There’s always a bit of an irony with blogging and party conferences — at the time when the media are most looking for reaction from activists to the leader’s speech most of them are hot-footing it to the train station to return to their normal lives outside the conference bubble.
However, a few Lib Dems have had chance to put finger to keyboard in response to Nick Clegg’s address to close the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham. Here are those I’ve spotted so far on the Aggregator…
- Go back to your constituencies and prepare for the long haul… (Yellow Tinted Spectacles)
- Clegg commits shared parental leave as Govt policy-Yay! (Mat Bowles)
- The Most Controversial Thing to Come Out of Nick Clegg’s Speech to #ldconf (Jennie Rigg)
- Nick Clegg: We will tear down every barrier our children face (Caron Lindsay)
And of course my Co-Editor Mark Pack blogged his reaction here on Lib Dem Voice earlier.
Apologies if I’ve missed anyone; please add links below for any I’ve missed or which are posted subsequently.
Oh, and here are a selection of Liberal Tweets:
meralhece Nick Clegg: ‘WE WILL ALWAYS DEFEND HUMAN RIGHTS- HERE & ABROAD- IT IS HERE TO STAY!!!!!’
strmrgn It feels like clegg is gearing up to fight for lib dem values…its about time! #ldconf
miss_s_b Cleggy being nicely rousing on the Human Rights Act. #ldconf
markpack Notable how @nick_clegg’s attacks are on Tory policies and not on Tory personalities #ldconf
meralhece ‘Labour has cowered before News International for decades’ – Nick Clegg. #LDconf
miss_s_b Hurrah for Cleggy giving a shout out to the fabulous @lfeatherstone
RockyLorusso Clegg: for liberals the only struggle worth having is an uphill one #ldconf
MShapland Great speech, be proud of what we’ve achieved as Liberals #ldconf
EnlightBystand A little slow and inward facing at the start, but really good at the end #ldconf
neilmonnery Nick Clegg goes with the children are our future line to end. Overall it was impressive I must say #ldconf
chrisjenkinson Top quality speech from Nick Clegg – so passionate about an equal start in life for all children #ldconf
malcolmbruce Nick’s speech the speech of a joint Prime Minister rather than the deputy.
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16 Comments
Listening to Clegg today proved once and for all he is a Tory in Lib Dem clothing. He has turned your party into Tory lite and the cabinet is full of his Tory lite Lib Dem drones with the exception of Vince…………enjoy your time in power, it will be the last in a very very long time.
Which party do you support, Red Rag?
I’m guessing it was the party that brought in the Human Rights Act.
@redrag were you listening to a different speech to me? No Tory would ever have made that speach, defending human rights, promoting fairness and equality etc
@Peter1919
Exactly whose human rights were being defended? Certainly not those who will be queuing at the foodbanks and homeless shelters because of the welfare reforms the Lib Dems in the coalition have wholeheartedly supported while they and the rest of the MP’s wallow in wealth. The only people who are seeing fairness and equality are the bloated millionaires in the government and beyond. Shall I go on to the NHS, tuition fes, removal of legal aid (where the equality and fairness there then?), removal of EMA (to fund Pupil Premium) etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. ?
Oh dear, are we seeing another influx of trolls after Conference? Just when Lib Dem Voice was getting back to reasonable and interesting debates in its comment sections.
@Dave Page:
I am disabled, facing cuts to DLA which would mean losing my job. Legal aid to help disabled people appeal decisions is being cut. The waits between appointments with my neurologist are becoming longer. My local library is closed. I’m facing fuel poverty.
If pointing things like this out, such as Anne is doing, is “trolling”, then you seem to be holding in contempt the people your policies will harm and are harming. If you believe in what the government is doing, but all rights defend this and explain why you defend it. But calling dissenters “trolls” is a bit silly, really, don’t you think?
The only way to deal with trolls is to ignore them, just as one does with children’s attention-seeking behaviour. I know that this is difficult but I for one do not need Tom King’s and Dave Page’s comments to help me identify Red Rag and Anne as ‘not our sort’.
It was a dull speech. I’m sure the most ardent of Clegg’s supporters would agree. He cannot announce new things on his own and that’s his problem. Summer schools for rioters isnt much to cheer about is it?
The only significant bit of his speech was the attack on Labour. He may have permanently burned his bridges with Labour with the line ‘never trust Labour with the economy’. It was interesting given that all other speakers stayed well clear of labour and trained their guns only at the tories. Even this isnt much of a consequence because Ed Miliband has already declared he wont work with Clegg. We can now safely assume that a future lib-lab coalition will not include Clegg.
Dave Page, Chris Squire, do the lib dems not believe in listening to criticism from outside the party any more?
Blogs from other political positions are happy to tolerate dissent from party spin in comments boxes. You should be appalled that LDV is censoring and driving out criticism. It’s hardly liberal.
Alternatively, it won´t include Miliband.
I reviewed Nick’s speech on Radio 5 Live alongside Matthew Gibson from Solution Focused Politics.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b014r5b1.
We’re on during the first 16 minutes and again at 2 hours 33 minutes.
LibDem bloggers aside, has anyone seen the ghastly press coverage we’re getting again in papers that contain the majority of those who voted for the party at the last election?
An instant reaction Daily Mail online piece, “Nick Clegg and Lib Dem Damnfoolery”, which described Nick Clegg’s speech as “student union oratory” had Simon Heffer’s paw prints all over it (as I pointed out in a hail of red arrows).
This morning’s verdict from the paper’s political editor was a model of Mail venom with just one sentence, the almost predictable “At least Clegg resisted the temptation to attack the government.”, being Nick’s only reward for so selectively attacking Labour – with his photo juxtaposed with that of a maniacal looking Tony Blair.
To Stephen Glover we are “unprincipled hyenas and political whores” – yes, that really is this morning’s headline from an Indie columnist wearing another hat to better line his pockets (excuse the the mixed metaphors.)
I ask again whether anyone in the communications team has a clue how to counter this propaganda other than writing of their gratitude that David Laws has been allowed his pre-conference place in The Sun. To hear Norman Baker saying that our only friends in the press were the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday was frankly insulting to those of us who are trying to constructively promote the LibDems’ role in the this coalition.
Children are not our future, we are their future, so we had better do better than we are at present.
I said at the end of my own review of the speech that I was really disappointed with Andrew Neil’s comments afterwards, he glossed over anything potentially good to just highlight things that could cause tension between us and either Labour or the Tories.
@Mac, I happen to think the summer school is a brilliant thing and definitely something to cheer about – although it’s not for rioters as you suggest (at least I hope they weren’t rioting, if so I really worry about the parenting). From the speech it implied that it is for those children aged (or very nearly aged) 11 about to start secondary school who struggle with English and/or Maths. You and others from the media might not see what difference that could do, however I remember starting secondary school and many of those children who were already struggling in the core subjects when they started school would just give up, this had a knock on effect on their other studies unless they found a teacher who really engaged them. I think we should be doing everything we can to make sure no child is left behind and I can see this helping some students immensely – even if it gives them the extra motivation in Year 6 to do better so they don’t need to spend two weeks of their summer in school!
@ Chris Squire.
I am very pleased not to be one of your sort. I believe in fairness and equality which I do not see in ANY of the three parties. By insulting people you only show up what your party has become. Uninterested in democracy and free speech unless it agrees with you.