The Pusillanimous Mr Clegg

[gcwhite]

I see Cleggy has apologised today for breaking his promise about tuition fees.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19646731

Do us all a favour and give it up Nick. Be a man and tell Cameron where to stick it. Let's have an election and see what happens. Try and save what's left of your rapidly diminishing reputation.

[The Misfit]

Clegg is pathetic.

[ExiledStirling]

Well now that he has apologised I forgive him. He will certainly be getting my vote at the next general election.

[Heb 7:4]

Originally Posted by ExiledStirling

Well now that he has apologised I forgive him. He will certainly be getting my vote at the next general election.

Well he can forget mine. I'm going for a party that has always kept its pledges, like Labour. Or the Conservatives.



Still, if the Lib Dems really want to recover, they're going to have to face up to the fact that they will need to ditch Clegg. Though there's about as much chance of that as Labour admitting Ed Milliband is the wrong bloke, or the Tories accepting that Osbourne is utterly unqualified to be in his job.

[Excowboy]

Originally Posted by Heb 7:4

Still, if the Lib Dems really want to recover, they're going to have to face up to the fact that they will need to ditch Clegg. Though there's about as much chance of that as Labour admitting Ed Milliband is the wrong bloke, or the Tories accepting that Osbourne is utterly unqualified to be in his job.

I expect they will ditch him after the next election. When and for whom depends on whether or not Labour win a majority.

[Heb 7:4]

Originally Posted by Excowboy

I expect they will ditch him after the next election. When and for whom depends on whether or not Labour win a majority.

Are you talking about Nick, Ed, or Gideon?

[ExiledStirling]

Originally Posted by Heb 7:4

Well he can forget mine. I'm going for a party that has always kept its pledges, like Labour. Or the Conservatives.



Still, if the Lib Dems really want to recover, they're going to have to face up to the fact that they will need to ditch Clegg. Though there's about as much chance of that as Labour admitting Ed Milliband is the wrong bloke, or the Tories accepting that Osbourne is utterly unqualified to be in his job.

I was not being serious. The guy has proved to be an opportunist ****. Yes the LIbdems need to get rid, and they will if they are really low in the opinion polls getting close to the next election,. Which they will be, so i disagree Heb, if their constitution allows for a quick change of leader (unlike labour) then I see it happening.

[Excowboy]

Originally Posted by Heb 7:4

Are you talking about Nick, Ed, or Gideon?

Oh, sorry - Cleggy.

I should think Milliballs will both stick around as long as Labour get the most seats which is looking likely. As for Gideon, I've no idea what the Tories will get up to. Boris isn't looking too bad a bet for the post-2015 leadership at the minute and Satan only knows what he'd have in mind.

[The Misfit]

Originally Posted by ExiledStirling

I was not being serious.

But it's so difficult to tell after your volte-face on Royalty during the jubilee.

[Cleon]

Cleggmania.

You are all to blame.

[SpikeyMatt]

It was all going downhill from when he and Gordon Brown did the election debates on treadmills

[ExiledStirling]

Originally Posted by The Misfit

But it's so difficult to tell after your volte-face on Royalty during the jubilee.

and the fact you do not believe anything I say now since then.

(however you do have permision to shoot me if my local church has a firework display and I suddenly discover God).

[hilairehair]

Originally Posted by SpikeyMatt

It was all going downhill from when he and Gordon Brown did the election debates on treadmills

Worst Kraftwerk cover band evah

[nellis]

Do people understand that it's a coalition government, and not a Lib Dem government? and that they have to compromise on most things in order to get through a few lib dems policies as they are the smallest party in the coalition?

How else would this work?

He just says no to every Tory policy for two weeks, forces an election, the Tories got a slight majority and Lib dems out of government for another lifetime?

[ExiledStirling]

Originally Posted by nellis

Do people understand that it's a coalition government, and not a Lib Dem government? and that they have to compromise on most things in order to get through a few lib dems policies as they are the smallest party in the coalition?

How else would this work?

Of course we do. However Clegg felt so strongly about tuition fees, that simply having it as part of the manifesto was simply not a strong enough message. Oh no that did not show his true passion, so Mr Clegg wanting everyone to know how strongly he felt about not having tuition fees, signed a pledge to that effect.

So not an issue about compromise, but actually about the fact that he apparently did not do his sums right or has no principles. So either he is an unprincipled opportunist liar or totally incompetent.

Whichever it is, he is not fit to run the Libdems and has done them a lot of damage.

[Pistol Knight]

Originally Posted by nellis

Do people understand that it's a coalition government, and not a Lib Dem government? and that they have to compromise on most things in order to get through a few lib dems policies as they are the smallest party in the coalition?

How else would this work?

He just says no to every Tory policy for two weeks, forces an election, the Tories got a slight majority and Lib dems out of government for another lifetime?

[GUCCI Eagle]

I bet he forms a coalition with Labour in 2015. And then another one with the Tories after that. He'll be a three term Deputy Prime Minister.

[SE25 exile]

Clegg is finished and beyond redemption. The LibDems have crashed to less than 10% in the regular polls, level with UKIP.

They are a spent force, and when the next GE arrives in two and a half years (not that far away) they will be decimated, and votes will again become polarised between right and left, represented by Labour and the Tories.

The middle ground does not exist anymore, thanks to Clegg.

[Mat ov CPFC]

People need to realise that the Lib Dems had a reputation, within politics and especially at a local level, for being the most two faced people going and so I struggle to understand why people are expressing shock at how they have acted whilst in coalition.

You need to understand that they have NEVER been within sniffing distance of a cabinet post and all of a sudden they get a chance to really play with the big boys. They would have all, collectively, sold their own children if it meant them getting a chance of actually being part of Government.

Nick Clegg is the whipping boy, of that there is no doubt, but if people honestly believe that any of them would have been any different then forget it.

If they had made an agreement with Labour and tried to run a Government it would have collapsed within 6 months. If they had not agreed to coalition with the Tories then there would have been another election and the chances are that the Tories would have won enough seats then to form a Government.

Clegg got the shot at an electoral reform referendum and took the chance. And it failed, miserably. Lets not forget that Labour in 1997 promised on the same thing and failed to deliever so Clegg had more reason (and leverage, it must be said) to trust the Tories to deliever on it.

Clegg is going to go down in short term history for all the wrong reasons but I suspect that ultimately he will be judged to have been a Lib Dem leader who saw an opportunity to get the sort of change that would have given his party a chance to really become a major player and it went horribly wrong. But it was probably their only real chance and I think he will be judged, eventually, as right in taking it.

[mexicaneagle]

Originally Posted by ExiledStirling

Of course we do. However Clegg felt so strongly about tuition fees, that simply having it as part of the manifesto was simply not a strong enough message. Oh no that did not show his true passion, so Mr Clegg wanting everyone to know how strongly he felt about not having tuition fees, signed a pledge to that effect.

So not an issue about compromise, but actually about the fact that he apparently did not do his sums right or has no principles. So either he is an unprincipled opportunist liar or totally incompetent.

Whichever it is, he is not fit to run the Libdems and has done them a lot of damage.

The fact is that he and his party made this pledge on the assumption that they would never have to honour it. His apology falls short of admitting that, but only just. He's as good as admitting that they weren't a serious political party way back in 2009.

I think this is close as a politician comes to a genuine admission that one of their policy promises was bullshit. For that, I commend him.