Nick Clegg Q+A at Brighton Conference, 2012
On the day of his wedding anniversary, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg took questions from party members at the Brighton Conference.
Storified by Mark Pack · Sun, Sep 23 2012 08:51:51
Heading into #ldconf main hall, hoping to ask @nick_clegg about online snooping in his Q+A session #CCDPMark Pack
Nick Clegg taking questions about his apology #ldconfMark Pack
5 Union Jacks on #ldconf stageset (part of photomontage). Think first time they’ve featured in a Lib Dem federal conference stage setMark Pack
No surprise, tuition fees came up first:
.@nick_clegg says problem was signing pledge; policy now being implemented is far better than many people think #ldconfMark Pack
.@nick_clegg – could only have stuck to every promise + pledge if won election; if you don’t win, can’t do all your policies #ldconfMark Pack
.@nick_clegg says if he’d made apology sooner people wouldn’t have been listening; now some may #ldconfMark Pack
MT @PatrickKingsley: Clegg gets huge round of applause for: "to my dying day, I firmly believe we did right thing by going into coalition."Mark Pack
Interesting: more applause for @nick_clegg defending going into coalition than follow up Qs on fees #ldconfMark Pack
Then things turned to online snooping and the Draft Communications Data Bill:
RT @Alex__Stevenson: Nick Clegg could block draft justice and security bill if he’s advised it’s "illiberal", he threatensMark Pack
Clegg addresses Communications Data Bill, as per recent Spectator’s cover. Highlights @markpack and @julianhuppert for their scrutiny workSebastian Payne
.@nick_clegg reassuringly solid re online snooping – in effect @julianhuppert has a veto over it #CCDP #ldconfMark Pack
Next up was the environment, transport and infrastructure:
.@nick_clegg still "fully committed" to making govt greenest ever. Attacks Tories sending mixed msgs to long term green investors #ldconfMark Pack
.@nick_clegg No to subsidy for nuclear power; coalition govt willing to listen to anyone who thinks they can do it without #ldconfMark Pack
.@nick_clegg Green investment good for jobs, exports + economy – as well as for environment #ldconfMark Pack
.@nick_clegg talks up Green Investment Bank, carbon floor price, offshore wind investment, carbon budget, Green Deal etc #ldconfMark Pack
.@nick_clegg "I am a passionate advocate of HS2"; country too reliant on Victorian visionaries; we need to be bigger + bolder #ldconfMark Pack
On press reform, Nick Clegg mentioned that despite having had inaccurate stories run about his family, he still thinks press freedom is vital to protect:
.@nick_clegg says test for press reform: can we look Millie Dowler’s family in eye + say that it can never happen again #ldconfMark Pack
.@nick_clegg Adds that freedom of speech "even of the Daily Mail" is vital. Reforms must protect freedom of press #ldconfMark Pack
.@nick_clegg The Press Complaints Commission was "a joke" + papers becoming more shrill, even hysterical, as sales shrink #ldconfMark Pack
On public spending, Clegg said that as the next election happens 5 weeks after the current spending review period ends, there will have to be some agreement on what follows the current spending review. However:
.@nick_clegg won’t support any cuts to spending totals for current spending review period #ldconfMark Pack
.@nick_clegg Much of Obama’s fiscal stimulus is what happens automatically in UK; ie we’ve done it #ldconfMark Pack
.@nick_clegg Have prised "clammy" Treaury hands off limits + got huge boost in guarantees for infrastrcture spendingMark Pack
* Mark Pack is Party President and is the editor of Liberal Democrat Newswire.
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26 Comments
i thought last nights speech by Nick Clegg was horrendous.
He said
“Just look at the qualities we displayed as a country this summer: unity; generosity; diversity; openness; community; fair play.” There was no applause and I am not surprised at all.
Unity- well that’s a joke when Taxes for the well off have been cut and bankers who brought this country to its knee’s are let off
generosity- Considering the cuts to welfare and disability benefits and the removal of services much needed by the poor, does clegg know the meaning of the word? Maybe what he meant by generosity was generosity by the tax payer to fund Mp’s expenses and lifestyle.
Openness- I do not think the top down reorganisation and part privatisation was very open as it was in neither parties mandate or the coalition agreement.
Fair play- If you consider bringing back Laws into the Ministerial payroll, whose fiddled his expenses and was suspended from parliament then i guess your opinion on fair play would be skewed.
Clegg continued on to a silent hall, attempting to jump on the bandwagon of the Olympics and our Olympic heroes
The hall was still silent until he said,
“At a press conference Mo Farah was asked whether he would have preferred to run for Somalia. He said ‘Listen mate, this is my country’. And in a single sentence every argument the BNP and the EDL have ever put forward was crushed. This is his country. This is all of our country.”
Finally Clegg gets his applause, though it took the mention on the BNP and EDL to get it.
So what else did we get from his Speech?
“we have cut taxes for working people and lifted the poorest workers out of paying Income Tax. ”
The only reason why so many people have been lifted out of income tax is because we have the highest rate of Part time employment in our history and people are not earning enough to pay tax in the first place.
“the Pupil Premium and the expansion of early years education are making a real difference to the lives of our children”
Maybe Clegg should read the reports on the pupil premium because as we know the money has not been used for its purpose and has been used to plug other school budget cuts
“We have ended child detention.” That is an outrageous lie, Child Detention has not ended and does clegg nor the party any good when he continues to mislead the public this, We do watch the News Clegg.
Nick Clegg came across as a wet fish,
Your apology means nothing when you blatantly continue to mislead the public
Irrespective of what we think about the partys direction or leadership we still have to show each other some respect, I dont feel that Matts comment does that. Lets talk to each other like adults please.
@paul barker
How was my post disrespectful? I quoted the facts as he said in his speech, and I provided a response to those claims which I believe to be true and in my opinion shows Clegg still to still be misleading the public, which makes his apology a farce.
I am shocked that someone who can be as vigorous and colourful in their posts to people as you are at times can call my post disrespectful. However, in a democracy and entitlement to free speech I acknowledge your right to draw your own conclusions.
If theres one thing that ruins debate across the blogosphere its when comments get turned into dialogs so I will keep my reply short & single.
Read your own comment again, the whole tone is intemperate, dogmatic almost hysterical. You make assertions backed by no evidence – one example
you claim that the “only” reason low paid workers are paying less tax is because of the rise in part-time working.
Have tax allowances not been increased or do you claim the increase has no effect ?
backed by no evidence
try
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2188643/Record-EIGHT-MILLION-people-working-fewer-25-hours-week-amid-struggle-time-jobs.html
“Record numbers of Britons are working part-time after those struggling to find full-time positions pushed the figure above the eight-million mark for the first time.
Official figures show that 8.07 million people toil for fewer than 25 hours a week – the highest figure since records began in 1992.
One in seven of them would like to work longer but can’t find the job
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2188643/Record-EIGHT-MILLION-people-working-fewer-25-hours-week-amid-struggle-time-jobs.html#ixzz27JiQAF8B
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook”
If you are working less than 25 hrs a week at minimum wage of £6.08 an hour, it’s pretty difficult to reach the tax threshold in the first place,
As an independent reader who often disagrees with matt, I see no particular offence in his comments. He puts a case, and there is nothing unusual about making assertions without citing supporting evidence. Indeed, Clegg does this often, and notably in the sentence “the qualities we displayed as a country this summer: unity; generosity; diversity; openness; community; fair play”. Where’s the evidence for any of that, and who does he mean by “we”?
@matt
“The only reason why so many people have been lifted out of income tax is because we have the highest rate of Part time employment in our history”
No, Matt, the only reason why so many people have been taken out of tax is because the rich Tory *****tards who run the Labour Party spent thirteen years deliberately filleting ordinary people in order to pad out the lives of their rich mates.
“5 Union Jacks on #ldconf stageset (part of photomontage). Think first time they’ve featured in a Lib Dem federal conference stage set”
pleased to hear it.
@paul barker
“If theres one thing that ruins debate across the blogosphere its when comments get turned into dialogs so I will keep my reply short & single.
Read your own comment again, the whole tone is intemperate, dogmatic almost hysterical. You make assertions backed by no evidence “
Agreed, Paul. Just ignore what Matt says – it is mostly misleading rubbish.
For example: Matt decries Nick’s comment “the Pupil Premium and the expansion of early years education are making a real difference to the lives of our children”.
As a school governor of two primary schools I know that Pupil Premium is making a real difference.
Is Matt a school governor? If he disagrees with Nick about Pupil premium has it ever occured to him that may because he isn’t doing his job as a school governor properly.
Also, when matt says:
“we have cut taxes for working people and lifted the poorest workers out of paying Income Tax. ”
The only reason why so many people have been lifted out of income tax is because we have the highest rate of Part time employment in our history and people are not earning enough to pay tax in the first place.
that is clearly untrue – “the only reason” ???
@matt
“If you are working less than 25 hrs a week at minimum wage of £6.08 an hour, it’s pretty difficult to reach the tax threshold in the first place,”
Again, untrue. Under Labour, such a person paid Income Tax if they were working 24, 23, 22 or 21 hours. Thanks to the Lib Dems, in 2012/13 they don’t .
Clegg is fighting for his political life. What he needs to do, and what he is doing, is to tack temporarily to the left, and fool enough Lib Dems into believing that he has changed. It may work.
The public are not fooled. Read the comments to any press article – not just the Guardian, but the BBC as well- and you will see.
However, the public do not have a desperate need to convince themselves that maybe Clegg can save them after all. Lib Dem activists often do. That is why the strategy may work. If it does, then once the danger is past, Clegg will return to the default “tory-lite” position where he truly stands.
Paul Barker – “matt” is a Labour member who likes to sow the seeds of division in our party to further the ambitions of the Labour Party. Nothing new in this, it’s been happening since that party’s foundation. Once you realise that you can enjoy his comments much more 🙂
David Allen – “what he is doing, is to tack temporarily to the left, and fool enough Lib Dems into believing that he has changed. It may work.”
I love a good conspiracy theory!
Alternatively, the facts just might not fit your theory.
@Tabman
Which facts? Each Lib Dem conference seems to be when Clegg talks about taxing the wealthy, etc. In between conferences he supports a reduction in the tax rate for those on the highest incomes. He is in government now, so we should quite rightly judge him on what he does, not what he says. And the apology for the tuition fees pledge reminds us that we should not trust what he says.
@Tabman (24th Sep, 9:14am), matt. Is this true? It would be kind of pathetic that Labour needs to stoop to this.
But it’s also a useful reminder not to believe assertions made without some kind of supporting evidence, thanks. Other commentators and some article authors and public speakers might usefully note this! And it provides a helpful test of one’s own beliefs, thanks again! 🙂
@Simon Shaw
“Agreed, Paul. Just ignore what Matt says – it is mostly misleading rubbish.”
Erm I don’t think so, do you follow the news at all?
“For example: Matt decries Nick’s comment “the Pupil Premium and the expansion of early years education are making a real difference to the lives of our children”.
As a school governor of two primary schools I know that Pupil Premium is making a real difference.”
Wow so you as a school governor of 2 schools gives you some kind of divine authority and makes you right? I don’t think so you only have to see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19658752 for what Ofted ha said with regards to the pupil premium.
Maybe you can tell us Mr Shaw as a councillor and school governor, does your schools use ALL the pupil premium on those children it is intended, or does some of the money get used in existing school budgets?
With regards to income tax. You only pay income tax once you reach a certain threshold at present it works out to £155 a week.
If you are working part time on 25 hrs a week at £6.08 an hour you would only be earning £151.50 a week in the first place, therefore you would not be paying income tax.
Part time employment is at is highest record levels, with many people not even getting 25 hrs a week. So therefore I have grounds for my argument when I said the governments claims of lifting 2 million out of income tax is misleading. It is true to say that those people working full time or in higher paid part time work are seeing their tax allowances rise, but it is misleading when there are over 8 million people in this country and rising, stuck in part time employment.
“Under Labour, such a person paid Income Tax if they were working 24, 23, 22 or 21 hours. Thanks to the Lib Dems, in 2012/13 they don’t .”
I don’t get what you are implying Simon, Everyone pays income tax regardless of the hours worked or number of days “IF” they earn above the amount set before your allowance,
@Tabman 24th Sep ’12 – 9:14am
“Paul Barker – “matt” is a Labour member who likes to sow the seeds of division in our party to further the ambitions of the Labour Party”
Proof please that I am a labour member,
I belong to NO political Party, I vote with my beliefs and my conscience and would vote for any party that fits my ideas of what is right and best for the country. Admittedly I never have and 99.9% sure I never would vote Conservative, Apart from that I have no alliance to ANY political party and am certainly not a member.
So please do not make personal assertions in an attempt to devalue my opinion without having concrete proof to back up your claims.
“I belong to NO political Party, I vote with my beliefs and my conscience and would vote for any party that fits my ideas of what is right and best for the country. Admittedly I never have and 99.9% sure I never would vote [Labour], Apart from that I have no alliance to ANY political party and am certainly not a member.”
You could say the same about me (in reverse).
JBT
@matt
Wow so you as a school governor of 2 schools gives you some kind of divine authority and makes you right?
Governors have a certain authority here and I think you are suggesting that some governors are failing to do their job properly.
Most people would think the correct response there is to encourage governors to do their job. Your response is to attack Nick Clegg. I wonder why?
@matt
”With regards to income tax. You only pay income tax once you reach a certain threshold at present it works out to £155 a week.
If you are working part time on 25 hrs a week at £6.08 an hour you would only be earning £151.50 a week in the first place, therefore you would not be paying income tax.”
Do you not realise how silly you sound? You are making my (and Nick Clegg’s) case for us.
The whole point is that thanks to the Lib Dems someone earning £151.50 per week no longer has to pay any income tax.
Under Labour that person would have been paying income tax on a significant chunk of their income (nearly 20% of it, or £1400 per annum, would have been taxed by Labour at the basic rate of tax).
The trouble is that you are so partisan that you are simply unwilling to acknowledge this major improvement in the tax system.
“Under Labour that person would have been paying income tax on a significant chunk of their income (nearly 20% of it, or £1400 per annum, would have been taxed by Labour at the basic rate of tax).”
But that means that this tax cut “for the low-paid” was of far less benefit to this person earning £7-8,000 a year than to someone earning up to five times that amount. Of course, that was the idea behind tax credits – that money could be targeted towards the low-paid without spraying it all over people on average incomes too.
@Simon Shaw “The trouble is that you are so partisan that you are simply unwilling to acknowledge this major improvement in the tax system.”
I have a genuine question about this: why is it a good thing to raise the tax threshold in order to take the lowest paid out of the income tax system?
As a middle-earner, I see the top rate being reduced for the highest earners, the lowest earners being taken out of the system, so the burden falls on people like me, the proverbial “squeezed middle”. If I am to take such a hit, I would at least like a good explanation as to why this is the right thing to do.
@Simon Shaw
“Governors have a certain authority here and I think you are suggesting that some governors are failing to do their job properly.
Most people would think the correct response there is to encourage governors to do their job. Your response is to attack Nick Clegg. I wonder why?”
Firstly, I did not attack school governors, in fact I did not even mention them, you did, with some silly post about you being a governor and me possibly being one and not doing my job correctly.
My post was outlining that the pupil premium is not being used for what it has been intended as we are told by Ofsted and some head teachers.
You also chose not to answer my question on how YOUR schools spent the pupil premium and whether it was ALL used as it was intended for to help the disadvantaged, or was part of the money used to plug holes in other departments?
“Do you not realise how silly you sound? You are making my (and Nick Clegg’s) case for us.
The whole point is that thanks to the Lib Dems someone earning £151.50 per week no longer has to pay any income tax.”
How is it making the case for you?
At present, there are “RECORD” numbers of people in Part time employment, Over 8 million in fact and it is rising fast. A Majority of those people would not pay income tax as they do not meet the “current” threshold for income tax,
It certainly is not lifting the “2 Million more people” out of Income tax altogether, as these people are already earning under the threshold.
Raising the Income tax threshold of course is helping many families on lower and medium incomes, but it does nothing for those people already earning under the current Limits, and this number of people is rising.
I am not Partisan, as I do not belong to any party, I am critical of ALL parties
I’ll just sit back and wait for ‘matt’ and ‘jedibeeftrix’ to fight it out.
What they come up with together will either be absolutely LibDem, or it’ll be everything we oppose.
In the meantime I’m not interested in their angry contributions because anger isn’t the best place from which to make decisions – it’s unproductive, and I choose to live free from the burden of such harmful negativity.
have i been angry?
i can’t even recall that either of us has ever had an exchange of any kind on LDV.
nothing against the chap, seems nice eneough, but my interest is in seeing a sane lid-dem party, and if he ain’t a lib-dem then he is outside of my immediate interest.
🙂
Just to back up further my argument on the impact of raising the Income tax threshold to 10k. Here is what the IFS has told the Liberal Democrat conference.
“The head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies told the Liberal Democrats some uncomfortable truths at their conference in Brighton this week. Under banners reading “Fairer tax in tough times”, Paul Johnson told them that their much-vaunted raising of the tax threshold so that no one pays tax until earning over £10,000 did little for the low-paid. The main gainers, he said, are in the top third of incomes. The bottom third already earn too little to pay tax, and the middle third gain little: the top get most. And this policy costs a monumental £10bn that could have been targeted on benefits, tax credits, housing and childcare to help the struggling 50%. But the great austerity – especially the £18bn of benefit cuts – fell on them”
And this is exactly what I had been saying over the last couple of day’s with regards to the 8 million and ever rising 8 million part time workers.