Best and worst of the campaign: Nick Clegg
Peter Hoskin and David Blackburn 4:41pmClegg's best moment: the first TV debate
No one could have predicted that 90 minutes of television would have such an impact. But this election has been dominated by the strange re-birth of Liberalism, engendered by Nick Clegg's performance in the first TV debate. Television is a medium determined by empathy. Clegg embodied the frustration and contempt that many voters feel for the two established parties, and he expressed his alternative vision with ease and clarity in contrast to Cameron and Brown's garbled debate. The nation swooned.
Honourable mention: being the first leader to undergo a Paxman interview.
Clegg's worst moment: the immigration question in the third TV debate
Before we reached the immgration question in the third TV debate, it was all going to plan for Nick Clegg. He had managed to keep his distance from a bloody scrap between Brown and Cameron, and stuck by the same script which had given his party a ten point boost in the polls. But then it came to defending his amnesty policy for illegal immigrants, and all he could come up with was a fistful of obfuscations. "Shadows of the economy," he croaked, before pointing with scattershot urgency at "nasty criminal gangs." Regardless of the policy behind the rhetoric, it just didn't sound convincing - and Clegg soon wobbled over the edge by mixing up his statistics. A vignette, perhaps, of what can happen when Lib Dem policies are dragged under the spotlight.
Honourable mention: the Lib Dem's limp campaign launch.
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Sir Graphus
May 6th, 2010 4:54pm Report this commentWas this before or after the moment he tried desperately to deny he ever advocated the Euro?
paulg
May 6th, 2010 5:16pm Report this commentClegg only won the first debate because he caught the other two cold and, started hitting below the belt from the off.
Painting himself and his party of odd bods as refreshing. He was a F****** shambles in the last debate, found out and found wanting: held to account for policies that could have been dreamed up by Himmler wearing six inch high heels and lip stick.
His name will stand as a metaphor for an expletive of hubris and stupidity.
I thought at one stage when asked about the economy - an issue he clearly knew nothing about - he was going to burst into a Judy Garland song - to sing his way out of trouble.
With a tear in his eye and a lump in his throat(probably crow) he looked pathetic.
AKA Jorge
May 6th, 2010 5:46pm Report this commentHey Mr Blackburn what's happened to the foregoing one on Brown. Has it been the subject of a preemptive strike by the Mandelson-Campbell reaction force and could this be their last stoke in history?
Nicholas
May 6th, 2010 6:11pm Report this comment"There they go again" just before he began the same knockabout with Cameron must be one of Clegg's most disingenuous remarks.
His oily innuendo that somehow he was not one of the "old parties" making the "same old mistakes" was repulsive but no doubt many of the brain dead morons populating this country fell for it.
Michael Booth
May 6th, 2010 6:15pm Report this commentThis isn't a rebirth of Liberalism, it is a resurgence of left-wing social democracy.
THX1138
May 6th, 2010 6:24pm Report this commentpaulg according to a poll I saw in The Times (I think) 64% of undecided voters said that Clegg one the last debate.. Are you voting Tory by any chance?
Snowman
May 6th, 2010 6:28pm Report this commentNicholas:
what's wrong with you? It's politics, everything goes, and if it goes to show the other two squabbling, so what?
It went much better than I expected, I reckon, since I expected nothing.
jaybs
May 6th, 2010 6:46pm Report this commentFrom the start I have always seen Nick Clegg as a schoolboy debater, now he sounds more like a used car salesman who gas got far too much confidence.
To think that the bookies are taking odds of Clegg being deputy PM, can you think of anyone worse! What has shocked me in the campaign is how nasty some LibDem posters on websites have become, are these the ones who joined only as the campaign got underway, at least the party once had integrity, when it accepted it would never have power and came up with policies, similar to how I started like a school debate.
Nicholas
May 6th, 2010 7:05pm Report this commentSnowman, what's wrong with me? I was born, educated and conditioned in a country that no longer exists, to strive for goals for which the posts have been moved, to conform to values that are now despised and discredited.
Plus, the LibDems are only slightly less repulsive to me than New Labour.
stephen
May 6th, 2010 7:24pm Report this commentJust caught a trailer for the new Dr Who ahead of news at 6. It srtuck me the Clegg personna on TV rather resembles the new Dr Who. Geeky hypertensive and a tad weird. Maybe I have been watching too much Sci Fi!
paulg
May 6th, 2010 7:24pm Report this commentTHx113 as I have been saying for a while the Times and the Guardian are bought in bulk for care homes catering for the brain dead. Its the only explaination for the statistics you cite.
And as strange as it may seem I'm voting green with the gay lads down in Brighton.
paulg
May 6th, 2010 7:30pm Report this commentActually my last post is not strictly true I don't live in brighton- thus not eligible to vote there.
Holly ......
May 6th, 2010 7:38pm Report this commentThe best....today.My TV is Clegg free!!!!
The worst...Nick Clegg.
Sanctimonious little shoot.
Sue Jennings
May 6th, 2010 7:52pm Report this commentI think Clegg has certainly done an impressive job of making the lib dems a credible party. I think his popularity has a lot to do with his age and possibly generation. Generation is actually really important. This piece in the Independent the other day (http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/jonathan-pontell-cleggs-rise-is-the-sound-of-generation-jones-clearing-its-throat-1961191.html) addresses the leaders’ generations. The main point is that Clegg and Cameron are both part of the emerging generation between the Boomers and Xers: Generation Jones - this generation that is characteristically idealistic and pragmatic is taking over all across the West, with leaders like Obama and Sarkozy all in that generation.
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