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Posts Tagged ‘Nick Clegg’

Whilst I appreciate that in earning a living political journalists need to make lots of fuss about these things and most certainly some of the average members of the LibDems will be running around in a blind panic fearing carving knives about to cut off their tails, but what happened the other Thursday has little to do with Nick Clegg having been outsmarted by the Tories or making poor judgement calls.

But still the headlines proliferate as in this one from the BBC: ‘Elections will force Lib Dems to face identity crisis’ By James Landale at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13325236

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As I start to write this, not quite all the results of last night’s Local, Celtic National and AV Referendum results are in but way more than sufficient to describe the outcomes and the shape of the “story” if not complete in every detail.

The most obvious headlines focus on just how much of a kicking the LibDems got, how lightly the Conservatives got off and that for the first time the SNP have a majority in the Scottish Parliament. The story for Labour is hardly worth bothering with and as Ed Miliband is such a daft looking bloke, I didn’t want to spoil my banner picture by including him in it.

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As ever, the Independent in another half baked Editorial advises people to vote YES to changing the voting system from First Past the Post to the Alternative Vote where people vote for the candidates in order of their preference. This is not proper Proportional Representation for those who believe in that, frankly it is just tinkering with the system for no good reason. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-just-say-yes-to-voting-reform-2278567.html

In reality there is a reason which is simply that it was part of the Coalition Agreement and Nick Clegg needed to see the Referendum delivered in order to demonstrate to his own party members that being part of the Government does bring benefits and the achievement of ‘cherished goals’ not otherwise possible by them just being in Opposition. My own prediction is that the “NO’s” will have it tomorrow and the LibDems will have to accept: “Wrong time and wrong place” as a consequence.

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A rather ‘luke warm’ editorial in the Independent in the post Barnsley aftermath, according to them at least, was as follows: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-bad-but-not-terminal-in-barnsley-2232973.html

My response was simple: The result was foreknown, a racing certainty for Labour even on a very low turnout. What happened to the Coalition Parties is not very relevant and I suspect that if there were a General Election today, the national outcome would be pretty much the same as last year. The reality is that people are “waiting” on events, if things go well, the Coalition’s popularity will increase by the next General Election if not…

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With today’s by-election in Oldham East and Saddleworth a safe Labour seat, the media is obviously giving some attention and for once, the Independent : http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-what-is-and-isnt-at-stake-in-oldham-east-2182988.html totally trumps the rather nonsense piece by Benedict Brogan in the Telegraph : http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/benedictbrogan/100071712/oldham-by-election-we-will-find-out-whether-the-coalition-looks-old-and-sad/

The problem is that the newspapers feel, quite rightly, that they must comment and try and ‘dramatise’ every twist and turn that they can whilst a rather more sophisticated electorate has other things on their mind, the economy and how bad it will all be, the current political dynamics are accepted for the time being, all political journalists are looking rather stale.

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Politically, as far as the Media is concerned, we seem to be living through the dog days of any August as far as ‘worthy news stories’ are concerned. In what seems a disappointed reaction to the sheer lack of any drama in the WikiLeaks stuff, attention has been drawn to the supposed plight of the LibDems and in particular Nick Clegg and Vince Cable over the proposed increase in university tuition fees.

Rather unwisely, it appears that the LibDems signed a pledge not to increase tuition fees but to be fair to them and as they had little hope of ever forming a government, rather than creating a hostage to fortune, they were just participating in a “cost free” political gesture at the time. And then the Fickle Finger of Fate gave them a leading role in a Coalition Government – oh bugger !

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I have at times of boredom or weakness, engaged in ‘comments wars’, they can get quite grisly because hiding behind some anonymous name, people can feel quite free to be totally silly and downright insulting so normally I ignore them but the following mild example may provide some amusement.

One of the staff writers on The Daily Telegraph is Janet Daley who I rarely read because like Simon Heffer who also writes for the DT, she is none too bright and her right wing fan club that comment on her articles are pretty unhinged at the best of times however, today it was worth a crack: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/janetdaley/8165185/Why-dont-we-love-David-Cameron.html#dsq-content

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I suspect that the “Media Honeymoon” over the Coalition Government will soon come to an end as the reporting over these past few days seems to signal. Though not, I might add because serious questions are being raised by Government policies, it is not the way the British Media works.

The problem for media people is that they are reactive to events not proactive. “No news”, or even worse, “Good news” is bad for business, there is just no ‘story’ to chase so in the end these “media children” will… Well we all know what the Devil does in making work for idle hands… so, the media will get restless and like children on a journey, keep asking“Are we there yet ?”

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Well it is Sunday and yet another interesting article in the Independent by John Rentoul: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-rentoul/john-rentoul-the-gents-definitely-for-turning-1980437.html

John’s article is worth a read. John Rentoul is ‘known’ as a Tony Blair fan and his insights into David Cameron, originally aired as the “Heir to Blair” are quite interesting because overall, his view is favourable but he does not see him as any kind of Blair clone at all.

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The other day, David Cameron and Nick Clegg presented their 34 page detailed document to outline the details of the Coalition agreement. The general consensus was that the Conservatives had given more ground than the LibDems on their Election Manifestos. An interesting observation but not one I suspect will stand the test of time.

The one thing I’ve always liked about Cameron and despite the odd stumble since he became Tory Leader and had to ‘learn on the job’, is it became clear that he was a pragmatist not a dogmatist and one suspects, as others have commented, he has used the coalition as an excuse to ‘off-load’ a number of Tory Policies that frankly wouldn’t play well in these straightened times.

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