In addition to his speech on Sunday, Nick Clegg is doing a Q+A session on Saturday at the Liberal Democrat spring conference in Birmingham – and this time with an added online twist:
Straight after he comes off stage, he’s keen to answer questions sent in from people who are unable to attend the conference.
When: 13 March at 15.25
Where: Online, answers will be posted on his website, Facebook and Tweeted shortly after.
As reported in today’s Independent, Nick Clegg has been talking about what the Lib Dems would do in the event of a hung parliament, and flags up some of the announcements due at the party’s spring conference in Birmingham this weekend.
the Liberal Democrat leader also revealed that his party would try to calm jitters in the financial markets about a hung parliament by calling for a £10bn “repayment” to cut Britain’s public deficit. It would be found from £15bn of spending cuts to be outlined this month.
Mr Clegg declined to speculate whether his party would
With most polls showing the next election could result in a hung parliament, there has been various speculation about what the Lib Dem position would be. I think it’s time for Nick Clegg to make an unambiguous statement that the party would not enter a coalition with either Labour or the Tories. Here are my five reasons why Nick should spell this out clearly and simply now …
1. A coalition is a non-starter, so let’s just rule it out now
It’s quite simple: the majority of party members will not for a single moment entertain the idea of a coalition with …
The Liberal Democrats will centre their campaign on joint appearances by Nick Clegg, leader, and Vince Cable, Treasury spokesman, in an attempt to project a blend of youth and experience.
A clutch of former Lib Dem leaders will be deployed in the regions. Paddy Ashdown is taking a hands-on role directing the Lib Dem’s defence of the south-west heartlands. Sir Menzies Campbell and Charles Kennedy will be touring seats in Scotland and the north.
The article also lists Chris Huhne (“pugnacious, quick-footed”) and Lynne Featherstone (“sound media performer”) as ones to watch in the Liberal Democrat campaign.
Over at the Independent today, Nick Clegg argues that the electorate is weary of two-party wrangling and tactical voting. The voters, he says, are ready for a third option, one which breaks new ground. I guess that would be us, then. Here’s an excerpt:
This election could be an election of renewal, when the old politics finally passes its sell-by date and a new era of pluralism and accountability is ushered in. The one advantage of a crisis – economic, political, social – is that it can open the door to a new way of doing things. It can make the
If you go to Amazon searching for “Why vote Liberal Democrat?”, edited by Danny Alexander and just published by Biteback, you may be surprised to find yourself being presented instead with a book of the same title from 1997, written by William Wallace. The new book is misfiled by Amazon under the title “Why vote Lib Dem?” but actually the 1997 volume provides an interesting contrast with the 2010 version.
The 2010 book is one of a series, covering also Labour, Conservatives, SNP, Plaid and the Greens. All the others are single person authored books (with the exception of …
One of the more appealing characteristics and strengths of the Liberal Democrats is the room there is within the party for genuine debate, and the freedom members have to hold views which differ from those of the leadership.
There are of course certain principles which all who hold the Liberal banner aloft share however; principles around the freedom of the individual from the unreasonable constraints of the state into their personal lives, and these principles bound us together and make the party the pleasant place to be that it is.
The Liberal tradition goes back to the enlightenment, with figures such as …
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg says that the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War has provided enough information to suggest that the war was illegal.
Speaking on Radio Tay on Friday morning at the same time Prime Minister Gordon Brown was facing questions at the inquiry in London, he said: “I’m not a lawyer, but my view is that now there is sufficient evidence to sustain the claim that this was illegal.”
“A Dutch inquiry into the Iraq war came to the conclusion that it was indeed illegal, and flew in the face of international law…
The ‘pupil premium’ – the Lib Dem proposal to invest an extra £2.5bn in schools which could be used to cut class sizes, offer one-on-one tuition and provide catch-up classes – is a policy which Nick Clegg has passionately advocated for over seven years. It is now one of the party’s four key policies emphasising fairness – in this case, A fair start for every child – for the coming general election.
This week, the Institute for Fiscal Studies – the independent financial research institute often quoted by the party to validate its economic policies – published an …
Despite some alarms along the way, the rules are now set for the first-ever head-to-head general election debates in the UK a mere 46 years after the first suggestion.
(And no, yawn yawn, it isn’t only in the US that such debates take place: the US wasn’t first and the US isn’t a particularly good place to look for lessons, what with not being a Parliamentary democracy unlike many of the other countries which also have TV debates.)
Now the rules are set, what do they tell us about how the debates may play out?
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg is to speak first in the first debate, hosted by ITV, while Gordon Brown and David Cameron will do so in the subsequent debates, on Sky and the BBC.
Local councillors and campaigners are flabbergasted after Conservative-run Cornwall Council decided to prevent Nick Clegg from visiting a key regeneration site in the county.
The Lib Dem leader had been due to visit the Heartlands Project, part of a rundown old mining area which is due to be transformed using a multi-million pound Lottery grant.
Nick Clegg today set out the importance of early years education in tackling inequality in a speech to the Salvation Army. Here’s how Politics.co.uk reports it:
Nick Clegg has placed inequality firmly at the centre of the Liberal Democrat’s education policy and attacked the Tories for not costing their plans for schools. In a keynote speech on education, Mr Clegg said his party’s ‘pupil premium’ policy would see disadvantaged children receive as much funding for education as private school pupil. Headmasters would then be able to spend that money on reducing class sizes.
Nick’s speech has earned the praise of Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers union:
The approach the Liberal Democrats have taken to education reform in a tough financial climate is genuinely refreshing. It would appear that the Liberal Democrats have understood that the last thing you do in times of financial hardship is cut back on the opportunities to boost support for education. Internationally the most far sighted countries are using their education system to prepare for the economic upturn. Nick Clegg appears to have understood this.”
I pointed out before that the key to getting a boost in support out of TV leader debates isn’t so much winning the debate as beating expectations: if people expected you to do dreadfully and you come out doing ok that’s almost always a boost to a campaign, whilst being seen as doing ok when the expectations were that you would walk it means you lose support.
So the pressure really is on David Cameron as he’s the one going in to the debates with highest expectations on him according to the latest MORI opinion poll:
Secondly, here’s Nick Clegg responding to questions posted to Facebook (Facebook.com/nickclegg) and Twitter (@Nick_Clegg) in his latest online Q&A session with voters, and covering a variety of topics: support for carers, voter apathy, voting Lib Dem, military pay, the ‘Robin Hood Tax’, democratic accountability, Scottish independence; the hunger strikers and rights of children at Yarl’s Wood detention centre, and (forget biscuits) whether he prefers tea or coffee.
Over at the Guardian’s Comment is Free, Nick Clegg contributes to the Citizen Ethics strand.
He recalls Margaret Thatcher’s economic aims in the 1980s, saying that he seeks a revolution as big as the one in the 1980s, but of a different quality: “I do not want to change things back; I want to change them forward.”
Here’s an excerpt:
I do not believe that society is broken. There are minor miracles done every day by parents, teachers, carers, total strangers: acts of kindness that are the overwhelming majority of human experience. For every banker justifying their grotesque bonus, there are hundreds
My campaign to take over from David Howarth in Cambridge was given a huge boost on Thursday, when we were visited by Nick Clegg, who did a Q+A session for students in Trinity Hall.
The turnout was huge – we overflowed the meeting room that was prepared for us. As we walked in, it was clear that there was a great energy in the room.
Nick didn’t do a preamble speech – the idea was just to …
Over at The Independent today, Nick Clegg argues that Labour has no basis on which to claim the ground of fairness any longer. Here’s an excerpt:
Last weekend, Gordon Brown set out his stall, claiming that Labour is the party of fairness in Britain. Their General Election slogan, “A Future Fair for All”, seeks to stake out this territory as their own. But, after 13 years in government, are these claims credible? Gordon Brown also urged people to “take a second look” at Labour. What, then, is Labour’s record on fairness really like?
The political impact of TV debates in other Parliamentary democracies (and yes, yawn yawn, obligatory American reference, in the US too) has often been more about expectations than about absolute performance. Beat expectations and you benefit from the debate, even if that means people viewed you as the narrow loser. But if you were expected to be a big loser and then beat expectations and only just lose, you benefit.
Also the impact of debates has often been to reinforce people’s existing predilections rather than switch people between different parties or candidates. That has, for example, been a common feature in Canada, where TV debates have been held off and on since 1968. (Yawn yawn, US example, 1988 second Dukakis-Bush debate and others.)
In other words, you’re best placed to come out well from a debate if your party is the one most in need of motivating its supporters and if the expectations about your performance are low. Step forward then, Gordon Brown.
As for Nick Clegg?
Both of Brown’s advantages are advantages over David Cameron – and only over David Cameron. Liberal Democrat share of the vote is fairly static overall as turnout changes: from purely partisan motives, the level of turnout does not really matter, though of course from the perspective of health democracy higher turnout is much to be preferred. The expectations one is trickier, but the expectations amongst many in the media that Nick Clegg will benefit hugely from being in the debates is based on simply him being there, so he won’t go in to them with the pressure of extremely high personal performance being expected by the media.
Moreover, for Nick Clegg there is that third factor: TV debates can raise the profile of leaders beyond the main two parties.
For Nick and the Liberal Democrats this is likely to be a major boost, because consistently the party does best when it is in the news (even if, during the post-Kennedy leadership contest several MPs did their level best to disprove that). As simple a move as asking people about their views of party leaders before asking them which party they’ll vote for raises the third party’s vote in opinion polls. That’s why for many years Gallup gave the party higher ratings that other pollsters.
Compared to that, appearing in a trio of TV debates alongside Brown and Cameron will be a massive boost for Nick Clegg and the party.
Whilst we wait to find out what the televised general election debates will bring, enjoy this moment from the 1988 Canadian debates. The 1988 election was a re-run contest between Brian Mulroney’s Conservatives, who had won a landslide in 1984, and the Liberals under John Turner, still leader despite leading his party crashing out of power in 1984. John Turner is the silver haired one:
Over at Cancer Research UK’s science update blog, Nick Clegg asnwers questions about the Liberal Democrats plan to do to help beat cancer. Here’s an excerpt:
Britain’s cancer survival rates are worse than many of our European neighbours – what are the Liberal Democrats planning to do to tackle this?
Nick Clegg – Early detection is key. It simply doesn’t make sense for people to be turned away from screening programmes because they’re thought to be too old or too young, so we’d scrap age limits on screening for a start. And we need to get more people to go and get
I was rather puzzled by the Sunday Telegrpah’s report today by Melissa Kite on the standing of party leaders, which claimed that Nick Clegg’s net leader performance rating in polling for PoliticsHome had plummeted since last September. Puzzled because that would be way out of line with what the other polls have been saying.
One email exchange with PoliticsHome later and lo, what was reported as a +5% rating in the most recent polling turns out actually to have been a +15% when then suffered a typo.
At +15% the rating not only compares well to Cameron (+12%) and of course …
By Stephen Tall
| Thu 18th February 2010 - 3:53 pm
Nick Clegg has just tweeted his reaction to Sir Nicholas Winterton’s railing against moves to reduce first-class train travel by MPs – the Tory MP said he needed “peace and quiet” while travelling, and that standard class carriages are occupied by “a totally different type of people.”
The Lib Dem leader’s having none of it, slamming Sir Nicholas’s plea with an exasperated one-liner:
“Sadly some MPs still just don’t get it …”
Well quite. The Tories have been quick to disown Sir Nicholas, acidly dismissing “the out-of-touch views of a soon-to-retire backbench MP”.
The trouble is the Tory party does have a bit of form. As Lib Dem blogger Mark Thompson reminds us, the Tory chairman Eric Pickles hardly covered himself in glory on the BBC’s Question Time last year when he defended his second home on the more-than-dubious grounds that as an MP he has to be in work on time. Let’s remind ourselves once again of that perfect moment of car-crash telly:
Over at Pink News, Nick Clegg answers questions from its readers on gay marriage, homophobic violence, faith schools, LGBT asylum seekers, and many other political issues. Here’s a taster:
The number one question submitted by our readers was on whether Nick Clegg and his party support gay marriage. Mr Clegg said last month he supported civil partners calling themselves husband or wife but would he change the law to allow gay civil marriage?
Yes, I support gay marriage. Love is the same, straight or gay, so the civil institution should be the same, too. All couples should be able to make that
By Stephen Tall
| Wed 17th February 2010 - 2:02 pm
Bless Nick Herbert: he’s doing his best today to make the claim that the Tories’ attitudes to homosexuality have changed, and that gay people should trust the party. The trouble is Nick has to contend with the reality of the Tories’ voting record – which, as the Lib Dems have pointed out, shows what the Tory party really believes.
The voting records of current Tory MPs who are standing again in 2010 show that:
One in six voted against the repeal of Section 28 in 2003 – including David Cameron and a third of the Tory shadow cabinet;
Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, called for MPs to be banned from making a profit from selling second homes which they bought using their Commons allowances.
He will prevent Liberal Democrat MPs making money out of selling such a property after having their mortgage interest paid by the taxpayer – and wants the rule extended to all MPs. Any profits from the sale of a property would be handed back to the Exchequer.
It’s a mark of a good piece of analysis that it is still sound even if the particular news story that prompted its publication doesn’t stand up for long. And so it is with Stephen’s piece over on Comment is Free, triggered by the Guardian story – firmly rubbished by the party – about the party’s attitude towards coalitions.
So although The Guardian story has been ridiculed – after all the paper has variously reported that the party wants a coalition with the Tories, wants a coalition with Labour or doesn’t want a coalition at all – Stephen’s three tests …
“Where have all the good times gone?” That old song by The Kinks often comes back to my ears when I am in Britain –quite regularly, that is. The economy is not only going down, it is just not up to what it used to be.
The Cadbury flop
The takeover of Cadbury by Kraft Foods is just the latest in a long series. In less than three decades Britain has lost many of the jewels in its industrial crown.
One of the most spectacular examples is of course the car industry. When The Times writes about Jaguar Land Rover as “the UK’s …
The Liberal Democrats are planning to rule out forming a coalition government with either the Conservatives or Labour if Nick Clegg holds the balance of power in a hung parliament after the general election. … senior Lib Dems are making clear that Clegg has no interest in taking cabinet posts and would focus instead on winning support for four key Lib Dem demands.
Clegg would be prepared to throw a lifeline to the Conservatives or Labour by allowing either party to pass a Queen’s speech if the aspiring government makes concessions in the four areas, described
The Liberal Democrat leader has sacked his health spokeswoman in the House of Lords after comments she made about alleged organ trafficking in Haiti.
Jenny Tonge told the Jewish Chronicle there should be an inquiry into claims that Israeli troops sent there after the earthquake were trafficking organs.
Nick Clegg said the comments were “wrong, distasteful and provocative” and dismissed her from her post.
He said she apologised “unreservedly” for any offence she had caused.
Caron Lindsay Beat headline in the history of the world.
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expats Putin first attacked Ukraine in 2014; four years after his Feb 2022 attack he has still not succeeded in defeating that single nation... The idea that he poses...
Jana Sorry, meant to say ‘not able to move offshore’....
Jana I disagree with raising income tax, NI or VAT. We need to be taxing those assets that rich people are able to move offshore - let’s start by taxing the owner...
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