Nick Clegg has taken a mostly unjustified pasting in the media over the past couple of days for his answer to the question:
If you had been in the restaurant eating close by to Nigella and Saatchi when he disturbingly put her hands around her neck, what would your reaction had been?
Stephen Tall was right to say yesterday that his response was a bit ill thought out and incoherent. I preferred to think of it as him taking the pony to get to the point rather than the helicopter, something that he does quite a bit. Nick did get there in the end and made it clear that if he saw someone being violent to their partner, he hoped he’d intervene to protect the weaker person.
Nobody could be justified in thinking for a second that Nick would ever condone domestic violence. Yes, Yvette Cooper, that would be you I’m talking about. Dr Sarah Wollaston MP was as bad.
There’s another dimension to this, though, that I’ve become aware of today: Nick’s wife, Miriam Gonzalez Durantez and Nigella are friends. They knew each other before they did a video for The Stylist way back in 2011. Nigella had taken over the site as editor for that issue and she and Miriam cooked croquetas together. There’s even a You Tube video.
Stephen Tall has just written a post on Nick Clegg’s LBC comments about Charles Saatchi grabbing Nigella Lawson’s throat while they were having dinner, an incident for which Saatchi accepted a Police caution.
Nick Clegg has now issued a statement clarifying his remarks:
I completely condemn all forms of domestic violence.
As I said on the radio, my instinct would always be to try and protect the weaker person, to try and protect the person who otherwise would be hurt.
But I was asked a very specific question about how I would have reacted to a specific incident which I did not see.
And why? – for the role they both played in preventing the communications data bill from reaching the statute books.
The other two nominees are Edward Snowdon, who was the whistleblower on the PRISM project, and Spamhaus, an IT security organisation who fought off a major denial of service attack earlier this year.
ISPA Secretary-General Nicholas Lansman noted that the Internet Hero award is “one of the most anticipated categories” at the ISPAs.
Given what has happened in the last year, it is no surprise
Nick Clegg took part in an “Open for Growth on Trade, Tax and Transparency” G8 event on Saturday. The event was attended by African leaders and the likes of Kofi Annan and the Managing Director of the World Bank Caroline Anstey. Nick hosted the sessionon extractives transparency and chaired the final panel of the day.
He said at the event:
We know why we’re here. People across the world want and expect us – governments, businesses and NGOs – to work together to deliver strong economies and fairer societies.
These issues affect those in both the developed and developing world. And we know
Today’s Sunday Times front page (£) splashes with a ‘Cash for peerages row hits Clegg’ headline. The reality is slightly less exciting: Rumi Verjee, a prominent donor to the Lib Dems, is apparently top of the list of seven names put forward for peerages:
Rumi Verjee, a multimillionaire who brought the Domino’s pizza chain to Britain, is top of a list of seven names compiled by the Lib Dems who are expected to be awarded honours within weeks. He has given £770,000 to the party since May 2010. … Verjee
Nick Clegg has indicated that he will not change his position on the so called “snoopers’ charter” despite calls for him to do so by four former home secretaries. A group of politicians, including Liberal Democrat peer Lord Carlile wrote to the Times (£) to say that the Bill was necessary:
It has always been a requirement, and always will be, that such intrusive intercepts are subject to time-limited warrants. Their use is guided by a strict criterion of necessity and proportionality, and are only permitted to protect national security and counter serious criminal conduct. We find it odd
Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg has made this statement following the release of Helena Morrissey’s independent report into processes and culture within the Liberal Democrats and her recommendations for change:
I’m very grateful to Helena Morrissey for her very thorough report.
It makes sobering reading. It shows that stretching over a 20 year period a series of mistakes were made which left a number of women feeling seriously let down and for that there is absolutely no excuse whatsoever.
The report also shows that the individuals who dealt with their complaints had the right motives, but there weren’t the right processes
We Lib Dems are past masters of the squeeze message. “The Tories can’t win here: vote Lib Dem to keep Labour out”; “Labour can’t win here: vote Lib Dem to keep the Tories out”.
But since 2010 we have become the victims of a just-as-vicious squeeze message. Labour says: “Lib Dems are propping up a toxic right-wing Tory government pushing through disgraceful policies (which we will quietly sign up to later — viz cutting child benefit for wealthier parents — once we’ve capitalised on public anger).” …
Ed Balls has done us all a favour. His announcement last week that if he were Chancellor he would put a stop to winter fuel allowances for well-off pensioners means Labour has joined the Lib Dems in saying we need to focus the welfare budget where it’s needed most, not keep on re-distributing from the worse off to the better off in the name of universalism. It’s why I chose him as my 38th Liberal Hero.
And yesterday he was at it again, highlighting quite how much of the welfare budget the state pension represents — some £74 …
Iain Martin in the Telegraph asks “Is Nick Clegg the Tories’ biggest headache?“. Once you get past the heartwarming bitterness, Nick is roundly praised with not-so-faint damnation, for blocking one right wing policy after another.
Mr Cameron remains pragmatic about the antics of his deputy, say colleagues. Some other Tories are much less relaxed. “Our backbenchers have really had it with Clegg now,” admits one minister. An MP from the Tory Right said that Number 10 was “supine” and far too eager to please the Deputy Prime Minister. “Why does our leadership spend so much of its time placating Clegg
But to be honest I think what this is about is what about those kids who aren’t lucky enough to have, I don’t know, families or parents who can help or can try and help them, who just don’t have the contacts, who don’t have the support they need to live out their dreams….
…I actually do think there are so many young children today …
The Spectator’s editor Fraser Nelson is — rightly — very hot on politicians being accurate in their use of stats. For instance, he’s — rightly — called out both Nick Clegg and David Cameron for confusing (whether accidentally or deliberately) the terms ‘debt’ and ‘deficit’, claiming the former is falling when they mean the latter.
However, Fraser is sometimes a bit casual with facts himself — for instance, wrongly claiming that an old report for the Department for Education ‘proved’ the pupil premium was flawed when it did no such thing.
Nick Clegg has long championed improving life chances for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. As he said on this morning’s Call Clegg:
My dad helped me. I was very lucky. But is shouldn’t be all about luck. That’s what we need to address.
He said that bright kids from poorer backgrounds were being overtaken at school by less bright children from more affluent backgrounds by the time they were 7 and the problem continues as they decide on their careers. If you’re from a poorer background, you don’t have the connections to land you the best opportunties. Remedying that problem is what’s behind the Opening Doors campaign which 150 companies have signed up to. Yesterday Nick launched the Opening Doors awards, which aim to find the best examples of reaching those bright young people and giving them the help they need. It’s a very strong example of the least heard but most important part of the Trinity of Liberal Democrat Mantras – enabling everyone to get on in life.
There are a number of categories in the awards, from best outreach, to most inspirational young person to a Deputy Prime Minister’s excellence award which “will be given to the organisation who has excelled in setting the standard and communicating the case for social mobility.”
This is Nick’s video launching the awards which is also available here on You Tube:
Nick Clegg’s statement is categorical — the Coalition is abandoning plans to allow nurseries and childminders in England to look after more children. Revealed in January by Conservative children’s minister Liz Truss, the idea that the ratio for under 2s, for example, could increase from 1:4 to 1:6 was always going to be controversial. Here’s Nick:
“One of my absolute top priorities in government is to deliver better quality, more affordable childcare for parents up and down the country. I will relentlessly champion and pursue policies that deliver that –
The weekend’s revelations that two Labour peers and an Ulster Unionist were filmed offering to lobby ministers for cash, following hot on the heels of Tory MP Patrick Mercer’s resignation of the Tory whip over similar allegations, has re-ignited the question of how to clean up Parliament.
Two proposals are being pushed, both of them originally pledged in the Coalition Agreement.
Register of lobbyists
First, there’s a register of lobbyists, intended to bring greater transparency to the way in which professional lobbyists seek to influence government decisions. This is one of Unlock Democracy’s top campaigns:
Labour and Tory MPs have a new favourite hobby. It’s one they’ve been practising for decades, but they’ve really refined their art in the last three years.
Basically it works like this…
A political scandal happens. Abuse of expenses by MPs or cash-for-questions/honours/favours, that sort of thing. Everyone demands reform. This must never happen again, they say. Cross-party talks are immediately convened. Then re-convened a few months later once the pressure’s off a bit. And finally they’re abandoned once they’re sure people have got bored with it all and …
I know that the absence of the register from last month’s Queen’s Speech raised some concerns. So let me be clear: it will happen.
That was Nick Clegg writing in the Telegraph following accusations that an MP and three peers were engaging in paid lobbying.
Also on the table is the power of recall of corrupt MPs – something also raised by Tories Dan Hannan and Douglas Carswell elsewhere in the Telegraph. The point at issue between the two positions: whether there must be wrongdoing, or whether recall is at the absolute discretion of the petitioners and …
This week, Nick emphasises that despite all the fuss in the media, the Government is getting its head down and delivering good things. He points out that although things like Europe and equal marriage dominate the newspapers, they take up a relatively small part of parliamentary time. He also says that he thinks coalitions will become more frequent as people’s dissatisfaction with “the old two party politics deepens.” Over to Nick
“It won’t be easy: there will be bumps and scrapes along the way.”
As more embarrassing revelations come out about Newark MP Patrick Mercer’s conduct, momentum is bound to build behind Nick Clegg’s quest to introduce both a register of lobbyists and a right of recall so that constituents can get rid of an MP accused of serious wrongdoing.
He has talked about both issues recently. Firstly, on recall, reported in the Guardian:
The proposals included in the coalition agreement appeared to have been stalled partly because there was disagreement on what behaviour by an MP could trigger a constituent’s right to petition for a byelection.
It’s crunch time for parties across the political spectrum: will parliamentarians do the right thing for our climate and the UK economy or will they let the sceptics drive investors overseas?
The Energy Bill returns to the Commons next week, just as the Conservatives are retreating to their traditional political stomping grounds in the face of competition from the right. Writing in Lib Dem Voice last month, Nick Clegg noted that: “Compassionate conservatism has been sidelined…the blue team used to claim to have gone green, yet have now publicly denounced the importance of environmental protections”. It’s up to the Liberal Democrats to …
Today’s Call Clegg was quite extraordinary. We know that there’s been a big push by some of the more authoritarian figures in the country to try to build a case for the so called Snoopers’ Charter over the past few days. It was obvious Nick was going to be asked about it. The caller, Vince (no, not that one) from Kingston was very supportive of Nick’s position. What happened next was that Nick Ferrari played recorded messages from former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair and the Secretary …
Another week, another Question Time with no Liberal Democrat on the panel. Tonight’s episode, from London, will feature Conservative health minister Anna Soubry, former Labour Home Secretary Alan Johnson, the New Statesman’s Mehdi Hassan, Downton Abbey author Julian Fellowes and UKIP’s Diane James.
This is the second week running that there hasn’t been a Liberal Democrat on the panel. The reason it’s serious is because ever since last week’s horrific murder in Woolwich, there has been a clamour of voices in the media, one of the loudest being Alan Johnson’s, saying …
Today’s Times carries a story (£), with not very much substance to it, that the Liberal Democrats have threatened to team up with Labour to vote on the Mansion Tax if the Conservatives team up with Labour to force through the Communications Data Bill so loved by Theresa May and which has been rejected by Nick Clegg on 3 occasions now. The first was when he refused to let it in last year’s Queen’s Speech as a full bill, ensuring it received detailed scrutiny by a parliamentary committee. The second was when the Parliamentary Committee rejected the measure out of …
Members have just received this email from Nick Clegg:
The 2014 local and European elections are hugely important, so I’m putting one of our best campaigners in charge – Tim Farron.
The dust may have barely settled since this May’s local elections but it’s never too early to start work on the next set. No one embodies that more than Tim, a true 24/7 campaigner, working hard all year round – just ask the people of Westmorland and Lonsdale.
Given the critical importance of these elections for Liberal Democrat representation at a local …
Nick Clegg used his Bank Holiday weekend letter to members to reflect on the deeply disturbing Woolwich murder, as well as progress with the Equal Marriage Bill.
This was a week that put things in perspective. I know I speak for all Liberal Democrats when I say that our thoughts are with the family and friends of Drummer Lee Rigby – the British soldier attacked and killed in Woolwich on Wednesday. And I’ve made it clear, on the party’s behalf, that we are immensely grateful to our police,
Every time you go into a supermarket or newsagent to buy a magazine, you are likely to be confronted with the following:
A women’s section, which contains magazines on, mainly, celebrity froth, sewing, cooking and child-rearing;
Everything remotely interesting,like current affairs, photography, fishing, sport, computers and science fiction being displayed elsewhere;
Magazines with pictures of half naked women prominently displayed in a way that you can’t miss.
What does this tell children about the world in which they are growing up? The message seems to be that women are there to keep everyone else fed (while keeping themselves unrealistically thin, of course), …
Now that Clegg is in the most stable position of all the party leaders – Cameron has overseen fractures with gay marriage and Europe; Miliband is facing his Waterloo over whether or not to accept Coalition spending plans – this Balham tête-à-tête sparked some mischievous speculation. With Alexander’s star rising, did the Italian dinner involve a Granita pact for the 21st century? If so, it would – in the event of a hung parliament in 2015 – see Clegg step down for Alexander to take over
Today I attended an interfaith meeting, chaired by Nick Clegg and attended by representatives of the other political parties, following the terrible events in Woolwich on Wednesday where soldier Lee Rigby was brutally murdered. The event was incredibly positive, with representatives of many faiths coming together to denounce the attack, condemn those who bring terrorism to our streets, and agree that we have to stand together in the face of it.
I’ll warn you up front that I’m not going to use this post to make political …
Nick Clegg attended an inter-faith event in North London, designed to show solidarity between the diverse communities in the capital, in the wake of the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby. He didn’t have a script, but thankfully someone was taking notes. Here is the full text of his remarks:
Can I thank you all very, very much for being here and can I thank, particularly, everybody at the Centre, all the – all the volunteers here, everyone from the Peabody operation. You – you’ve helped us to organise this at very, very short notice indeed.
Steve Trevethan Might we have a definition of government debt?
Might we have a definition of democracy?...
David Raw @ Tristan Ward. Given your views on carers, I would strongly advise you to remain healthy and not to grow old....
Katrin Harding Thanks for grasping this issue! On the consultation sessions- I’d love to join one but the timings are impossible as a parent of young children. I’m happy t...
Peter Martin @ Kira,
The words you quoted were from Peter Davies'. Not me. I wouldn't agree with raising VAT on energy to 15% right now. I'd leave it as is.
The point ...
Peter Martin “‘why can’t social care and NHS spending be treated as ‘investment’’. Of course, that wont wash”.
I'd agree if were talking about re...
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