‘Shy Tories’ — the term applied to those planning to vote Conservative, but too embarrassed to admit it publicly — was a phrase used to help explain the pollsters’ failure to predict John Major’s 1992 election victory. An anecdote told by Nick Clegg in his interview in today’s Sun suggests the Lib Dems might also have our own share of abashed admirers:
Mr Clegg said: “Of course some people come up to me and say, ‘Oh we don’t like the Government doing this and doing that’. But more people come up to me and say, ‘I think you are doing a really good job’. A woman did exactly that when I was in a local supermarket at a checkout in my Sheffield constituency the other day. She came up with a furtive glance and a whisper and then she scampered away. Maybe people don’t think it is fashionable to show support at the moment.”
Nick takes the opportunity of the interview with the paper’s political editor Tony Newton-Dunn (son of ex-Tory now Lib Dem MEP, Bill) to make clear his own personal
Groundedness …
“Look, I am a very lucky man. I work incredibly hard and I take the honour of being in government very seriously, but I have always been a balanced kind of guy who is a father before he is a politician and who has got three lovely little children I dote on. When you get home from work you can’t constantly worry about your work. You have got to read the latest book, help with the latest bit of homework, have arguments about turning off the latest Wii video game. That is my life – and it is a life that keeps my feet firmly on the ground.”
… Resilience …
“I am very resilient and I never give up. … We might look back on this as the most difficult phase of all. We have still got a bumpy road ahead economically, but the hardest political decisions and announcements have already been set out there. Many of those anguished internal debates are now behind us. Now it is up to whether our judgments on the economy stand the test of time.”
… and optimism
“I have got so much faith in the fair-minded character of the British people and, indeed, of Sun readers. There are lots of people who perhaps don’t go on marches but who quietly recognise that this Government has a difficult job and I have a difficult job in it. We are doing our best and I am doing my best. If we don’t sort things out there isn’t a bright future for the country. It is as simple as that. In the long run I think people will see that.”
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7 Comments
Tom Newton-Dunn, not Tony (-:
If asked I’d admit freelyI like the idea of the right wing of the LD, such as Clegg and co, being in charge rather than those who seem like they’d rather be Labour, but given the demonization they are getting (in part earned because of regrettable u-turns), I’d probably not bring it up; generally I just try to keep things in perspective – I often hear people say something along the lines of ‘Clegg and the LD have shown they’re no different to the other parties[reneging on promises etc], so I shall never vote LD again’, a statement which I find a bit odd in truth; sure, you can decide the compromises they’ve made are too much to consider voting for them again and fair enough, but just revealing they are opportunistic politicians the same as the other parties? Strange.
@Kieran – it;s not strange at all Kieran. Some people bought into the dream that new politics was on offer – they have woken up to reality and firstly are annoyed at themselves for being so stupid and secondly, being human, look for someone to transfer the blame to and who better than Clegg who destroyed Camelot for them.
Bit worried that Nick is hearing voices telling him things right enough 🙂
Shy Cleggites? Just waiting in the shadows to deliver a LibDem majority at the next election, perhaps? Or maybe just embarrassed that they were suckered into supporting Clegg in the first place? Talk about grasping at straws!
come on .this was a desparate attempt by the murdoch tory sun to help clegg do well against milliband in the o&s by election. a sign of desparation by the sun. obviously by the result it didn’t work.
“A woman did exactly that when I was in a local supermarket at a checkout in my Sheffield constituency the other day. She came up with a furtive glance and a whisper and then she scampered away.”
Yes, of course she did Nick. Presumably she’s a friend of Cameron’s ’40 year-old black man’.
Is this Nick’s first outing in The Sun, I wonder? Why of course,it’s on the eve of a by-election in which “the enemy” is in poll-position; so lets wheel out the man whom we have been calling “Calamity Clegg” and anoint him., forgetting it was us that crucified him when he failed to pin on our “Christ” label, a helpful invention of Tom Newton Dunn’s big sister, The Sunday Times.
As Nick swoons over Sun readers (whose online comments don’t bear reading, by the way) I am reminded not of the non-existent Tony Newton-Dunn but of Tony Blair who abandoned his many media supporters for his place in The Sun.