A year ago, Nick Clegg emerged from obscurity to steal the televised pre-general election leaders’ debates. He declared: “Don’t let anyone tell you that the only choice is the same old parties. We can do something new, something different.” Now he is bleating that he wants to be treated as a human being, not a punch-bag. At least he can take some consolation in bucking a trend. In politics, liars, betrayers, cheats, hypocrites and incompetents are often rewarded. He has been found out. After that first TV debate Clegg seemed to appeal to a generation tired of the old, sleazy, divisive ways, and those young and naive enough to trust a Liberal Democrat. Clegg’s campaign office was bombarded with tweets and offers of support from students who went on to vote for his new politics. They are regretting it now.
It is often forgotten that the Con-Dem coalition was born out of failure – that of the Tories to win an election outright up against a stumbling, incoherent Pr ime Minister, a disastrous and disheartened Labour machine, and a party riven by often petty divisions. And, despite the TV lift, the Lib Dems failed to improve their parliamentary representation.
Clegg convinced his party that he had got the best deal out of the junior coalition partnership: Cabinet jobs for a few top players, a shift in tax to help poorer families, the pupil premium to encourage schools to take more pupils from deprived backgrounds and a referendum on the alternative vote. To those of a woolly disposition, it seemed a pretty good deal which would get the country back on its feet while maintaining hallowed objectives and protecting the most vulnerable. How hollow that seems now.
Within weeks, the austerity Budget saw the reneging of election promises on VAT and the axing of the Building Schools for the Future and the Future Jobs Fund. Clegg reneged on his promise to axe tuition fees, and he and his troops went through the divisions which tripled them. They did the same over the scrapping of the Educational Maintenance Allowance. Despite the current bogus “listening” exercise, they will do the same with the introduction of more market forces which spell the end of the National Health Service as generations have known it.
So what is the true role of Clegg and his kamikaze squad as they face electoral wrath in council elections and the near-certainty that their great coalition prize – the AV referendum – will be crushed precisely because of their miserable record in power?
The new Labour intake share the expected frustrations of opposition in the face of horrific cuts and a bemusement about the nature of the coalition. The queston is whether ministers are motivated by idiocy or ideology. The naivety and power-greed of the Lib Dems is coupled with the incompetence of an administration bloated with arrogance but unable to see obvious political pitfalls. Hence the U-turns on forestry, school sports and school milk But such reversals in relatively small areas are contrasted with the intensity of the assault on public services, the public sector and the welfare state. Put in that context the answer to the question is clear. It’s the same old Tories. And the Lib Dems are the same old tarts, willing to get into bed with anyone with the power and money to give them a good time. The price of their prostitution is a sour taste in the mouth and the realisation that their Tory masters will dump them when they are past their sell-by date.
