Clegg kicks off the conference
James Forsyth 8:54pm
If you can judge a party’s mood by the number of bad jokes it tells, then the
Liberal Democrats are in better form than last year. Their rally to open conference was characterised by a string of appalling gags. George Osborne was a particular target with both Don Foster and
Sarah Teather trying to raise a laugh at his expense. However, several of Teather’s jokes, which moved into real bad taste territory, fell totally flat.
The main speech of the rally, though, was Nick Clegg’s. Clegg, who was welcomed with a standing ovation, made his pitch that the party was governing from the centre, for the whole country. He ran through the usual list of Lib Dem accomplishments in office, pointing out that this wasn’t bad “considering we only have five Cabinet ministers, or six if you include Ken Clarke”.
However, the least convincing part of the speech was when Clegg tried to gloss over the philosophical differences in the party: “There are those who wish to drive a wedge between us – our opponents, the vested interests in politics and the media who want to put us back in our place. They won’t succeed. Because whether you consider yourself more of a social democrat or a classical liberal, whether your hero is Gladstone or Keynes, Paddy Ashdown or Shirley Williams, we are all, to one degree or another, all of the above”. This ignores the fact that the two traditions are often not complimentary but contradictory. As I argue in the magazine this week (subscribers click here), if the Lib Dems are to achieve Clegg's goal of becoming a distinctive party of the radical centre then they are going to have to be prepared to junk some of their social democratic heritage and become a more clearly liberal party.
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2trueblue
September 17th, 2011 9:04pm Report this commentIf...?
Bedd Gelert
September 17th, 2011 9:18pm Report this commentJames, Don't come here with half a story...
Sarah Teather told some really bad taste jokes - which were ?
My favourite line is that the two factions are 'not complimentary' [sic] - you can say that again...
Frederick de Fossard
September 17th, 2011 9:59pm Report this commentI'm not going to sit through an (inevitably) appalling speech by an unknown Lib Dem to find the failed jokes. Don't be a tease, let us know.
Nicholas
September 17th, 2011 10:20pm Report this commentHe's not the Messiah he's a very naughty boy.
Colin
September 17th, 2011 10:41pm Report this commentCould we just ignore this excuse for a Circus act. They're almost irrelevant to the electorate. Come 2015, they will be irrelevant.
GiGi Franklin IV
September 17th, 2011 10:54pm Report this commentcomplimentary
I reckon you mean complementary. Come on Speccie!
Austin Barry
September 18th, 2011 12:52am Report this commentThe conference's ambiance must be very strange.
The LD's know they will vanish into historical obscurity at the next election, so what purpose exactly do these holier-than-thou, onanistic buffoons believe they are serving as they listen to the flatus of Clegg's self-serving homilies and Teather's rancid jokes?
As the late Ronnie Scott used to enjoin his punters on quiet nights at Frith Street, "Let's all join hands and contact the living".
Stepney
September 18th, 2011 5:31am Report this commentthe radical centre? What, you mean like a violent pacifist or a temperance piss-up?
Kind of sums up the air of contradictory confusion that hangs around the sandalistas, like an enduring fart in a lift.
Woody
September 18th, 2011 8:35am Report this commentI'll start taking the Lib Dems seriously when they grow up and start acting like a party in government.
These silly, juvenile, nasty jokes at their colleagues expense, are pathetic.
Heartless Perry
September 18th, 2011 9:55am Report this commentWhat other caption can there be but . .
>i> 'You put your right hand out . . . and you shake it all about . .'
(This is the caption comp isn't it? )
Rhoda Klapp
September 18th, 2011 10:12am Report this commentIs one allowed to ask about a commitment to carry on as leader for the nedium term? Or whether he views the job as a phase in his career? As a follow-up, does he intend to stay in the UK in the future, or do his plans iinclude a euro-job or other internetional post? And if so, why would I think he and I are in this together, if he has an escape route and millions of us don't?
In short, I doubt the commitment of this fly-by-night lightweight.
Chris lancashire
September 18th, 2011 10:29am Report this commentRhoda: I would be unsurprised to learn he's already got his sights set on a cushy, very lucrative EU Commissioner's job followed by a steady further clamber up the EU ladder to one day take over from the useless Ashton or the risible van Rompuy.
Now that's career planning.
David Parker
September 18th, 2011 11:39am Report this commentI think Clegg may be having second thoughts about another job with the EU. It will be a moot point which ends first, the EU or Clegg's leadership of the Lib-Dems.
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