Gordon MacMillan,  UK Politics,  Uncategorized

Spectator takes a bite out of Nick Clegg. We laughed.

It is not often I would care to say this, but The Spectator has summed up Nick Clegg in so few words that it seems perfectly rude not to share them.This was shared in the office and we laughed. I don’t feel bad about that at all.

Okay the magazine had quite a  few more words and here are a few (but not too many): “The sense of alimentations and distrust has massively increased because of the MPs’ expenses scandal — and the economic crisis, which exposed our politicians as useless fiscal watchdogs. The perception that dogged the Tories in 1997 — that they were venal, corrupt and incompetent — now appears to apply to all politicians. The electorate just wants to tear the whole rotten system down.

“That Nick Clegg should be chosen as the champion of this process is one of the greatest ironies of modern politics. His low profile has meant there has been precious little attention drawn to a remarkable CV: remarkable in that it shows him to be the ultimate political insider. The more you read about him, the more he sounds the same as the other two.”

One last plea to Gordon Brown and his communications team: please for the love of higher powers in general will you tone down the “my friend Nick schtick” when you go on Sky News tomorrow night for the second #leadersdebate. It’s sort of embarrassing and he really doesn’t deserve it.

Building a “progressive alliance” of Labour and Liberal Democrat supporters to oust the Tories and keep them out of power for good is something that worries writers at The Spectator, which is good. The right could be staring disaster in the face. Also good. I don’t think it is the “new politics” that Brown talks about in the Independent today because I read Clegg’s comments today where he called Brown “desperate” in the Daily Telegraph.

“Brown systematically blocked, and personally blocked, political reform. I think he is a desperate politician and I just do not believe him.” He added: “And do I think Labour delivered fairness? No. Do I think the Labour Party in its heart has a faith in civil liberties? No. Do I think they’ve delivered political reform? No. They are clutching at straws.”

The paper reported that Clegg “pointedly refused to say which party he would back” in the event of a hung parliament. It rightly points out that this will lead to accusations that he is not being honest about his intentions – funny that. Clegg apparenlty simply said that “the party with most votes and most seats would be the winner”.

It strikes me that the reason Clegg is keeping quiet is that he and some of his Liberal Democrat chums would be as happy working with the right and David Cameron as anyone, but just won’t come out and say it. If he does that voters will know they might just as well vote for the Tories as that’s what they will get.