When Will Nick Clegg Go?
It can now only be a matter of time before Nick Clegg loses his position as leader of the Liberal Democrats. There is a certain Faustian element to his decision to get into bed with the Tories – he got the job of Deputy Prime Minister, but in the long-term, damnation and (almost certainly) eventual dismissal from his own party. Let’s not rehash whether he made the right choice, but instead consider when the deed will finally be done, and his increasingly uncomfortable party gives him the chop.
Frankly, I can’t see it happening while the coalition holds. As much as many Lib Dems might not like the coalition, the lure of being in power coupled with the chance to temper the Tories (no matter how limited that power is) will stop them from changing their leader while the coalition exists. So the best chance Clegg has for a prolonged time as Lib Dem leader is the extension of the coalition arrangement for as long as possible. The other alternative elections results would lead to Clegg being bounced before he had any time to think about it.
If the Tories (most likely) or Labour win an outright election victory, then the Lib Dems will be out of power. What use would the Liberal Democrats then have for a former Deputy Prime Minister in a Tory led coalition as their leader? They would need to redefine themselves in view of the changed political circumstances. And if Labour won but not outright, you can be absolutely sure that one of their conditions for a entering into a coalition with the Lib Dems would be the sacking of Nick Clegg.
But when the enforced retirement finally hits Clegg, he can at least take some comfort that he has been the first Liberal in decades – and the first Liberal Democrat ever – to get to one of the top positions in British politics. The cost of his political influence and power is longevity as Liberal Democrat leader. But when the history books are written Clegg’s time as Deputy PM will probably be what they note rather than his leadership of Britain’s perennial third party.
Labels: Calamity Clegg, Coalition, Con-Dems, Labour, Lib Dems
posted by The Nameless Libertarian @ 7:53 am
3 Comments
3 Comments:
It doesn't matter who gets to be 'the leader' of the lib dems. They'll never win an election unless they grow some mighty balls.
Well, it's not impossible that there would be a Liberal Democrat/Labour coalition in future. Among other things, this means that the usual twats had better not slag Clegg off too much. He has proven that Labour don't own him, they would have to win his support by (a) being liberal, (b) winning support.
I mean socially liberal, obviously not economically liberal. I am both, but I consider social issues more important. Yet the previous Labour government failed on both fronts. If MiliE is socially liberal, moving away from authoritarianism, then there could well be a new coalition formed in 2015.
We are living in an age of pluralism. Why did so many social democrats, having joined a party that claims to support pluralist politics, then decide that actually they wanted no such thing? These people defecting to Labour, what the fuck did they actually want in the first place? Not genuine plural politics, just arbitrarily hating one of the parties they might have to work with & pie in the sky SHITE.
The Lib Dems probably won't win an election even *with* some mighty balls, so the thing they probably don't want to do is say they won't form a coalition with the Conservatives which is what expelling Clegg as leader would effectively mean.
Clegg did (IMO) the right thing forming a government with the most popular party. If it's assumed that come the next election that in the event of a hung parliament the Lib Dems would side with Labour then they'd almost certainly lose votes - no one who didn't want Labour in but thought maybe they'd vote Lib Dem as an "alternative" would risk it.
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