14 Comments

• Simon 29th Jan '08 - 7:45pm

  Good stuff from Nick. Would be good to have a clearer idea of what he wanted to communicate though. The meritocracy idea, for instance, could have come through clearer. It might be the interviewer for all I know though.

• Derek Young 30th Jan '08 - 11:39am

  Simon says: “Would be good to have a clearer idea of what he wanted to communicate though …”

  Despite the much-vaunted ability to inspire and persuade, leaving even party supporters with this impression does not bode well, does it?

• Bob 30th Jan '08 - 12:55pm

  You don’t say. I found this very uninspiring. Clegg hasn’t got a cat in hell’s chance of doubling the number of Lib Dem MPs by the next election. Here in the North West, we’ve already had two defections. The only thing I can remember that Clegg’s done so far is renege on the Lib Dems promise of free care for the elderly. Back to the drawing board methinks.

• MatGB 30th Jan '08 - 2:49pm

  Yes, thank you “Bob”, nice little straw man you’ve got there, he says in the next two elections, which is infinitely do able, we could easily gain thirty seats at the next General if the campaign is right.

  And we haven’t lost any MPs, local cllrs defect (normally for local issues) all the time, my local Cllr defected to us recently.

  And parties in opposition can’t renege on promises, they can only update their policies in time for the next election—it’s Labour that reneges on promises, they got elected.

  And, by the way, the drawing board is normally exactly where any new leader is at. I like the picture so far.

• Bob 30th Jan '08 - 4:47pm

  Love this line MatGB:

  “And parties in opposition can’t renege on promises, they can only update their policies in time for the next election—it’s Labour that reneges on promises, they got elected.”

  What a totally ridiculous, typical liberal hand-washing load of nonsense. So there’s no point in taking anything the Lib Dems say seriously then? Because when it’s “updated” further down the line you’ll find that free care for the elderly means errr, not free care for the elderly?!!

  I never said that any Lib Dem MPs in the North West had defected, just that we’ve had a couple of high profile defections. One of these was the Lib Dem MEP, Sajjad Karim, who left for the Tories. He reasoned that the Lib Dems had totally “lost their way and are no longer a serious force in politics.”

• MatGB 30th Jan '08 - 4:59pm

  No Bob. Pledges made at an election are “if elected to government we will”. We weren’t elected to Govt, therefore policies need to be updated for the next time the electorate get a chance to vote for a new Govt. Most importantly, costings and budgets change and we’ve got no say in that, if the money just isn’t there then it would be foolish to still promise it.

  If elected into Govt, then the manifesto should be implemented. If not elected into Govt, the manifesto should be changed to provide the voters something better.

  That’s how the British Parliamentary system works—or should we still hold Labour to maintain all the promises made in its 1945 manifesto?

  And yes, Saj left the party. Two days after he didn’t top the ballot in the reselection vote of all party members in the area. I personally don’t take what he said at the time, or since, seriously, as the timing was far too suspect and his motives palpably careerist. The same was said by the majority of commentators at, for example, ConservativeHome.Com, and it’s very unusual for me to agree with most people there.

  What, by the way, do you mean by “we”? The reason I ask is that as you’ve written it it sort of implies you’re a party member, there’s a history of people coming here pretending to be a member but posting negative comments, if that wasn’t your intent and I misread I do apologise for my mocking tone, but such astroturfing does get rather tiring very quickly.

• John Smith 30th Jan '08 - 5:02pm

  Bob, I’m loving your use of “we” to imply you’re a Lib Dem, right before you deliver the Tory quote…

  Where we’re in power, we implement our policies – e.g. free studying, free healthcare. Where we’re in opposition, we refine them and if necessary come up with something else that’ll work, and is liberal. Unlike the Tories, whose policy thinking time usually amounts to the length of time for which they think ‘oh crap’ between being asked a question and having to provide an answer, or Labour who do at least write them on the backs of envelopes first, before reneging on them.

• Bob 31st Jan '08 - 10:15am

  Strange bit of analysis there MattGB and John Smith. The term ‘we’ referred to us in the North West. That is where I’m based and where the Lib Dems seem to be working very hard to make gains. I’ve yet to work out just what exactly Lib Dems in our region are doing other than generating headlines for the worst financially run council in England, but they’re certainly making a lot of noise.

  Even though this site bills itself as welcoming people outside of the party to express their views, I detect a distinctly queasy feeling about the prospect of someone breaking up your love-in…

• L,A ,Colston 29th Jul '08 - 3:09pm

  Mr Clegg proven to lack the ability to take charge of one of his MPs who did not act to respond to the legitimate request from constituent regarding a most serious matter therefore in my opinion not capable of being part of a body taking charge of this country at anytime

• L,A ,Colston 29th Jul '08 - 3:13pm

  Mr Clegg proven to lack the ability to take charge of one of his MPs who did not act to respond to the legitimate request from constituent regarding a most serious matter therefore in my opinion not capable of being part of a body taking charge of this country at anytime This comment not been submitted here before,Is censorship in operation?

• L,A ,Colston 29th Jul '08 - 3:14pm

  Comments censored,

• L,A ,Colston 29th Jul '08 - 3:14pm

  Comments censored,

• MatGB 29th Jul '08 - 3:19pm

  Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss Colston. Your first comment was submitted at 3.09, you assumed censorship and not web cacheing and immediately started complaining, despite all comments here being published automatically unless there is a spam trigger.

  Given that this post is over 6 months old and you give no details whatsoever of your complaint you give yourself less validity and make yourself look a little desperate.

  Before complaining about censorship in future, try waiting 5 minutes and then hitting the ‘hard’ refresh function on your computer (that’s normally ctrl+shift+r but could be something else).

  But this is an independent site and given a complete lack of context I don’t really know what you’re trying to acheive or even complain about—care to actually give some (non-libellous) details?

• J Shepley 12th Oct '10 - 1:10pm

  Just shows how easily power corrupts!