Today’s Independent on Sunday has a much-publicised interview with deputy prime minister Nick Clegg in which he rebukes – in strong terms – the tactics of the No to AV campaign. He makes no visible attempt, either, to exclude the prime minister from his comments – not least because he is one of those guilty of repeating the untruth, for example, that the alternative vote will require expensive electronic counting machines. As the piece makes clear, some of this rhetoric is undoubtedly part of a strategy designed to aid the Liberal Democrats in various upcoming elections, but there is clearly some feeling behind Nick’s comments; the behaviour of the No campaign, and David Cameron’s high-profile participation in it, has surprised many people, but has perhaps come as the biggest shock to the deputy prime minister himself.
Here’s an extract from the interview:
After emerging victorious from the TV debates last year, Clegg has been imagining a leaders’ broadcast on the referendum. “So, on one side of the stage, pro-AV, you’d have me, Ed Miliband, (Green) Caroline Lucas, (Ukip) Nigel Farage, (SNP) Alex Salmond and (Plaid Cymru) Ieuan Wyn Jones. The other side, you’d have David Cameron, (BNP) Nick Griffin and whoever leads the Communist Party. Now that tells you volumes about the very reactionary interests that are defending the indefensible.”
He is furious about the way he has been targeted personally by the No campaign and believes the PM has reneged on a deal that both men would keep a low profile in the AV debate. Reflecting on Cameron’s surprise decision to share a platform with a former Labour home secretary last week, Clegg remarks: “When Conservatives team up with a man as reactionary and backward-looking as John Reid, you know that the old establishment, the old elite, are just thrashing around.”
Both sides of the coalition will “respect” the decision of the British public. Will he resign if the first-past-the-posters win? “Of course not. The referendum is a decision by the British people.”
The Yes campaign has struggled “against a headwind of lies, misinformation and deceit”, including claims made by Cameron himself that AV will require expensive counting machines and will favour extremists. Clegg believes AV can yet win the day. “People have still got, after the expenses scandal, a residual longing for something better.”
This is a familiar riff from the general election trail, casting himself as the interloper disrupting the red-blue “pendulum” of British politics. “I will get opprobrium heaped on me from left and right; a vituperative attack from people who wish that life was different. Well, I’m sorry but it ain’t.”
The bonhomie of the Rose Garden seems a long time ago. While he and Cameron talk on a daily basis, the power-sharing deal is an “unsentimental… transaction”. “I see all this stuff about how we are somehow mates. We are not. We are not there to become friends. I didn’t come into this coalition government to look for friends.”
You can read the interview in full here.
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11 Comments
Britain should clearly give up voting altogether, because there are signs from other countries, eg the US, that we will need at some point to switch to use expensive voting machines which won’t work very well. Instead – we should just have all MPs appointed by the Queen, because that will be far less expensive than this fiddly new fangled voting nonsense. Rah!
Also, voting simply encourages extremist parties like the BNP. There is a danger that people will vote for them, after all Germans voted for Adolf. Clearly we shouldn’t allow any more of this suffrage devilment.
Vote Yes and waste millions encouraging the next Hitler. You know what you have to do folks.
“the behaviour of the No campaign, and David Cameron’s high-profile participation in it, has surprised many people, but has perhaps come as the biggest shock to the deputy prime minister himself.”
Why is he surprised?
The Lib-Dem’s managed to squeeze a wholly unwanted referendum out of the Tories, did they also expect to have a “yes” vote delivered to them on a plate?
Apart from the obvious set to engineered by Clegg and Cameron ( so much for the grown up politics we were all promised) if Mr grumpy Huhne can take legal action cos he’s a bit upset (nearly always a desperate sign) then I assume he will be supporting me in court when I sue Clegg for saying that I must be in with a right wing clique for sympathising with the no camp (my mum says she will testify that’s a bit of an untruth…)
Um, with all due respect – Pots, Kettles, Glass Houses
@Peebee it is a treat to see you, the Foreign Secretary, taking time out of your busy schedule planning bombing raids on Libya to jump into the AV debate, but aren’t you a bit old to be dragging your mum into things?
“I will get opprobrium heaped on me from left and right; a vituperative attack from people who wish that life was different. Well, I’m sorry but it ain’t.”
What are we to make of the fact that in just a year Clegg has gone from saying “Don’t let anyone tell you it can’t be different,” to telling those who wish life was different, “sorry but it ain’t”?
Of course it’s pointless trying to analyse such empty-headed rhetoric, but it seems a neat enough illustration of what happens when an “outsider” ends up on the “inside.”
To judge from this except Clegg seems to have just used this interview as an opportunity to sound off, rather than to actually rebut the lies of the No campaign with some hard facts. Huhne’s threatening of legal action is equally unproductive and does him no credit.
The fact that they seem genuinely surprised that the Tories will stoop to nothing to block AV is in itself quite surprising, though.
sorry, second para, ‘the Tories will stoop to anything’ (or stop at nothing, if you prefer).
A nasty right wing clique peddling lies and misinformation – doesn’t that rather sum up how the coalition has tried to sell its health reforms? Don’t think the electorate are going to be too impressed that Clegg’s one show of anger (whether feigned or not) is over an issue that is central to Lib Dem electoral self-interest but only of passing interest to the majority of the population. In fact isn’t there a negative correlation between Clegg’s interventions and support for AV? Perhaps he could be persuaded to go on holiday for a couple of weeks.
I don’t think anyone is surprised.
We know what the Tories are like from the last general election. At the height of “Cleggmania”, the Tory party fed all kinds of absurd stories to the press.
“Don’t think the electorate are going to be too impressed that Clegg’s one show of anger (whether feigned or not) is over an issue that is central to Lib Dem electoral self-interest but only of passing interest to the majority of the population.”
Quite. It’s very poor PR to “draw a line in the sand” over something the electorate doesn’t care about, having surrendered without a fight on so many issues that it does.