much the embodiment of gravitas, as a grumpy old geezer with incipient senility ("Er..now where did I put those personal records?").
David Lindsay
December 18th, 2007 6:46pm Report this comment"a grumpy old geezer with incipient senility" - but that's a lot of people who can vote, and a very high proportion of those who actually do. I always said that the Grumpy Old Men Christmas Special should feature the Cabinet: Brown, Darling, Hain, Browne... It would be hilarious.
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