19 Comments

• Matthew Huntbach 14th Oct '14 - 11:06am

  Sorry, I am a member of the Liberal Democrats, not a member of the Nick Clegg Fan Club. So I would expect a Party Political Broadcast for my party to be about what the party stands for and what it does, and not about what the person it chooses as leaders says or does.

• Tony Dawson 14th Oct '14 - 11:18am

  It would be more than a little intriguing, following Matthew’s comment above, to know who makes decisions as to what (and who) goes into our Lib Dem PPBs. Especially given the wholly-inappropriate nature of the content of the PPBs ostensibly for our local election campaign last year. And to whom in the Party (as opposed to the Parliamentary Party) would said person be accountable? Would this process have anything to do with the (sic) General Election Campaign?

• Tony Dawson 14th Oct '14 - 11:22am

  I made the above comment prior to viewing the video. I have now done so. I am utterly gobsmacked. It is a total and absolute disgrace. Is Nick Clegg standing for City Ratcatcher in a small town in the midwest of the USA? This video would possibly be appropriate for him in such a scenario.

• ChrisB 14th Oct '14 - 11:27am

  >It’s not bad

  Yes, it is! 😉

• Tsar Nicolas 14th Oct '14 - 11:36am

  When Clegg is shown, the LD vote share goes down. Is Lynton Crosby in charge of the LD campaign?

• ATF 14th Oct '14 - 12:11pm

  I like Nick, I support Nick – this wasn’t a good PPB. An online video on the website, sure. But after a very positive announcement at conference re: mental health – which all groups in the party gave full support – it was a wasted opportunity to show a postive, LD stance on a vital issue.

• matt 14th Oct '14 - 12:35pm

  Is this a party political broadcast to be broadcast over the TV?

  If it is then it is an absolute disgrace.

  I thought PPB were about promoting the party not the person?

  Clegg mania seems to evolved into Megalomania

• tpfkar 14th Oct '14 - 12:42pm

  I’m clearly in the minority thinking this is effective.

  Humanises Nick, talks about values rather than pledges, well produced and keeps your interest.

  We’ve had a lot worse go out in our name.

• Caracatus 14th Oct '14 - 1:19pm

  there will be no answers – we will ask why the need to promote other voices, belated accepted and promised after the Euro-election disaster has been ignored. We will ask why the excellent work on mental health launched at Conference wasn’t the main feature of the broadcast. We will ask what polling suggests putting Nick Clegg on TV attracts votes to the lib dems – . We will ask what with UKIP storming to by-election wins, what have we to say on the issues driving people to vote UKIP – there will be no replies It’s 100% Westminster bubble.

• David Blake 14th Oct '14 - 2:40pm

  The Huffington Post has details of a poll which shows that hardly anyone knows what we stand for. How will this PPB improve that situation?

• Eddie Sammon 14th Oct '14 - 3:48pm

  We need to re-run some of those votes at conference with OMOV. Nick has the potential to make friends in high places and in the community and we could get very positive press coverage, but people will look at the motions voted on and be like “Well, I would love to support you, but I can’t because of that.”.

  It’s not about cronyism, it’s about meeting key stakeholders in society and showing support for their organisation and in return them saying good things about the Lib Dems. We need to get on board people like top police officers, doctors, nurses, teachers, business people, churches, unions, co-ops, defence chiefs, charities.

  It shouldn’t be terribly difficult, given the state of the other parties.

• Eddie Sammon 14th Oct '14 - 3:58pm

  Of course, we can have enemies too, but where there is an enemy there is a friend and we need to get people speaking out in support of the Lib Dems, even writing positive articles or producing things such as Norman Lamb’s thank you video.

  As I said above, I think the mutual structure is a problem at the moment. Objectively, I would be hesitant to offer support after reading some of the idiosyncratic motions passed.

• Peter Andrews 14th Oct '14 - 6:19pm

  @tpfkar, well produced? Really? I reckon I could get better production value on my mobile

• JohnTilley 14th Oct '14 - 6:24pm

  Party broadcasts are surely supposed to win over people. Gain their support. I would humbly suggest that is was not a good idea to Make a film promoting the N*zi float at the Notting Hill Carnival.

  from The Economist —

  For a party of government to describe getting 5% of the vote as “good news”, as Tom Brake MP did on This Week, is pretty much unprecedented.

   The party have lost their deposit seven times in by-elections since the General Election, in which they did not lose a single one. Even this though is largely only a surface issue. 

  The real problem for the Lib Dems is that they seem not to be willing to take action and change their bleak prospects.

  It is widely documented that Nick Clegg is the main reason for all these failures. He led the party into coalition, lost the EU debates and has picked the unpopular side on many issues. His personal approval ratings are in single figures and he continues to be tarnished by the tuition fees saga. Indeed his apology speech for the broken promise was upstaged by a YouTube clip which edited the footage into a song. 

  I rarely quote Malcolm Tucker from The Thick of It, but it in this instance it seems grimly resonant to suggest that Clegg is the “N*zi float at the Notting Hill Carnival”.

  Key individuals in the party are even beginning to imply support for standing on a joint ticket with the Conservatives. This comment from Jeremy Browne MP…

  http://www.economicvoice.com/lib-dems-between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place/

• malc 15th Oct '14 - 12:25am

  Nick Clegg looks tired and I think people watching this video will feel a little sorry for him. I think he’s desperate to be liked, but it’s just not happening for him.

• Peter Chegwyn 15th Oct '14 - 2:04am

  The Voice is right in saying: ‘It’s not bad’.

  It’s worse than bad. It’s ghastly. Truly awful.

  Haven’t we learnt anything about producing a half-decent PPB which might actually capture the viewer’s attention for a few minutes and include a positive message about our party instead of a series of badly-edited, poorly-scripted, not very effective soundbites from our glorious Leader?

  Sadly Nick Clegg is so toxic that most viewers will switch channels as soon as his face appears.

  Wouldn’t it be better to feature someone who the public like, respect and listen to… Charles Kennedy, Paddy Ashdown, Shirley Williams, anyone but NC.

• A Social Liberal 15th Oct '14 - 3:38am

  When the Lib Dem strapline appeared at the end of the PPB I my immediate thought was, “how does the preceding 5minutes describe the claim at the end”.

  Whoever convinced Clegg to ok this PPB wants to consider his position.

• JohnTilley 15th Oct '14 - 7:06am

  Peter Chegwyn
  Charles Kennedy, Paddy Ashdown, Shirley Williams, anyone but NC

  Or they could have featured some of those Liberal Democrat MPs who might just survive with a bit of additional help.

  One might have hoped that within a couple of hundred days of the election someone up there might have woken up.

  But they sit around like Brian Paddick in a earlier LDV piece scratching their heads and wondering why millions of Soft Tories are not flooding to vote for us out of gratitude for our wonderful achievements “in government”.

  When will they wake up to the fact that Clegg is far less popular than a “N*zi float at the Notting Hill Carnival”. ???

• Paul in Wokingham 15th Oct '14 - 9:37am

  Well that’s ominous, isn’t it?

  After the conference season noises-off about preferring a new coalition with the Tories, we are now apparently gearing up for a GE campaign based on Cleggiolatry. Bang go another 5 seats.