As the First Post Daily says:
Why has Clegg, who espoused the eminently sensible Blanchflower line during the election campaign, morphed into a public spending axeman?
Many will suspect that he's simply caved in to Tory coalition pressure. But in reality Clegg was never the progressive, social democratic figure that many Liberal Democrat supporters believed him to be. The public-school educated son of a wealthy banker, who worked for the Thatcherite EU Trade Commissioner Leon Brittan in Brussels, Clegg is an Orange Book Liberal, a believer in privatisation and the rolling back of state provision.
By hyping up the need to make urgent cuts in public spending, Clegg can see to it that the Orange Book agenda - for a much smaller state, which has hived off many of its functions to the private sector - is indeed implemented on grounds of unavoidable financial necessity.
Before the election it amazed me that some from the same Manchester School of economics- like Giles Wilkes of Centre Forum were being called “progressives”. He wasn’t — he’s now a ConDem adviser. The positions are simply irreconcilable — and I bet he’s loving every minute of all the cutting he’s no doubt relishing.
As I suspect Clegg is.
These people infiltrated the Lib Dems better than the Trots (thankfully) ever did Labour. But as the First Post concludes:
Clegg joked during the election campaign that he was the only man who’d gone from being Winston Churchill to Adolf Hitler in just one week. But both Churchill and Hitler are poor comparisons.
The politician Clegg resembles most is the former Labour leader and fellow crypto-rightist Ramsay MacDonald.
MacDonald fought the 1929 election on a programme of helping the working-class, but then two years later joined a Tory-dominated coalition government which proceeded to make the swingeing cuts in public spending that international capital had demanded.
Labour supporters never forgave MacDonald for his treachery and my guess is that in the years to come Lib Dem supporters will be equally unforgiving of Nick Clegg.
I sincerely hope so.
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If there is blame to dole out then it is the whole libdem project that will get it in the neck; which is why Clegg is in the bag for 5 years. his challenge is to get enough out of Cameron so that he can bring his party with him. They don’t look like rocking the boat yet.
I agree that Clegg is “in the bag” as Alastair puts hit – he’s invested too much in this to back out, really. But I’m not sure how many of the others are really on board for the long haul. Vince Cable looks more uncomfortable every time he’s interviewed. Danny Alexander looks like a nice guy who wandered into the government by mistake. And I can’t believe people like Chris Huhne and Steve Webb are happy with this whole set-up.
I think the next Labour leader should make a big, open and comprehensive offer to disaffected Lib Dems; get out while you can and there are good jobs waiting for you in the next Labour govt. Which will hopefully arrive sooner rather than later, if the Lib Dem party splits. There are some areas in which the LibCons are an improvement on Labour – e.g. dropping ID cards – and it would be good if we could have more of a liberal (NOT libertarian) flavour to the next Labour government. An influx from the Lib Dems would certainly help with that.
@Howard
I agree
And on the “liberal” issues too
Human rights were abused and ignored by New labour on far too many occasions
Labour has to correct that record when it returns to office
Howard; But where is Labour at now? The leader bun fight is hardly going to inspire those voters who left to return. It looks like a triumph for Milliband junior is on the cards – is he really going to reunite them under a centre left flag? The more realistic outcome is a spell of infighting – guaranteed to turn the voters off. Cameron is going to have to cock it up big time if Labour is to have any chance of a swift return, and at the moment the momentum is with him.
@alastair
Let me assure you – Cameron is cocking it up big time
Just remember what Mervyn King said before the election – whoever won would be out office for a generation
I assure you – he’s going to be proved right