As we reach the August bank holiday the news explodes across the political scene that the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has chosen this time of year, and this extraordinary economic climate, to switch allegiance.
It truly is the height of the silly season. Clegg has defected from Ocado to Sainsbury’s.
Janet Street Porter, for the Independent, is derisory.
Nick reveals that his wife is “gravitating towards Sainsbury’s from Ocado” in order to save money. WAKE UP LOVE! Haven’t the Cleggs heard that Netto, Aldi and Lidl are the shopping destinations of thousands of voters who can’t even afford Sainsbury’s, let alone Waitrose? Clegg and his wife (a full-time lawyer) live in a nice street in Putney, south London, where many houses are valued at £1.3m.
The Telegraph is more understanding,
When Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, with his annual politician’s salary of £61,000 and marriage to a successful lawyer, announced he was giving up his weekly grocery deliveries from online supermarket Ocado, it must have resonated with families across the country.
You might have read something pretty similar over on Liberal Burblings this time yesterday morning, but I was busy and came to the story a little later. And I think I got a catchier headline.
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Oh look, another Clegg foot-in-mouth disaster.
When can we have our next leadership election?
The single redeeming feature of Clegg’s Leadership is that its going to be short.
God it’s such a status thing isn’t it? Food is food for fuck’s sake…
And I am sure that Janet Street-Porter, who of course does not live in an expensive house in a nice street, does all her shopping at Netto, Lidl and Aldi.
what’s wrong with shopping at waitrose, if you want to?
what’s all this embittered invrted class snobbery about?
I don’t get it – we’re Liberals, we care about freedom to do what you want???
I’d be the first person to shop at Waitrose if I had the money – just don’t think it will ‘reach out’ to the voters past London that’s all :@)
Calm down everyone – I’m more of a herons frozen foods man myself. At least Nick knows where his wife shops, anyone remember when Gordon went to the treasury canteen before a budget to show he was a man of the people – and it was quite clear he never carries cash. Wonder where Cameron’s Valet shops?
If it looks like a tory, sounds like a tory, wants to cut public services and went to Westminster its probably in the wrong party.
More seriously the Conservatives are the modern home of Economic Liberals. The National Liberals joined up with them in the 1950′s. The Liberal Democrats constitution commits us to being Social Liberals in the Welfarist tradition of Keynes, Beveridge and Roosevelt.
Our party constitution defines our fundamental values in the words freedom, equality & community – aka – Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite
I’m afraid the Orange book brigade are confused – either they don’t know what we believe of they don’t know what they believe in either case they should remember that since the adoption of the universal franchise there has been a permanent majority for progressive social policies.
The effect of Labour displacing the Liberals as the main party of the left was to allow the Tories to replace us as the main party of government. The Liberal Democrats must replace Labour on the left to build a coalition of opinion capable of putting the Tories out of business. Sadly Nick, pressumably on the basis of his own narrow experience of life is heading off to the right.
Errr, this was in the news several days ago – please keep up.
My blog post on the subject attracted a lot of people who, like me, were insulted by Clegg’s pathetic attempt to ‘feel our pain’ by having to shop at Sainsburys.
http://lettersfromatory.wordpress.com
A bit like Cameron’s shitty book then, eh, LFAT?
Your definition of “a lot of people” also seems quite different to mine LFAT.
This was in the Daily Mail on 23rd August. As you’d expect letters from a tory is seemingly incapable of getting anything right. For example the “lot of people” are actually a couple and the Daily Mail article explicitly staes Nick is not trying to feel his pain – of course letter froma tory can’t help but say the opposite. The whole thing is overstated an way – wait till the sales figures come out to see little has changed, or go to waitrose and lidl and judge for yourself.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1048153/Cleggit-crunch-strikes-Im-feeling-pinch-insists-61-000-LibDem-leader-expensive-homes.html
He said: ‘I’m much luckier than other people. My wife and I are not really struggling to put food on the family supper table. My wife works and I work, so we have two incomes.
‘We are very lucky, but we need every penny of those two incomes. If we do, I can’t imagine what it is like for the many millions of British families who aren’t as lucky as we are.’
A source close to Mr Clegg insisted he was not claiming financial-hardship, adding: ‘He is not saying- ‘I feel your pain’.
‘He is saying, if times are slightly tougher for him, they must be huge for other people who are less well off.’
er, I earn under £10,000 pa and my wife is a nurse.
We often shop at Waitrose. It’s a very nice store.
Are we doing something wrong ?????
Well Waitrose is my favorite food shop because it is based near where I live and I like to support local companies.
Waitrose also happens to be a mutually-owned partnership which makes a change from the same-old same-old bunch of corporate shareholders who promote profit and celebrity endorsement over good products and healthy employment relationships.
So I think I’d question the economic sense in concentrating simply on the bottom line when it comes to food choices for those who can afford it, while the fact that many can’t afford to make the healthiest choices suggests an underlying critique of Labour economic policy.