Last night I took an evening off from Liberal Democracy, to enjoy a pie and a pint in one of Hove’s finest hostelries.
At the bar I got chatting to a man who flew, with his family, from Brisbane into the UK last Sunday. I heard his accent and mentioned to him that I had recently been “Down Under”.
He then asked me what I was doing in Brighton and Hove, and I told him.
He was then very curious, and said that he had seen a bit of ITV “Daybreak” about the conference. Then, his brow furrowed with curiosity, he asked:
Hey, what is your guy having to say sorry about?
I took a deep breath and explained the situation in just over 60 seconds.
After listening intently to my explanation, our man from Brisbane said:
Jeez mate, I thought he’d actually done something wrong.
* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
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3 Comments
– and that is the very point, somewhat misunderstood, even obscured, by other blogs. The media going on and on and on about the student fees issue had converted it into ‘the LibDems are entirely responsible for the high cost of University Education, and by implication any problem remotely to do with students’, – and so was being deftly turned into a simple ‘dog-whistle’ for use by the two old parties to deter young voters, and student parents, from ever voting for the Liberal Democrats.
Asked recently what this was all about no ordinary member of the public had any real idea, as it had become so confused, other than ‘LibDems are not to be trusted’, which was surely the sole purpose of the media effort.
Nick has now drawn a line, he has said ‘for heaven’s sake, no one could be more sorry, I am Leader and I take full responsibility for this one bit of stupidity, can we please move on!’ and largely that is now possible. Thanks also to the brilliant Auto-tune remix, the focus has now moved on to become a bit of light-hearted fun, and Nick is now being credited for it and forgiven. As for timing, at first I thought, why is he doing it and why is he doing it now, but as I see it unfold, it was a brilliant move with spot-on timing .
For me he didn’t need to apologise atall. If I promise to take the kids to the park tomorrow, then we don’t go because the weather turns out lousy, then I haven’t broken a promise, but I have had a lapse of wisdom in not considering the forecasts. I could apologise for that lapse, but it isn’t really necessary.
What Nick is saying is really addressed to his detractors; he is saying ‘get over it and lets move on to making better plans..’
But if you made a promise to your kids to take them to the park whilst knowing that you very probably wouldn’t be able to, then you would not be worthy of being trusted again. That’s the situation here.
In fact, it’s more the case that you had said to the kids ” don’t worry I have consulted the weather forecast and although it’s going to be stormy I have a fully weather-proofed plan for getting there” whilst you and your other half say in private “we’re not going to be able to take the kids to the park tomorrow but let’s just tell them we can anyway so they’ll wash our cars.