Clegg’s no Dave
David Blackburn 6:05pm
Nick Clegg faced a stormy Q&A session this afternoon and he isn’t in David Cameron’s league as a
performer. He struggled through tough questions on VAT, DfID, a transaction tax, AV and the appointment of Philip Green. His answers were garbled, though he did stick to the government’s
script. There was, however, one particularly damaging exchange. Clegg was heckled by a man who thought the coalition ‘lacked a mandate for its rather brutal social policies’, and added
that Clegg should get out of the coalition before it was ‘too late.’ Clegg’s response was limply pugilistic.
‘You’ve obviously got an axe to grind.” He went onto say “it’s not in my gift, and it shouldn’t be of course, any individual’s gift - not even yours, you seem very sure of yourself on these things - how people vote. Now you whether you like it or not and you clearly don’t like it what happened was that no single party got a majority.
“So we had to take a decision, 7 million people voted for the Liberal Democrats, 24% of people, we had to take a decision as a country. Do you then decide in exceptional circumstances because no one has an outright majority to ask you vote again, perhaps over and over again until someone gets an absolute majority?
“Now we can have a legitimate disagreement on that, you obviously want to go a but further and imply there was something malign in that, my judgement - which I’m very happy to justify to you again - and the judgement of other is that it wasn’t right and it wasn’t good for the country as a whole to constantly pitch the country into all the uncertainties, into a grinding series of election campaigns when we were facing a lot of great difficulties.’
Clegg is under pressure at the moment, but compare his simultaneously sanctimonious and contemptuous approach with David Cameron’s affable candour. Remember his run-in with the bellicose student at Southampton University? Cameron disagreed with her point of view calmly, without referring to axes to grind or making pompous suppositions about self-assurance. The Tories’ fear that Clegg was a thinner, shinier version of Cameron has proved wide of the mark. Then again I can’t recall Clegg referring to Gaza as a prison; everyone has off-days.
Previous
Joe
August 21st, 2010 6:21pm Report this commentSeems like a reasonable and robust response to me. Clegg is probably sick of Labour die-hards accusing him of apparently betraying the 'progressive' movement.
John Yeulett
August 21st, 2010 6:22pm Report this commentDoesn't sound too bad a response to me. You say "Clegg's no Dave" - is there some reason why he should be?
Chris
August 21st, 2010 6:52pm Report this commentPerfectly good answer, unlike the damn fool and lying reference to the Iraq war as illegal, or as you say, Dave's damn fool and lying reference to Gaza as a prison.
Richard of York
August 21st, 2010 7:07pm Report this commentPoor Clegg the kichen is getting a bit hot now. Read in the papers today that the hacks think the rumour ref the first defection is a tory plot to break the coalition.....can't be true can it?
Second thoughts they are probably right.
paulg
August 21st, 2010 7:22pm Report this commentLabour are starting to tear the lib-dems to pieces. No bad thing many people may say, but, they are painting the government in a terrible light.
We are going to have to bite the bullet and start offering the Lib-dems protection, or labour will under mine the conservative party as well.
Labour are feckless, reckless and dangerous to know - evryone should be aware that they have a political asbo, and not to let them into the argument.
davidk
August 21st, 2010 8:04pm Report this commentHe has an image problem. He's viewed as a careerist chancer who puts his own interests first, not his party's.
Hold on, that's not an image....
Mycroft
August 21st, 2010 8:13pm Report this commentStrikes me as a reasonable answer, only it would have been better if he had not made that initial remark about his questioner having an axe to grind (people will always be questioning fro some position of their own, and that doesn't make their question any less legitimate). He might also have questioned the characterizatiof the coalition's social policies as being 'rather brutal', unless he does in fact believe that they are!
Prodicus
August 21st, 2010 8:28pm Report this commentA lightweight. But lucky. For now.
AndyLeeds
August 21st, 2010 9:03pm Report this commentThe LibDems have come unstuck - badly. But it was ever going to be thus. Had they thrown in their lot with the Labour Party it would have been far worse. Propping up a party that had been so roundly defeated in the polls would have caused them far worse problems than they have at present. From a Tory point of view it have have been a good outcome.
TrevorsDen
August 21st, 2010 10:31pm Report this commentI see Cleggs response as perfectly reasonable and the questions you refer to as being predictably partial. I see Cleggs responce being forceful in pointing out the vacuity of the question.
Its sounds good to rant about 'cuts' but that is just biased propaganda. In the real world labour would be making the same cuts - failing that we would be in the middle of a sovereign debt crisis.
I am minded to say paulg is living in a totally different world to the rest of us. Polls show significant support for the govt policies.
Dave
August 22nd, 2010 8:55am Report this commentThat was a robust but perfectly valid response from Clegg who is correct to stand up to posturing pseudo-lefties. He is behaving sensibly and responsibly so far and has gone up in my estimation unlike some of the whingers and would-be wreckers in both coalition parties and the press.
Chris Morriss
August 22nd, 2010 9:51am Report this commentIt seems a perfectly reasonable and honest answer.
Might it be you who has the axe to grind David?
Fiona
August 22nd, 2010 10:41am Report this commentGood post, and from the defensive tone of many of the comments I'd say it seems to have hit a nerve.
It seems every time Clegg opens his mouth he puts his foot in it. He's like a regional sales manager promoted beyond his comfort zone - the David Brent of politics, only not at all funny. No wonder Cameron gets on with him so well, Clegg makes him look like a serious politician.
For a party which sets such store by the "new politics" and coalition working, the more we see of the Lib Dems, the more they seem like a bunch of disaffected individuals who couldn't fit in with either of the main parties. Which is a bit strange, when you consider that political parties are themselves coalitions.
They all seem totally unprepared for the "new politics", even though it was apparently their be-all and end-all. The overwhelming impression is that they are making it up as they go along.
Clegg in particular.
Maggie
August 22nd, 2010 12:49pm Report this commentClegg was very good. He was faced with a very rude unLibDemlike man who delivered a scripted diatribe. Every word Clegg said in reply was unarguably rational, logical, pragmatic and reasonable.
I would mark that exchange Clegg 10, Disgusted of Bristol 0.
firefly
August 22nd, 2010 12:54pm Report this commentThat's a perfectly reasonable response in defence of going into coalition, and furthermore it looks like you're the one with an axe to grind, Dave Blackburn, with your story of how the Q&A session went.
Clegg seemed pretty calm and in control of his responses from the section which you can see here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwTWRYoq400
If he mimicked Dave's style no doubt you'd mock him for being 'Cameron-lite'. Clegg has a lot less experience at these sessions, but he's got to defend the decisions made, and the arguments are pretty sound, whether you like him personally or not.
Verityred
August 22nd, 2010 2:47pm Report this commentNot bad at all from Clegg. Froth and splutter from Blackburn, as ever.
yank
August 22nd, 2010 3:23pm Report this commentI'm seeing Labor as mad as a hornet at the Lib Dems, because they chose another suitor.
And I'm seeing the Tories as mad as a hornet at the 24% who chose the Lib Dems over them.
Dave seems just an opportunistic poseur, grab-bagging at the opposition's previous failures. Agree with him or no, Clegg seems the only principled one in this bunch.
Paddy
August 22nd, 2010 5:06pm Report this commentIt must be terrible for Labour - sitting on the side-lines - watching Dave and Nick - making a good job of running the country.
But Labour had their chance and they blew it!
They must now 'pull their socks up'. Realise where they went wrong. Admit where they went wrong. Apologise for what they did wrong.
Be a proper opposition and stop 'sneering and sniping' at the opposition and the electorate for choosing them.
Back to top