Writing in today’s Guardian, Nick Clegg said:
[Henley] showed us that the evaporation of New Labour’s support in southern England – so carefully put together in the 1990s by Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell – is now complete.
So what hope is there left for progressive voters in Britain? Has Cameron’s aversion to spelling out what he would do if he was handed the keys to No 10 done the trick? By avoiding any controversy, any meaningful policy choices, has he done enough to lull progressives into thinking that maybe it won’t be so bad after all to have a Conservative back in Downing Street?
I sincerely hope not because I do not believe that the Conservative party can deliver the changes needed to make Britain the fairer, more socially mobile society that progressives of all parties want. But equally we must understand that the New Labour model of social progress has failed. Instead, we must turn to a different model of how we deliver social justice: the liberal model…
For those who swung to New Labour in the 1990s because they wanted a fairer Britain the Liberal Democrats now offer the most vibrant progressive home. If they stick with an exhausted Labour party and its failed ideas or succumb to the Conservatives’ siren promises, we will wake up in 2010 to a government that will not deliver a fairer Britain. And that would be a tragedy for the millions still waiting for a better life.
You can read the full piece here.
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15 Comments
From his article “progressive” seems to refer to people who want locally elected politicians telling people how to run their lives rather than nationally elected ones.
Or, if read properly, it means local people more involved in their services, i.e. devolution or, to give it a more pejorative title, subsidiarity which is essentially the notion that a bureaucrat in Whitehall can’t possibly create a single model which will suit every circumstance around the country.
It’s a stirring article.
I’m not sure the title “progressive” is any more justified than “liberal” for a party that believes that blackouts & a return to the Middle Ages, but with more government controls & 24,000 pensioners dying annually because of unnecessarily high power costs, are preferable to economic progress through free markets & keeping the lights on, even when it isn’t windy.
Local people? Or from Plymouth?
Neil – I take it that is an attack on our stance against the fantasy that nuclear power can be our salvation. A balanced, managed generation capacity with a lot of renewables makes the best sense to us.
Free markets don’t work when it comes to power – The best interests of power companies is to provide the bare minimum of generating capacity and then charge a premium price when demand inevitably exceeds supply.
As the free market in oil is currently demonstrating.
A better article form Nick Clegg – now the party has to put some flesh on the ideas and use them in the Glasgow by-election.
Shame they weren’t used in Crewe instead of the leaflets devoted to “the labour candidate isn’t local”
Simon if the LDs believe the idea that nuclear can produce most of a country’s power is a fantasy you must all believe that the only way to France is through the back of a wardrobe.
Your remark about free market countries suffering from blackouts is equally dissociated from reality.
Such things could not possibly be claimed by representatives of any party which is both honest & sane.
Good luck in persuading the people of Shettleston to enjoy higher electricity prices & blackouts.
What utter tosh from Clegg. Henley meaningless vs real life Labour-wise, vide Chichester by-election where NL did even worse despite being on a landslide nationally.
It was however a horrifically bad result for the Lib Dems. Face up to it.
Great article from Nick. Glad to see this tack being taken.
Good article from Nick nice to see him giving positive reasons to vote for the Lib Dems
Good to see the trolls are our trying to dissuade us from the good news our improving leader is spreading.
Even our opponents are starting to sit up and take notice!
If your “improving” leader says that France is a mythical country I think you should be grateful for attempts at dissuasion.
Neil, show us where he has said that and I’ll accept your justification. Until then you remain unjustified. So surely you are the one who should be grateful. Thank’ee kindly.
Simon Croft yesterday stated that this was the LibDem line thereby claiming that France was non-existent.
Show me where ANY LibDem has said that that was untrue. If not a single member out of dozens randomly selected disagree with it it should reasonably be accepted as the overwhelming party position.
I note Oranj that though you have taken the time to disagree with me you have, with a much longer opportunity, decided not to disagree with Simon’s obvious & deliberate lie. I must assume silence implies consent.
If I assumed such deliberate & total contempt for any form of fact represents the highest standard of honesty to which the party aspires then I would accept that none of you should be grateful for being told the truth. However I do not quite believe that.
Neil, if you find it hard to rationalise what somebody else says then you ain’t engaging your brain.
Clearly you choose to avoid any caveats and qualifications in some misguided search for simplicity and point-scoring, so perhaps you should spend more time on a tennis court than in the political bear pit.