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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think that Nick Clegg is deluding himself about his party ever being taken seriously ever again?

65 replies

macthecatsmum · 21/09/2013 18:08

Saw him on the news at the conference. Really? Is it just me or has he totally shot himself and his party in the foot by his rolling over to the Conservatives?

OP posts:

DadOnIce · 21/09/2013 18:54

Coalitions are a very adult way of doing politics. Political tribalists get very cross about them, which is a good thing. But they work very well in a number of European countries and indeed have become the norm. We're just not used to them here.

It's no bad thing that we've moved towards broadly centrist politics in this country. There are idiots at both ends of the spectrum, the infra-red and the ultra-viole(n)t.

I'm as disappointed as anyone about the tuition fees thing, but given the electoral maths, what else should have been done? And I mean with the election result as it was, not as people would have liked it to have been.

pregnantpause · 21/09/2013 18:57

yanbu. I voted lib dem and regret it. He lied his way into his position and betrayed his voters in all the things that mattered. I will never vote lib dem again. Before I thought them morally strong, but now I find they are weak and pointless lap dogs to any who will throw them a sniff of power

Bowlersarm · 21/09/2013 18:59

Ah then expat he's not a liar (other than uni fees), and you clearly didn't take him seriously in the first place and don't understand why anyone voted for him then.

The ops question is why anyone would vote for him now, I assume after being part of the government.

utreas · 21/09/2013 18:59

Has he gone back on every promise he made though? There was of course tuition fees which making such a statement about with pledges was very unwise. However at the last election the Liberals flagship policy was the rise in the income tax threshold to 10k which is now happening. They've also got the pupil premium albeit in a reduced form as wells as the principle objective of removing most if not all of the budget deficit.

Bowlersarm · 21/09/2013 19:01

pregnant but why did he lie and why did he betray. I need examples, not just opinion of the masses.

aquashiv · 21/09/2013 19:02

I think they are a convenient scapegoat for the travesty that is the Tories. I have more faith in him than Cameron.

Bowlersarm · 21/09/2013 19:02

Agree utreas

Madamecastafiore · 21/09/2013 19:05

Twat talking about red team and blue team! They'd sell their souls to the BNP of it meant staying in power (although they have little of that).

And Vince Cable made his millions working for BP but forgets all about that now!!

Clegg still sits there and makes promises he knows he will be able to wriggle out of keeping which the gullible idiots still believe and vote for the yellow team!!

Shapechanger · 21/09/2013 19:09

so you think, because they have had a spell in government, and been ineffectual, that this has scuppered their chances of being taken seriously ever again?

Yes, Bowler.

Alibabaandthe40nappies · 21/09/2013 19:13

But a Coalition is what was necessary, no one party could form a Government. What should they have done? Doesn't mean I agree with them and I certainly wouldn't vote for them, but they were between a rock and a hard place.
If they had declined to form a Coalition with the Conservatives, then maybe the Tories would have tried to govern alone, with occasional help from UKIP?

I think Clegg has no integrity what so ever. He has revealed himself to have no principles.

Danny Alexander is probably the only one of the Lib Dems who has really done a good job.

All the rest of them have been proved to be a bunch of hypocritical self-serving fools. Chris Hume being the worst.

And don't get me started on Vince Cable, he is even more unprincipled than Clegg.

Alibabaandthe40nappies · 21/09/2013 19:16

Bowlers what people mean is that they fell for the bullshit that the Lib Dems and Clegg were different. They weren't going to be like 'normal' politicians.

Whereas they are exactly like normal politicians.

That is the betrayal. All the smug lefties who thought they were being oh-so original and caring and putting others before themselves by voting for the Lib Dems have realised that they swallowed a very good PR exercise. And they are smarting.

ANormalOne · 21/09/2013 19:17

I think they could offer diamonds and pearls to voters for all the good it'd do them, they've lost a huge amount of support and they deserve to.

MurderOfGoths · 21/09/2013 19:19

Retropear Add gamers to your list of people who wont vote for them. He really isn't helping is he?

northofwatford · 21/09/2013 19:19

Ok hand in the flames time....as a libdem party member I would like to point out that for years people have complained that politicians dont work together...yet when a party does it gets put in the stocks ....as to the fact we went into coalition with the tories ...yes ...they are also a political party that people vote for...this isnt yet a one party state with Labour at the helm...regardless of what people may feel the Libdems are not and never have been a back up battery to Labour...so get over it.

Yes if the electorate decided that labour should be given the most seats but was unable to govern on their own then yes we would see what we could bring to the table.

Tasmania · 21/09/2013 19:21

YABU.

But then again, I think that the UK's two-party system and its aversion to coalitions when perfectly stable countries like Germany can do it like that - and well - is completely mad.

HesterShaw · 21/09/2013 19:22

They used to have some pretty lofty ambitions about reforming the electoral system towards something more democratic but this seems to have drifted off the radar now they have some 'power' (albeit chimeric).

Not really true. We had a referendum, remember? They can't keep trying to change something we have already voted "no" to.

MurderOfGoths · 21/09/2013 19:23

A coalition would be great, actually I'd prefer it, but honestly we may as well not have one seeing as the lib dems seem to just roll over when the tories say so.

HesterShaw · 21/09/2013 19:25

I will vote for them again. I would never vote for the Conservatives, and Labour are such non-players round here (West Cornwall) that they sent a girl barely past her teens to cut her teeth last time. One of her pledges was "I will move to the area" .

tobiasfunke · 21/09/2013 19:30

For whatever reason they entered the coalition they appear to have felt no compunction at any point to leave it despite the fact the Tories have shown themselves to despise the poor. At no point did Clegg think - hang on a minute this isn't what we stand for.
Obviously it is - he's backing it. There is a large swathe of their support who find this repugnant. So obviously they don't need those votes anymore because they have so many.

TidyDancer · 21/09/2013 19:30

I live in a Tory stronghold (unfortunately) and a number of staunch Labour voters I know voted LibDem at the last GE in the vain hope that they would be able to mount a challenge to the Tory arsehole we usually get left with. It didn't work, but to then have to live with the fact that you voted for a party who then got into bed with the cocks you tried to keep out of power? It's not nice.

For that reason, there are many people I know (aforementioned previous LibDem supporters, Labour supporters and the floaters) who would rather rip out their own fingernails than vote for Cleggy and co again.

anythingforaquietnight · 21/09/2013 19:34

Well HesterShaw I am guessing that you are very lucky to have one of the few Lib Dem MPs who are prepared to stick to their principles in Andrew George.

I naively thought most LibDems were cut from the same cloth. Won't be making that mistake again

northofwatford · 21/09/2013 19:37

So let me see if I have this right ...you want us to leave the coalition...and then what...another GE...to give Labour another chance to get in ...when should we have re run the 2010 election ..a month after the 20-10 election...six months..a year...like it or not the Tories got the largest vote ......As to having no effect on holding back Tory extremes all you have to do is look at the right wing nut jobs who frequently have fits over how we are stopping the true Tory revolution...

Remember there's NO gaurantee that labour would win ...just look at the polls ..labour does not have a winnable lead...and under Ed has never really been in a position to gaurantee that the tories wouldn't get in a again but this time without us to stop them or hold them back

Tasmania · 21/09/2013 19:42

Oh, please do NOT vote Labour in again... ever!!!

northofwatford · 21/09/2013 19:45

Heres a piece of artwork to remind those who think the Libdems have no effect on holding to account tory policy

onlibertynow.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/nadine-dorries-explains-lib-dem.html

tobiasfunke · 21/09/2013 19:54

regardless of what people may feel the Libdems are not and never have been a back up battery to Labour...so get over it

I heard Clegg bullishly trotting this argument out after the GE. This is more than a bit rich when in certain constituencies the LD's were openly touting their left of centre policies to target disillusioned Labour voters.

I understand as a small centrist party the Lib Dems have to shape their electoral strategy to the area they are campaigning. It all has to be a bit smoke and mirrors in order to attract both the left and right wingers. However to turn around afterwards and basically tell a large percentage of their voters to go fuck themselves is pretty bloody stupid and incredibly insulting.

The Lib Dems can't live in a world where only party purists get what they are about well they can but they'll not last long.

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