"Another Good Week for Nick Clegg" is the Pravda like headline on THIS post by Stephen Tall on LibDem Voice. Actually, no. It's been a bad week for Nick Clegg, just as it's been a bad week for all politicians in the main three parties. I find it difficult to think how it can have been a good week for anyone - even David Cameron. This week has brought more shame and public opprobrium on politicians of all parties than in the previous decade put together. I doubt whether Nick Clegg himself thinks it has been a good week for him, and I am, certain David Cameron wouldn't think so on his own behalf either. Part of the problem in the political blogosphere is that we spend too much time wondering if it has been a good week for individuals, and sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture.
No. It has not been a good week for anyone in the main three parties.
31 comments:
And yet Matthew Parris thinks it's all so very trivial...And judging by the comments I'd say he's probably glad to be in Lebanon right now.
Liberal Democrats have been at their Pious worse this week - Vince Cable shouting at voters about the trouser Press on channel 4 just showed how out of touch Liberal Democrats have been on this issue.
Nick Clegg's £80 phone call can hardly bee seen as a truimph either!
Indeed even Vince Cable has been shown up this week - He asked if he could have some more of a particular type of expense according to the Daily Telegraph!
I have done an Oliver Twist Photoshop of Vince Cable asking for some more!
http://nickcleggneilkinnock.blogspot.com/
"Please Sir can I have some more"!!!
I don't think it's been a good week for clegg, but by simple mathematics with the lib dems having fewer mps, there chances of being in the poo is much less than the other 2.
I do think if any of the main parties gain from this troughfest it has to be the lib dems.
Labour will be hit the hardest, this happened during their watch, and by the fact there are many more labour mps.
I think the thing that showed it was not a good week was a former Liberal Democrat leader been given grief on QT! That shook the pious Liberal Democrats - even when they have done wrong they think that they should not be fingered.
Huhne, Ming, Clegg, Cable - they have all sone stupid things with their expenses. Indeed that bloke with the Mirrors, Goldsworthy and George may well cost the LD's seats. Huhne was gone anyway but his ranting and angry man reaction when caught said it all on CH4!
The LD's have been part of the car crash this week not spectators.
Some Pompous Liberal Democrats claim incumbancy will save them. I think they have blown that this week!
LD LD LD - Out Out Out!
I forgot about Lord Rennard, the porker in chief at the Liberal Democrats!
This bloke is paid to be a chief Executive and then because he is a Peer he troughed on the taxpayer!
The Liberal Democrats have nothing to be proud of and what makes folk like me angry is the fact they claim thet their wrongdoing does not count and Huhne a multi-million caught troughing starts making it party political!
Liberal Democrats have no shame.
Iain - naughty. Don't get dragged into calling it Pravda - it's funny but, you know, raise the bar lad. You doing Eurovision tonight? I may have to start drinking in a minute - geez, Euroglam - it's scarily fantastic.
It's been a bloody good week for the Tories. I like Nick Clegg - I just wish he'd get someone, you know, who could write to sort his PMQ's out. He hits the right notes often but by the time you've listened to the 20 extraneous words you're thinking about lunch. 15 words maximum, 2 ideas - 1 punch - it's simples really.
Then there is the Michael Brown donation - If guilty Liberal Democrats repay some of the dodgy MP expense claims why will the Liberal Democrats not pay back the donation that exceeded £2 Million and was derived from a fraudster who stole money from ordinary people.
It's a good week like if West ham loose by 3-0 when they expected a 5-0 result!
I am a LibDem member so who better to say, "LibDem Voice has it wrong" !
This has not been much of a good week for any MP, but Nick Clegg has at least not suffered from his backbenchers claiming QUITE so much!
Those MPs in trouble on our benches - especially Richard Younger-Ross and Lembit Hopeless (I've never liked the man, I make no pretence) - should be suspended to show that Clegg doesn't look like he's somehow happy that the media aren't looking quite so closely at us.
I also left a comment on Mark Pack's section on LDV but the little Hitlers have it waiting in moderation!
No swearing or abuse but i just point out the Liberal Democrats are in this expense stuff as much as any other party.
When they do things like that it annoys me and makes me want to ramp up ILLIBERAL DEMOCRATS to another level! Who knows ILLIBERAL DEMOCRAT candidates in their most marginal seats! LOL Plus ANICK CLEGG standng in Sheffield Hallam!
I recall helping my grandfather clean out his cess pit. He told me that if you did not take care of it properly it would be the cause of all sorts of trouble. Not only did you have to be careful of what went in, you had to exercise greater care over what went out. What a pity we have forgotten the old country ways.
Darling and Hoon seem to have had a good week. They have flipped more than most and have received total indifference from the press.
Cameron is the only one who has shown any moral authority and seized the moment - so I think it has been a good week for him personally, perhaps not for the party.
If we were in Italy we would be seeing large posters proclaming
"Vota Communista", however we are not (and I've got no reason to think that the Communists are any less sleazy), so what to do?
I really do not want to support any of the main 3 parties as their individual MPs really don't see that they have done anything wrong. Just watch the Daily Politics or Beckett's later response to having been barracked on Question Time - "the impertinence of it, challenging a Labour Minister".
So it looks like UKIP gets my vote, they have been banging on about EU sleaze for years - so they are not Johnny-come-latelys to the issue.
Time for another Poll of yours Iain?
Detailed Euro MEPs expenses need to be made transparent covering the last 4 years. Then the most appalling scam of all; that of the scandal of the auditors for the EU refusing to sign off the bloc's financial accounts - for the 14th year in a row. Our laws are being made in Brussels by an unaccountable pack of criminals.
Although... I haven't (yet) seen a poll that shows the liberals as having lost support as a result of this whole fiasco, which in comparison to the massive falls in support for the tories and labour must be counted as some sort of a victory.
Also: for those with a keener eye on the workings of the westminster village and willing to aim for a deeper analysis than the standard "they're all as bad as each other", it can't be denied that even the worst Lib Dem claim is comparatively insignificant next to the massive (and perhaps even fraudulent) sins committed by the other two parties.
So Iain, you're right that with regards to the standing of all the main parties and politicians in general, Nick has had a bad week. But in specific terms, ie. in comparison to his fellows in parliament, I think Nick has had quite a successful expenses crisis thus far.
Gladstone - are you saying "We're all in shit but the important thing is the depth" ?
It's the sense of entitlement which irritates the hell out of people. Why did Nick Clegg think it was OK to charge the taxpayer £80 for ringing his relatives in foreign parts? Why did Chris Huhne think the taxpayer should buy his trouserpress? "Because he has to look smart at work" - well, what a surprise, none of those hard-working taxpayers have to do that, do they?
These may be relatively small sums, compared to the ginormous claims of others, but it's the principle of the thing. LibDems are always so sanctimonious and righteous about everything - yet they thought they could charge their personal expenses to the taxpayer too. Didn't they used to say people were willing to pay more tax for better public services? More phone calls and bigger trouserpresses aren't what people thought they meant.
Lib dem voice,is a incestuous illiberal love in site for all the illiberals,they only want to hear nice things about the lib dems.I went on the site when the lib dems MP's were in the spot light on the expenses scandal,lib dem contributors were making excuses for the illiberal MP's,plus any criticism of the lib dems,you get the illiberal insults or don't let these outsiders on our site,just pathetic.
It's been a good week for UKIP and the BNP.
Not a good wee when you bear in mind the issue of Lord Rennard's pad in Vauxhall.
House of Lords rules state peers can only claim overnight subsistence allowance—their version of the MPs’ second home allowance— if they live most of the time outside Greater London.
But Lord Rennard’s neighbours in Eastbourne, Sussex, say he seldom visits the £230,000 flat he acquired in 2007 after selling a pad in Wokingham, Berks.
One said: "We only see him a few times a year. We call him the Holiday Home Man."
A former advisor to the Lib Dems revealed: "His colleagues know he lives in Vauxhall — and has to, to do his job."
It's a good week for the right.
All those sheep that were prepared to believe that higher taxes funded "investment" are now facing up to the stark reality that our politicians simply waste those untold billions.
This is not an expenses scandal - it's a public spending scandal.
a good week for Nick Clegg.....something I sincerely hope never happens.
How Nicholas Clegg voted on key issues since 2001:
•Voted a mixture of for and against a transparent Parliament. votes, speeches
•Voted moderately for introducing a smoking ban. votes, speeches
•Voted moderately against introducing ID cards. votes, speeches
•Voted very strongly against Labour's anti-terrorism laws. votes, speeches
•Voted very strongly for an investigation into the Iraq war. votes, speeches
•Voted very strongly against replacing Trident. votes, speeches
•Has never voted on equal gay rights. votes, speeches
•Has never voted on laws to stop climate change. votes, speeches
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/nicholas_clegg/sheffield,_hallam
Iain,
LDV is supposed to be a non party line site but doesn't seem that way. It has been a good week for Clegg only in a highly relative way. No Westminster parties ended up higher in the public's esteem at the end of the week than the start.
(Sighs) Iain, you can do much better than the Pravda cliche. Especially as the article notes Nick's weaknesses and criticises by name three Lib Dem MPs for being 'tone-deaf'.
What neither you nor the above comments seem to want to address is what is simple fact (at least as measured by the polls): that Nick's personal standing has improved *a lot* in the past month, and has improved a little even during the last week.
Of course it's a crisis for Parliament and democracy - but that doesn't prevent leaders from having a good crisis.
I am a lib dem activist but I have to agree ian its not been a good week for anyone and the polls will show its not helped us lib dems as the public think we are now all the same
"I think Nick has had quite a successful expenses crisis thus far"
Apart from that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?
ILLIBERAL DEMOCRATS seems to have a twitter stream going on your comments section Iain. I'd say it may be he who is out of touch:
Vince Cable shouting at people about a trouser press? Hmmm, show us the evidence, it didn't happen! I pitty the fool.
Would answer all of your posts, but they are summed up by your 'revelation' that theyworkforyou a) cannot rate voting records on votes that have not happened since an MP was voted in and b) Will rate strength of record based on a) compared to other MPs.
What did they do to you Illiberal, you're like a twisted old ballet teacher?
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