The height of hypocrisy
Fraser Nelson 4:44pm
I was right - Clegg's speech was better with the volume down. He wasn't just copying Cameron's walkabout speech tactics but also his "broken politics" analysis (itself inspired by Obama). Given his role in last week's vote on the EU referendum, it was the height of hypocrisy. He led his party to abstain, thus denying the public the say he promised them in his own manifesto. Actions speak louder than words in politics. He was forced to choose between the people (who want a referendum) and the Westminster system he affects to despise. In that vote, he showed the world where his loyalties lie. He was a key accomplice in perhaps the greatest anti-democratic stitch up for a generation. And the speed with which he tore up his pledge to back a referendum means we cant place much value on today's pledge, if that's what it is, never to enter government with Labour. I had such high hopes for Clegg. How sad to see them dashed so quickly.
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Comments
Max Kaye
March 9th, 2008 5:12pmFraser, Why did you ever have any hopes whatsover for Nick Clegg?
Sadly, it seems to me that people who are professionally involved in political commentary tend to 'go native' and start believing that politicians are normal, straight-forward people who can be trusted to say what they'll do and do what they say. Example: Nick Clegg is a Liberal Democrat - which by definition means that his political instincts are to tax, control and nanny, combined with innate untrustworthiness and a mean streak. Why did you ever consider that he would be anything other than what he is? Tut tut.
Anan
March 9th, 2008 5:15pmSo Fraser you mean you actually fell for this loser's tricks? Oh my. I am truly surprised, and disappointed.
Praguetory
March 9th, 2008 5:16pmIn his first few months Calamity Clegg made no impact. He's certainly made on over the last week - a negative one - still its seems to have won him the support of the Beeb.
RW
March 9th, 2008 5:54pmWhat a loser. If he's lucky Clegg will last until the Christmas pantomime season, when the LibDems stage their traditional turn of year political entertainment bash, "Off with the Leader's Head!" Huhne must be delighted, and busily sharpening the meat cleaver. "He's where?" "HE'S BEHIND YOU, NICK!" "Aaaarrrrgh!"
David
March 9th, 2008 5:55pmCould someone explain what a pluralist approach to government that rejects working with Labour or the Conservatives means? Anyone?
Oscar Miller
March 9th, 2008 6:45pmI've just heard a pretty sycophantic profile of Clegg by John Kampfner for R4. What particularly surprised me was the claim he could have been a professional actor. Really? Not judging by today's performance he couldn't. Still - he seems to have all the right friends in the media who big him up regardless. The gap between the public and the policial class gets ever wider.
Faceless Bureaucrat
March 9th, 2008 6:47pmQuite so, RW - does anyone know what odds politicalbetting.com are offering on Clegg going BEFORE Christmas? - you understandably identify Huhne, but we shouldn't totally rule out Vince Cable - Huhne was a complete sock-puppet on 'Any Questions' last week and very disappointing in his responses. Still, you have to work with what you are given, I suppose...
salieri
March 9th, 2008 7:59pmHuhne (from the German, 'chicken') gave an exceptionally nasty performance on 'Any Questions', with that special blend of censorious bluster, sarcasm, complacency and pontification which we have come to associate with people who sneer at others to evade examination of their own vacuity. If he does have his own agenda, he is still quite happy to hide it behind Cleggie's - a double hypocrisy.
Lee Jakeman
March 9th, 2008 8:50pmClegg's a traitor. Not that that's unusual in the House of Commons. Come back, Guido - all is forgiven.
Chuck Unsworth
March 9th, 2008 8:53pmHow long before Cable is 'persuaded'? But he's altogether shrewder than Huhne and Clegg - combined.
Simon Maynard
March 9th, 2008 9:59pmLike Fraser I too had high hopes for Clegg. He is firmly in the Orange Book camp; both an economic and social liberal. Had he led the Lib Dems successfully he may have been able to play a significant role in re-orientating the political consensus towards a lower tax economy (and perhaps a freer society).
David Lindsay
March 9th, 2008 10:12pmNick Clegg is just facing reality. Neither Labour nor the Tories would touch the Lib Dems as a coalition partner.
Whereas, in the (quite likely) event of a hung Parliament, those two socially, culturally and politically indentical and interdependent rump organisations would go into coalition with each other without a second thought.
And, just as in the extremely improbable event of an outright Tory victory, nobody would be able to tell the slightest difference.
So the Lib Dems, as a party, might as well disband now. Their existence depends on the fantasy that they would matter in a hung Parliament. They would not.
James
March 9th, 2008 10:17pmStrange how a party calling itself Liberal Democrats is neither. Then I wonder what the Conservatives wish to conserve and Lady Hodge demonstrated how close to the Labouring classes Labour is in her recent TV interview.
Fergus Pickering
March 10th, 2008 8:45amEver since Jeremy anted to ally with the Tories and wasn't allowed to the Liberals, with or without democrat tagged onto the end, have just been Labourites under another name. They are like the ancient Athenians, always eager for some new thing. And they can't THINK at all. God knows what Cable's doing with this bunch of fools.
salieri
March 10th, 2008 9:36pmI wonder if Peter Jones would agree that the Athenians were always eager for something new? I had always imagined them to be conservatives (with a small 'c'). It was Africa ex which semper aliquid novi, wasn't it? Perhaps we should consult Tiberius.
mr crimp
March 11th, 2008 6:40pmThere is somthing very 1980's student socialist about Clegg - especially his hairstyle.