By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter What do readers think of Nick Clegg's decision to take part in a weekly radio phone-in – at 9am every Thursday morning – on, of all places, LBC? Mr Clegg is, after all, a Sheffield MP and Deputy PM of whole of UK – not just London. An unlikely […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. Nick Clegg has chosen today to launch an attempt to change Britain's drugs laws. The attempt has failed. David Cameron said, during a press conference in Brussels, that Mr Clegg is entitled to hold a view on the Lib Dems' plans for their next manifesto. That neatly bats away […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. After the botched and misjudged attack on Conservatives after the Autumn Statement, Nick Clegg has again attacked the Conservatives over taxes targeting the wealthy. In his "Letter from the Leader" email, available on Mark Pack's blog, the Deputy Prime Minister describes the "fair and balanced package" the heroic Lib […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. A video has been released (via Bloomberg's Rob Hutton), of a private dinner for businessmen held by Nick Clegg at the Lib Dem conference. In his remarks, Clegg describes Eurosceptics – or perhaps Euro-realists – as "insular", "chauvinistic" and "short-sighted". It is far from the first instance of him using childish […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter After — what was it? — two, three, four weeks, the Liberal Democrat conference has finally come to a close with Nick Clegg’s speech. It was, in the end, a strange sort of address. The words read as though they’re meant to be forceful and defiant, but they just didn’t […]
Wednesday, 12.30pm: It’s the final day of the Liberal Democrat conference, and so the final day of our intermittent live blog totting up all the anti-Tory positioning going on. And, in terms of rhetoric, it’s probably the quietest day so far: the overriding theme of Nick Clegg’s forthcoming speech is that the Lib Dems are […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter At the time of the tuition fees row Mr Clegg insisted that he wouldn't apologise. It's a sign of the weakness of his political position that he now feels the need to do so. Will it work? I'm doubtful. The Tory leadership is doubtful too. Clegg's ratings are even […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. Sir Menzies Campbell appeared on the Andrew Marr Show this morning to discuss Lords reform and the Coalition Agreement. During his interview, he said: "Let me put it this way: if you’re a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament whose seat has been pretty substantially carved up as a result […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. An interview with Richard Reeves, who stepped down from being one of Nick Clegg's senior advisors this week, in the Independent today has attracted some interest. Reeves' main comments focus on the ramifications for the Coalition's blue half if Tory MPs do not vote to cut off debate on […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. David Singleton at PoliticsHome reports an interesting development: The Lib Dems' President, Tim Farron, has drawn up plans to establish a "reference group" made up of grassroots party members, which would oversee coalition negotiations if the 2015 election were to result in another inconclusive result. The proposal is set […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Yesterday, Nick Clegg declared victory – he got the NHS reform bill concessions he pressed for. Whether he believed in the changes he got is another matter. Nick Clegg is very much an Orange Booker: the Lib Dems' Orange Book advocated public sector reform and privatisation. David Laws, Clegg's […]
By Matthew Barrett and Tim Montgomerie On Wednesday, we reported that Tory MPs at the 1922 Committee wanted to "get those yellow b**tards", in reference to Liberal Democrats who were criticising Andrew Lansley's NHS reforms, having voted for it before. In today's Mail on Sunday James Forsyth writes that 10 Downing Street is at the […]
by Paul Goodman Nick Clegg's Commons grilling yesterday over social mobility has grabbed the media's fancy this morning. His stalling on the Government's commission on the West Lothian question has got less attention – Michael Connarty (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (Lab): As well as being responsible for having probably destroyed the electoral hopes of the […]
By Tim Montgomerie It appears to be 'Get Clegg Day' in the grid of Ed Miliband's leadership campaign. With more evidence yesterday that brother David has the edge in the leadership race, the man who wrote the manifesto for Gordon Brown's 2010 campaign has blasted the Liberal Democrat leader in an open letter to LibDem […]
Tory HQ has put together this website which exposes the utter inconsistency and flip-flopping of Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems over whether or not they would back Gordon Brown and Labour in the event of a hung parliament. This is of course all part of the pushing of the point that you can only […]