Comments on: LDV members’ survey (6): what you think of the Lib Dem shadow cabinet and other leading Lib Dems

By: Andy Hinton

Andy Hinton — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:55:12 +0000

Tenureship? Is that even a word?

By: Andy Hinton

Andy Hinton — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:54:41 +0000

Maybe, but an economist with more interest in the rest of the job too would be good. IMO, Davey’s tenureship has been characterised mostly by timidity in coming forward on what used to be pretty core Lib Dem issues (respecting international law, etc).

By: James Graham

James Graham — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:10:04 +0000

While I don’t particularly rate Davey’s performance in Foreign, in principle I think having an economist in that post makes perfect sense. Almost all global issues are fundamentally economic in nature.

By: Sesenco

Sesenco — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:53:18 +0000

Why is Ed Davey still at Foreign Affairs? The guy is an economist, he knows little or nothing about foreign affairs, even to the extent of believing that France is not a member of NATO.

One of the reasons the party did so well in 2005 (despite Kennedy and many other things) was its high foreign affairs profile and its opposition to Cheney’s war in Iraq. And that was in no small part down to Ming Campbell, a true foreign policy heavyweight.

I don’t know who should replace Davey, but replaced he needs to be.

By: Thomas Hemsley

Thomas Hemsley — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:34:02 +0000

“Have you ever been anywhere near Latin?” – reminds me of something my teacher told me today:

“I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have
was that I didn’t study Latin harder in school so I could converse with
those people.” – Dan Quayle.

By: Jennie

Jennie — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:13:20 +0000

Latin is a language
As dead as dead can be
First it killed the Romans
And now it’s killing me…

By: Clegg's Candid Fan

Clegg's Candid Fan — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:11:55 +0000

Sorry, I didn’t think you had – I just tend to assume that a lot of these phrases emanate from California, probably because I first heard them on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”.

Then again, maybe I’m not so far of the mark. An Internet source says “My bad” came into popular use via the 1995 film “Clueless”, which is set in …. Beverly Hills!

By: James Graham

James Graham — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:06:58 +0000

Have you ever been anywhere near Latin?

By: Jennie

Jennie — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:57:04 +0000

Well, I’ve never been anywhere near California…

By: Clegg's Candid Fan

Clegg's Candid Fan — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:54:02 +0000

Comparing Jennie’s post and mine, I realised something that hadn’t struck me before – “Mea culpa” is Latin for “My bad” (almost). Or is it that “My bad” is Californian for “Mea culpa”?

By: Clegg's Candid Fan

Clegg's Candid Fan — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:51:19 +0000

“For the record, the last published results of Nick Clegg’s net approval rating was +50%, not +31% (which was the pre-conference figure).”

Mea culpa.

My fault for looking at the list of “Related posts” and rashly assuming that they were given most recent first, and that “LDV members’ survey (4): what you think of Nick Clegg’s leadership” was more recent than “LDV members’ survey (3): big post-conference boost for Clegg leadership”.

Anyway, I’ll eagerly await Nick’s latest rating…

By: Jennie

Jennie — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:38:08 +0000

Ah, I thought that was previous score. My bad.

By: Thomas Hemsley

Thomas Hemsley — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:35:11 +0000

I thought that was the amount they’d increased by.

By: Jennie

Jennie — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:34:23 +0000

Thomas, if Susan Kramer “languishing” at families comes out with results like we’ve seen this week, then I, for one, welcome our new family spokesman overlord.

By: Jennie

Jennie — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:31:26 +0000

Well, I voted effective for Baker because I had heard him talk about a specific policy and been impressed, but perhaps others voted as you say.

Speaking of Baker, if he’s really gone from 6% to 60-odd%, isn’t he a high climber?

By: Thomas Hemsley

Thomas Hemsley — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:26:04 +0000

There are obviously some big ‘popularity gaps’ in the Shadow Cabinet. Some of them are obviously not wholly down to the people themselves – Roger Williams at Wales is unlikely to get more coverage because, well, Wales isn’t that major (esp. after devolution).

However, some are less explainable. Nick Harvey, for example, at Defence has held that position for a while (2006 according to Wikipedia). Defence isn’t out of the news – indeed, it’s still in the news what with Obama’s possible plans concerning Afghanistan. There is little excuse for it, in my opinion.

Why we have Clegg criticising people such as Steve Webb when we have people in the Shadow Cabinet who are punching below their (undoubtedly substantial) weight, and have people like Susan Kramer languishing at Families, is beyond me. Clegg will no doubt be forced into a reshuffle soon enough, after the Mirror story, and he should use that as a great opportunity.

By: Stephen Tall

Stephen Tall — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:33:33 +0000

For the record, the last published results of Nick Clegg’s net approval rating was +50%, not +31% (which was the pre-conference figure). We’ll be publishing November’s figure tomorrow, Tue.

Also, to be fair, I think the leader – whether it’s Clegg or whoever – gets judged more on the basis of the party’s overall current popularity than other shadow cabinet members do.

Eg, I’d hazard that Norman Baker’s consistenty high popularity has more to do with his justified status as a dogged Parliamentary battler than it does his advocacy of Lib Dem transport policies.

By: Clegg's Candid Fan

Clegg's Candid Fan — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:12:09 +0000

So Clegg (net satisfaction 31% last time you asked) and Alexander (11%) were discussing the merits of Huhne (67%), Webb (39%), Goldsworthy (34%) and Laws (20%) – and it was Laws they seemed to have the highest opinion of, on the whole.

Interesting.