Nick Clegg gave his mop-up speech today after the European elections. It was an attempt to reassure his party that he has listened to their concerns, and to tell everyone else watching that he’s nowhere near giving up. Alongside his new budgetary rules, there were also three very interesting aspects of the speech worth considering:
1. The Lib Dems believe they have the moral high-ground.
There is something fascinating about the mindset of a party leader who thinks that calls to set out his core beliefs can be satisfied with the following platitudes:
- You can be fair but responsible with it.
- You can be credible without being cruel.
- You can free our children from our debts while investing in their futures too.
- We don’t write off anyone and we don’t think that politicians and governments know best.
I’ve yet to hear a politician who says ‘actually, I don’t really believe in people’ or ‘wouldn’t it be great if we were honest that being unfair is fun?’ Yet Clegg is setting up a divide with the other parties that is essentially ‘as Lib Dems we care about people, and the rest of you don’t’.
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