The Ongoing Failure of Nick Clegg

This coming General Election is pretty important for all the parties involved – that is so obvious it is barely worth mentioning. But we shouldn’t underestimate just how important this election will be for the Liberal Democrats. They are fighting a General Election under a new leader and, unlike in 2001 and (to some extent) 2005, there is actually a functioning Tory party to oppose Labour. No longer can the Liberal Democrats claim that they are on the cusp of becoming the real party of the opposition. In fact, they’d be lucky if the manage to make a net gain in terms of seats. Put simply, they are in a position where they are fighting for the gains they made under the most effective Liberal Democrat leader to date.

It isn’t just the resurgent Tory party that is causing the problems for the Liberal Democrats. One of their biggest problems is the current leader of their party. Put simply, Nick Clegg is out of his depth. He cannot grab attention or the limelight like the ginger drunk, and the Liberal Democrats need the oxygen of publicity in order to survive. Clegg cannot provide that. You want proof? Well, how about his record thus far?

Compare Clegg with Nigel Farage. Farage was the leader of a much smaller party than Clegg, and with much fewer resources. Yet Farage manages to get into the news – even now, when he is an ex-leader. Whereas Nick Clegg struggles to get into the headlines even though he has his own spot in Prime Minister’s Questions each week. Farage is fighting Bercow for a safe seat in Buckingham, and I think he has a chance of winning. If it was Clegg against Bercow, would anyone really notice that Clegg was in the running?

Maybe the issue is charisma, maybe the issue is an ability to whore oneself out to the media (or be a media darling, to use less pejorative language). Either way, Farage is getting it right while Clegg is getting it wrong. Farage gets the headlines; Clegg is marching his party towards obscurity.

So what should the erstwhile sandal wearing geography teachers within the Liberal Democrats do? They need to change leaders after the next General Election. They have to accept that Clegg was yet another wrong choice as party leader. And if they want someone who can get their party into the headlines, then they should make the ever-hideous Chris Huhne their leader.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d never vote for a party that had Huhne as its leader. But at this rate, no-one will end up voting Lib Dem – if only because their current leader is a shrinking violet who seems incapable of making his own falsetto voice audible against the background noise of real party leaders preparing for a General Election.