You’d think, reading Clegg’s speech, that the emergency budget was his idea. But the £6bn of emergency cuts was always the Tory plan. Even though, by the time it was enacted, our fiscal position was substantially better than anticipated, to the tune of (depending on how you measure it) some £10-20bn.
Clegg bangs on about the forecast £70bn in interest payments so much that you’d think that the fiscal position on assuming power was suddenly much worse than anticipated. But it wasn’t – see above.
You’d think from his argument that we had to act on the the fears over sovereign debt because if we didn’t the markets would kill us… so, Mr Clegg would have us belive, it is better to act on the perceived fears of the markets than to be, erm, ruled by the markets.
You’d think that the new liberal/big society would protect the individual instead of throwing them onto the dole queue. You’d think that “more power to select and deselect representatives” would imply a single MP FPTP system, not Clegg-preferred PR. You’d think “more power to choose local priorities” would work better in a system of localised representation, whereas PR in its purest form involves national lists and larger, multi-member constituencies. You’d think “more power to the people to express their political preferences” would be right coming from a man with a big democratic mandate; instead, he is the deputy prime minister despite his party winning a tiny percentage of the seats in parliament. If Clegg believed in proportional power, as opposed to representation, he’d hand his office over to Harriet Harman, who speaks for many voters than he does.
But all of that is to miss the point. Clegg’s USP was clean, honest, decent politics. That was, and remains, an exciting offer. But the video of his press conference shows he will turn on a sixpence if it means a lick of power. It’s so disappointing. This was the opportunity for a recalibration of the political landscape; a new vision for Westminster, a straightforward dialogue with the people. Instead the LibDems are the stalking horse for an old-school hard-line Tory agenda, more Thatcherite than Thatcher, and the more they pretend it is also (or, really) their idea – the more double-speak we have to endure – the sadder the national loss.
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I think it’s only fair to let the man have his say in return.
http://www.libdemvoice.org/?p=20318&utm_source=tweet&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=twitter
You’d think, reading Clegg’s speech, that the emergency budget was his idea. But the £6bn of emergency cuts was always the Tory plan. Even though, by the time it was enacted, our fiscal position was substantially better than anticipated, to the tune of (depending on how you measure it) some £10-20bn.
Clegg bangs on about the forecast £70bn in interest payments so much that you’d think that the fiscal position on assuming power was suddenly much worse than anticipated. But it wasn’t – see above.
You’d think from his argument that we had to act on the the fears over sovereign debt because if we didn’t the markets would kill us… so, Mr Clegg would have us belive, it is better to act on the perceived fears of the markets than to be, erm, ruled by the markets.
You’d think that the new liberal/big society would protect the individual instead of throwing them onto the dole queue. You’d think that “more power to select and deselect representatives” would imply a single MP FPTP system, not Clegg-preferred PR. You’d think “more power to choose local priorities” would work better in a system of localised representation, whereas PR in its purest form involves national lists and larger, multi-member constituencies. You’d think “more power to the people to express their political preferences” would be right coming from a man with a big democratic mandate; instead, he is the deputy prime minister despite his party winning a tiny percentage of the seats in parliament. If Clegg believed in proportional power, as opposed to representation, he’d hand his office over to Harriet Harman, who speaks for many voters than he does.
But all of that is to miss the point. Clegg’s USP was clean, honest, decent politics. That was, and remains, an exciting offer. But the video of his press conference shows he will turn on a sixpence if it means a lick of power. It’s so disappointing. This was the opportunity for a recalibration of the political landscape; a new vision for Westminster, a straightforward dialogue with the people. Instead the LibDems are the stalking horse for an old-school hard-line Tory agenda, more Thatcherite than Thatcher, and the more they pretend it is also (or, really) their idea – the more double-speak we have to endure – the sadder the national loss.