It must be Clegg

C Powell

Clegg may look like a Cameron but as one middle-class Southern voter I would not vote for the Liberals while they still have their ludicrous tax policies: local income tax, for God's sake, as if we don't already have 2 income taxes already but with only one income to pay for it, plus even higher rates of tax plus endless green taxes. Not to mention the anti-middle class policies of the LDs at local council level. DC has an opportunity if he sticks with his policies and shows how they make people better off instead of - like the other 2 - seeing the middle classes as one giant wallet to be raided at will. Huhne is smug and sanctimonious; so what's the betting that's whom they'll choose.

simon

Oh dear Fraser. Clegg is posh so he will appeal to Tories. You might remember he recently called for an amnesty for illegal immigrants - sounds like a dream come true for Dave. The Libs wont do better with this poor mans Dave.

Og

After Foggy, it had to be Cleggy. Unless they go for Norm Baker, aka Compo.....

ChrisD

Will Clegg wow enough voters across the country to stop voters wanting to change the government?

emma2000

It wasn't Ming's actual age, he is the same age as me but seems to be from a different generation, how did he miss the 60s? he looked 20 years older than he was. Still I think his Party has treated him very badly so let us hope the election of a new leader will entertain us as much as the last one.

Fraser Nelson

Simon, this is the paradox about Clegg. He looks and sounds like a Tory - but politically he's in the mainstream of LibDem (ie, left wing). And read Matt's original article about Clegg to see his other credentials - esp saying LibDems can't go on hammering Middle England for tax. This is why he's more dangerous than Kennedy, Ming or Huhne.

Kevin

Can you expand on what you mean by "volatile" and "exciting". There are certain fundamental flaws in our civilisation that do not look like being corrected this side of a devastating exogenous shock (such as a military invasion). Liberalism - the political wing of violent crime - rules the roost in Westminster. Condign punishment will never be restored as a principle. Confiscation and political patronage will never be replaced by just taxation and voluntary charity. Erroneous philosophical concepts such as human rights and the definition of hatred - as opposed to assault with sticks and stones - as a crime will continue to go unchallenged. Christianity and the English people will continue to be undermined. The European Union will continue to rule us. Given such tight constraints, what room is there for either volatility or excitement?

Ash

The Lib Dems had no choice but to advise their leader to go. The media wouldn't let up on the age thing. Why won't the media in this county ever admit any responsibility. I am a journalist and it makes me ashamed. We are not above criticism!

Lee Jakeman

There's a big factory in Birmingham that manufactures politicians. People don't like these politicians because they're mass produced, cheap, commonplace and all look and sound the same. There used to be another factory, in Bristol, I think it was, where politicians were hand-made. Each one was original, unique and, unlike their mass-produced counterparts, rare and expensive. In keeping with our egalitarian, progressive society, the Bristol factory was closed down years ago, which is why all of our leaders today are mediocrities, looking and sounding as if they've all come off the same assembly line.

Scary Biscuis

Matthew is making the common mistake that politics is all about personality and gossip. Sometimes it seems that way but, underneath, issues still matter too. The issue facing the Liberal is which of the two main parties is their main enemy. They cannot continue to fight on two fronts. It was this realisation that did for Charles Kennedy. The neither-one-thing-nor-the-other-but-something-inbetween strategy pioneered by the two Davids had gone as far as it could and it was Kennedy's failure to find a new direction that was the underlying problem that led to his definistration. His drinking was merely the excuse. The choice before the Liberals is whether they continue to be effectively Labour's auxilary troop, a strategy which has served them well for the last 20 years, or whether they now turn their guns on Labour instead. Viscerally, most Liberals would much rather see a Labour government than a Conservative one and this is their core problem, preventing them from behaving rationally. Because it is this philosophical closeness that actually makes Labour their true enemy. Despite their dreams, they cannot replace the Tories as the second party of Britain because there is no room in our politics for two left wing main parties. They can only replace Labour. There is a reasonable chance that Labour will self-destruct over the next few years and there will be an opporunity for a new party to replace them. In fact, this would just be a return to the status quo pro ante, before Labour arrived on the scene and squeezed out the Liberals. If the Liberals choose Clegg then all the charisma in the world isn't going to persuade the Tory core vote to abandon right-wing politics. And as people increasingly tire of Labour, then that core is likely to swell considerably. Alternatively, if they choose a leftie, then they have the chance of overtaking Labour to reclaim their place as the mainstream 'progressive' party.

DaveyB

Fortunately for the Tories, the Lib Dem membership are usually to the far left of the leadership, as witnessed by embarrassing motions they keep passing at their conference.

They have a one member one vote system.I think they may regard Clegg is too right wing and pick someone like Huhne who more fits into their sandal wearing muesli prejudices.

Remember people don't become members of the Lid Dems for the ruthless pursuit of power at all costs. Those people all joined New Labour in the 90s.

RogerS

I think the problem for Ming and the Lib Dems was and is that the media simply refuse to even discuss their policies. It was quite clear that the changes in Inheritance Tax, stamp duty and taxing the plane not passengers were aired by the Lib Dems long before the Tories thought about them.It is also clear that the public never understood Local Income Tax was a replacement for Council Tax and is based on the ability to pay as all Tax should be. The media does not recognise the need for a third party, it makes reporting just that little bit harder work. A fair voting system would make the whole thing just a little more interesting. Let's hope the Lib Dems totally ignore the press and pick someone they prefer, not someone the press can continue ignore.

RobC

Why MUST it be Clegg? Do we have to accept orders from the media now. The Times roared at us yesterday that we need to pick someone who supports market economics and has a social conscience and Clegg is that man. Excuse me, if I wanted that I may as well be a Blairite or wet Tory. Instead we should consider someone who can build on the more radical agenda staked out in the last two years under Ming Campbell and put this across to prospective voters. Labour have abandoned all pretence to being a radical party. True they spend a lot of our money ineffectively but at the same time they see fit to reduce Capital gains tax on short term speculators to 18% while substantially increading the burden of tax on the low paid. There is room for a left of centre party that does not rely on big government and authoritarian policies and the Lib Dems should be that alternative.

David Lindsay

What does the Tory Right now owe David Cameron? What did it ever? Nothing. Whereas Nick Clegg is posh enough and right-wing enough to stop the shift in support from the Lib Dems to the Tories, and he's posh enough and right-wing enough to alienate those who have in recent years shifted to the Lib Dems from Labour. To counter him, the Tories won't find anyone posher than Cameron, simply because no one possibly could be. But they'd have no trouble finding someone more right-wing. Cameron is finished.

DaveyB

Phew!

If Lib Dem activists share the views of RobC I think the Tories can breath a sigh of relief!

Go on pick Lembit, you know you want to!

John Whitworth

What the Tory Right owe David Cameron is a lead in the opinion polls, something they had only fleetingly under John Major, and never under William Hague or Ian Duncan Smith or Michael Howard. Not that I am any real judge, but isn't Cameron rich rather than posh? Eton doesn't mean posh. Boris isn't posh and surely Mick Jagger junior isn't posh. Ming Campbell strikes me as posh. And Lord Carrington, if you can remember him. Posh in spades, I should have said.

Tina Louise

All the left/right/centrist references have nothing to do with why I will vote for Nick Clegg or why I joined the party (just last year and the first political party I have ever joined). I see the Liberal Democrats as the alternative to a system of government that is over-powered, lies, spins, manipulates and has no relationship with the public. Nick Clegg in particular is someone who has answered my queries - one of the few out of all the parties who did. He has answered in a frank and honest way - straightforward responses with no sign of 'wriggle room'. When I look to the two main parties and the politicians within them - I recognise none as having any idea of how 'we the people' actually live. I hear nothing from them that sounds at all like normal speech - they are abstract, disjointed and unrelated to my life. Not all voters are pondering if they are left, right, a bit left, a bit right or anything else - some of us are just hoping to find a politician who looks and sounds a bit more like us - someone who may just 'get' what it is we need to improve the lives of the majority, someone who will not spin every line, someone who will answer a question straight, someone who will not treat the public like fools to be played....for me, Nick Clegg is the nearest to that, that I have seen. Namaste, Tina Louise