Clegg blames the Tory Eurosceptics

Bill Rees

It's never wise to backtrack on an initial opinion, unless you can demonstrate that the facts have changed in such a way as to invalidate your earlier view.
Clearly they haven't, and Clegg ends up looking weak and ridiculous.
But maybe he has decided to set out his CV for a Commissioner's role in the EU.

Julian F

Good heavens! A political leader who represents the views of his democratically elected MPs who are, in turn, in tune with the views of the electorate. Very un-European of Cameron. Clegg is looking increasingly ridiculous, having changed his stance on this matter and implying that Cameron should have represented the views of the one party that emphatically lost the 2010 election rather than his own. Time for a snap general election, methinks.

Rhoda Klapp

Ask may be a noun in Australia, but we have request.

fergus pickering

Clegg's a fool. But then he's a Liberal Democrat.

Right On

Who cares - never seen so much naval gazing from politicians battling for their own wishes.

The facts are simple. The Euro is a disaster and needs drastic action to save it - that will require a stronger fiscal and eventually a political union, I can't see how that doesn't lead to at least a partial break up of the EU.

We need to restructure our relationship and focus on getting our tax rates down and becoming more competitive, that'll allow us to focus our attention on trading with emerging markets.

No amount of nonsense from Clegg, Ashdown or anyone else will change the fundamentals of the argument. There is a place for the UK as part of a looser EU, but not a more integrated one!

Andy H

Shouldn't Clegg tell us he has a vested interest in the EU?

In fact should not the BBC ensure his position be declared prior to an interview that he has a personal interest in the EU?

paulo anonymous

Clegg needs to be upfront about his personal EUSSR relationship CONFLICT OF INTERESTS before shooting his mouth off in this fashion.

He also needs to be aware that he represents the MINORITY, and a small one at that, in this coalition. Even smaller if you look at the polls.

I for one hope he over plays he poor hand and precipitates a coalition breakup. I do believe the Conservatives could win an outright victory if they listened to the Patriotic 81 Eurosceptics and promised a referendum in any manifesto.

(I'm a UKIP voter)

jheath

Perhaps Mr Clegg should now ask for a referendum to show that his view has the majority support of the UK public.

Slim Jim

Would you trust this man with your life savings? Would you buy a second-hand car from him? Of course not! Clegg is the epitome of the mealy-mouthed, weasel word politician who will never give a straight and honest answer. If I were David Cameron, I would show this waste of space, oxygen and skin the door. He and his ilk need a hefty dose of reality. Election now!

Nicholas

This and his "leaked" comments show just what a mischief making and selfishly ambitious man he is. He stands on the sidelines carping and criticising, as bad as Milliband in trying to exploit misfortune and jump on any passing bandwagon and yet he is the Deputy Prime Minister. Incredible. If anyone really deserves electoral oblivion it is this irritating individual (and Huhne of course).

Jannie Geldenhuys

It's pretty obvious Cameron WAS caught bewteen Sarko and his backbenchers. Isnt this just a simple fact?

As to the 6 negotiating items, in any negotiation you go in with things you are willing to give up to get the things you want. So if they asked for 6 it's bcause they wanted to get 3 or 4. But Sarko refused to negotiate at all.

It's time to analyse Sarko's motives in a bit more detail. The reality is that Sarko has used Cameron to create a smokescreen to divert domestic French attention from the remarkable chunk of French sovereignty Sarko gave up on Thursday night. This is electoral poison for him - Marine Le Pen will have a field day with it and Sarko desparately needed to create a different story. Cameron was it.

Rhoda Klapp

And might I add that Clegg is a complete weasel and so is Marr for not holding his feet to the fire.

WetherspoonThree

Now that Sarkzoy and Merkel have dealt with 'perfidious Albion' I wonder if they will now find time to devote all their energies to sorting out the Euro mess. Or perhaps its already too late and last week's spat was borne of deep frustration, an acknowledgement that they lack the resources and the political will to put in place a viable rescue. I wonder when Europe will forgive the UK for having the temerity to shun their broken and ill-conceived currency?

TGF UKIP

I was intrigued to see who was going to be first to be appeased - Sarko, Miss Piggy and Lithuania or Clegg, Cable and the BBC. I guess the last line of James' post provides a pretty clear indication of Downing Street's intended order of play. Clegg and his gang first first and then Sarko etc.

James Strong

Negotiating entails being willing to leave the table if there is nothing worthwhile coming from the other side.
Cameron was right.
Any critic, including Clegg, should say what he would have done.

Lloydj

Good point just made by a Harvard Prof. on the 'box'
'in a negotiation if you always agree you effectively have no negotiating power'
So leaving the table with a veto does the opposite of isolating you!!
It increases your influence in the next meeting.

Andrew SW18

This not a cry of pain.

This is an embarrassing attempt to revive Clegg's application to be a European Commissioner when Ashton quits.

Mudplugger

Clegg is right to blame the Eurosceptics.
Cameron is right to fear the Eurosceptics.
The Eurosceptics are right.

Now let's get right on with the exit strategy.

Mycroft

I've always been willing to give Clegg the benefit of the doubt, but his behaviour over this issue has been simply contemptible (whatever one's view of the rights and wrongs of Cameron's decision). He's certainly not the sort of man I'd want at my side in any joint enterprise, you'd always have to be looking over your shoulder to see he's stab you in the back if his own personal position became awkward in any way. To begin with, I confess, I preferred the coalition to having single-party government, but now I've had it with the LDs for ever and a day, I wouldn't touch them with a barge-pole, they simply can't be trusted. And this after Cameron has leant over backwards to cater to their sensibilities and interests, putting up with any amount of nonsense from some of them on the way.

daniel maris

Hmmm...a difficult one for the Lib Dems to spin. So Clegg is saying he is prepared to let the PM go against the country's vital national interests without so much as a protest, and continue to prop up this government, even though it is bad for the UK?

Ghengis

Clegg appears to be hoisted upon the petard raised by the difference between fact and spin.

DavidDP

It strikes me as rather worrying that when the leader of a foreign power says he wants to punish the UK, a leading UK politician sides with him.

Lomax

Ah, poor old Clegg. He makes Private Pike look like a fearsome soldier. Cameron should call an immediate election NOW or give us the referendum (Question: Should Britain leave the EU - Yes or No) That way the British public (remember them any of the political/commentariat elites?) can decide what we want.

Irascible Old Git

As well as insisting that future negotiations have to be conducted in a more conciliatory manner, Clegg also said that the Tories had 'won the last General Election'

What a fantasy world the man inhabits.

strapworld

Andy H takes up what I have been asking for months. It is time that an MP asks the question, or raises it as a point of order. "Does the Deputy Prime Minister have a pecuniary interest in the EU and if so why does he fail to decalre it every time he makes a comment on the EU"

Malfleur

General election now!

The Oncoming Storm

Tomorrow Cameron should take Clegg into his office, show him the latest polls and ask him if he wants an election. If he says no then he should tell him to just STFU.

TGF UKIP

Andy H, regarding Clegg's financial interest in the EU, I was hoping to put a question on this to Denis Cooper, the usual resident CH authority on EU matters but unfortunately, Denis doesn't appear to be around at present.

I have seen several assertions previously that Clegg was the beneficiary of a "pension" in respect of his EU service though I note that in the Members' Register his only entry is in respect of a gift of lifetime membership of the LibDems.

Now whether he is in receipt of payment or has simply left any entitlement vested, he is still a beneficiary and it would be extraordinary if he were not obliged to declare it, or indeed be asked about it by Marr - fat chance, there though!

Additionally, I have also seen it asserted that such EU beneficiaries are obliged not to be derogatory about the Union, as a condition.

In Denis's absence, I would be greatly obliged if you, or any other CHer, could provide some illumination on the matter.

Mirtha Tidville

Nauseatingly (BBC Speak you understand) Clegg says he would have been acting differently because he isnt under pressure from his backbenchers and/or supporters....Oh really then why the weekend about turn....pray do tell us we are all ears

Mudplugger

Andy H and strapworld have a point....

Perhaps it should be a legal requirement for all such cash-bound politicos to pre-fix any public utterance on the EU with, "Speaking as one in receipt of a conditional EU pension......"

That would apply, not only to Clegg, but also to Mandelson, Huhne, the Kinnocks and even Chris Patten at the BBC - so maybe all his spinning BBC newsreaders should also use the pre-fix on his behalf.

Julian F

Ghengis at 11.27: A felicitous turn of phrase. I can see myself commadeering it (in private exchanges of course).

WIlliam Blakes Ghost

This is getting so tiresome. The Libdems agree to something (Tuition Fees, NHS Reforms, AV Referendum and now the EU) and what happens when they don't like the outcome?

They spit their dummies out of their prams, stamp their feet and skweem and skweem and skweem that they might take their ball home all over our TV screens (and when they are not they seem to do nothing but whine and sulk). I used to think that the Libdems were nothing more than overgrown student politicians but they are not even that mature. The Libdems are nothing more than over-aged petulant, often hysterical problem children who really need to grow up!

The electorate have already given them a slap and sent them off to the naughty step twice (in the AV referendum and in last years local elections). If they keep this up they could find they end up on that naughty step for a lot longer. We do not need childish hysterics ( or self indulgent irrelevences such as the AV referendum)in the middle of this economic crisis particularly where the politicians in question are at odds with the will of the people (and that pathetic line about no parliamentary majority line being used by the Libdems is such utter hypocrisy).

If there was just one overriding thing we have learnt over the last 18 months it is that the Libdems are not fit to govern!!!!

Furthermore, if they continue with such infantile behaviour then many of us will start wishing they do take their ball home and we can then relegate them to the political hinterlands where they belong for decades to come and leave the government to the grown-ups (hmmmm?). Then finally perhaps we can get on with building the recovery. The Libdem hysterics are an unnecessary and unwanted distraction!

Axstane

To some extent the sentiments were not actually Clegg's. Some were assumptions by Marr which Clegg did not handle at all well. That is because he really has no idea what to say.

It is unlikley that he or any LibDems are going to be part of government after May 3rd.

MagicAldo

What was most objectionable about said interview was Mr Marr's reference to it as "unsuccessful". This showed a disgraceful lack of impartiality.

ButcombeMan

Clegg:
" Cameron wouldn’t have been able to get a deal through the Commons because of ‘the intransigence of the Tory party."

Nick Clegg seems to have slipped into a peculiarly European attitude to democracy. That Nick, is how democracy works, those Tory MPs were voted for by the electorate, get over it.

The LibDems and Ashdown are in never never land, the British people (across all political parties) are against, and will always be against, "ever closer union".

That is what all the UK tension is about and what it has always been about.

Standing alone in Europe is something we have done before, we should not be ashamed or worried about doing it again.

What is more, some other population blocks either feel the same or will come to feel the same as democracy is seen to wither.

.

Richard Dell

The reason for this is painfully obvious. It is dawning on Clegg that he is an irrelevance. He knows that at the next election the voters will also see the LibDems as irrelevant when hard decision need taking.

How could it be any other way for a party that has never had to deal with reality (and so could promise enything) for 90 years? Clegg may have looked in the mirror this morning and seen a paper tiger and jerk.

He also sees his own party splitting between the professionals like Danny Alexander and wets like Paddy Ashdown. Hence the intemperate strop. It won't placate either side, it will just weaken his position in almost everyone's eyes. "Keep your mouth shut and merely look like a fool. Open it and leave no doubt" - Dennis Thatcher

Heartless P.

In that case WELL DONE THE TORY EUROSCEPTICS!

Augustus

You'd think that Clegg would have enough sense to be disappointed that the reasons for the eurocrisis (the profligate countries) wasn't adequately dealt with. But instead he appears to be disappointed only in the fact thay his own country hasn't been offered up to the bureaucrats in
Brussels.

Radford NG

Clegg was elected as MEP for East Midlands in 1999.I noted-down the voting figures(in thousands):Con 285/Lab 206/Lib Dem 92/UKIP 54.~~~~~Clegg,reputedly,is worth nearly £2million(Mail on Sunday 29 May 2010--23of29 Cabinet members are millionaires).

Woody

Just when I thought the Lib Dems were beginning to look like a party in government, they resort to their infantile name calling and navel gazing.

Nick Clegg should have stuck to his original comments, which he made on Friday. They were measured and fairly reasonable, now he has thrown all that away because he came under pressure 'from his head-bangers.'

Verity

Jannie Geldenhuys - Astute post. Thanks.

Hexhamgeezer

For Clegg, British interests are purely those determined or agreed in Brussels.

Dennis Churchill

fergus pickering
December 11th, 2011 10:48am
Clegg is not a fool but he does receive a revocable pension from the EU and possibly dreams of the day he can leave our island and live with his family in Spain.
Spain is one of the many EU countries with a deep and long history of democracy, as you will recall.

Verity

Ghengis 11:27 - Your knowledge of warfare doesn't match your nom de blog. A petard it not a flag. It was an explosive device affixed to barricades, city gates or similar.

Valerunner

Dennis Churchill.
If Clegg's pension is revocable, on what grounds could it be revoked?

Boudicca

Perhaps Clegg is also smarting from the latest ComRes Poll - which put UKIP 1% above the LibDims.

Bye bye Cleggy.

Herbert Thornton

The Wet Tory/Even Wetter Liberal coalition was somewhat strange to begin with, but now it looks even stranger.

noel

why does no one highlight the fact that the tories are the leading british party in europe , followed by UKIP and only then labour

surely therefore they represent the mainstream of uk opinion in europe!!!!

labour and the lib dems comment on these issues like it is they who hold the popular opinion on europe - but they cannot possibly as they were blown away in the last european elections !!!!

Carlos

Sarko has obviously been on the blower to Clegg

Cynic

Clegg has just seen the prospects of his EU Commission job and his wonderful EU pension being diminished. He is so out of touch with the Zeitgeist of the electorate that it's laughable.

Kevin

Clegg is missing an opportunity. Cameron's veto should be the first blow in a European Spring.

Yes, we can still forge alliances on the Continent - with the peoples of Europe that have repeatedly voted against the EU in referenda.

xenophon

Right On, 10:52

Navel gazing. Naval gazing is what sailors do.

fergus pickering

I didn't know they could take away his pension. Is that what Sarko said to him? Not a fool then, just a man who' sell his granny for cash.

Capn Flint

The Germans are not fooled by Merkozy's ploy. Most newspaper reader comments highlight the failure of the summit to address the burning problem of the eurozone, and Merkel's ludicrously overdone steamrollering of Cameron. ('All these idiotic financial taxes just dreamt up in the Berlin Finanzministerium.'...'That has helped us how, exactly, Frau Merkel?')

Colin Cumner

Eurosceptic? Yes, well I am one of those, Mr. Clegg - tell me what's been so great for Britain since she joined this so-called 'union'? Funny, the silence is deafening.