Does Sheffield Hallam MP, Clegg, wear clogs or does he prefer Ferragamo, is he one of the peeps?

[claig]

The pesky Daily Mail continues the expose
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1268436/Some-ordinary-northerner-How-Nick-Clegg-really-man-extraord inary-privilege-family-chateau.html

"It's backfiring quite badly - telling Mail readers that actually Clegg is a quite posh and little bit conservative??"

it depends what they really want. It's beginning to look like they want a hung parliament. Even Cameron seems to be participating by failing to score open goals.

"Oh yes I see Atlantis. Still they must be wishing they'd stop don't you think? It backfiring quite badly - telling Mail readers that actually Clegg is a quite posh and little bit conservative??"

I'm sure they do, a lot of mail stories have backfired for the conservatives and then they really laid into the conservatives over the expenses thing, so I think the mail is a little psycho to be honest, it knows it has a mainly conservative readership and yet it still likes having a dig at them.

Yes claig, I agree about Cameron - I thought he was much better in the last tv debate, but he missed some open goals.

He seems to have been winded by the Clegg effect doesn't he? Like he isn't sure how to be - thought he spoke much more to the Conservative base rather than the centre ground though too? Did you?

I wonder whether it is that they see a hung parliament as inevitable?

" via Andy Coulson, who is smearing sweaty excrement far and wide."

Oh come on PW nobody, but nobody can ever be as bad as Campbell, that man is like a cesspit with mandelson coming a very close second.

Yes, I agree Atlantis! Also the whole 'Clegg is a foreigner' thing too. Makes them look a bit behind the times and narrow etc - surely Cameron doesn't want people thinking he thinks like that etc? Maybe he does. I don't know.

Was interested in how Brown's worm - the worms are AWFUL aren't they? - swung upwards when he said how proud he was that Britain had become a more tolerant country etc.

Agree Camppbell was an enthusiastic smearer. Coulson is doing exactly the same thing though.

Dacre is apparently conflicted: likes Brown (v good mates with him personally), dislikes Cameron quite fiercely, terrified by Clegg. So is basically in a permanent crouch position.

Yes Cameron was poor in the debates. There must be countless people who could do a better job. Labour's record is there for the taking, and Cameron is not pressing any good points home. I think he is being advised what to do and like all of them he follows the advice that he is given. I think the Conservatives could easily win the election if they tried, but I don't think they are trying, I think that they may see a hung parliament as desirable. This is probably due to the horrific cuts and changes that the next government will have to implement to get us out of the disaster that Labour landed us in. Nobody wants to take responsibility and the blame for what is to come, all the parties prefer to be under the same umbrella. I wouldn't be surprised if we still see the spectre of Gordon Brown's rictus grin as he participates in some sort of coalition government after election day, continuing to bang on about the need for a global consensus to solve the world's problems.

I don't understand the charge that Clegg has been 'hiding' anything (apart from that nine-month stint with a lobbyist - fair enough to point that out).

The electorate knew nothing about Clegg until ten days ago, partly because the British electorate is pretty ignorant, politically speaking, and partly because the papers (with usual lefty exceptions) never mentioned him.

Now they know a bit more. If anyone has been looking at Clegg for the last ten days and has been under the impression that he's the third member of Cannon and Ball, they are too fucking stupid to have the vote.

Yes that's an interesting point Claig.

Though I kind of think they've been genuinely surprised at how it has gone? I really thought this election was theirs for the taking. But I do think they've misjudged how people think nowadays too.

I read an interesting blog on Huff Post the other day - about how Britain essentially a highly liberal (with a small l) society and how that vein has been tapped via the public debates - that actually it reflects a general truth not the truth the right wing media would have you believe. Did have the slight whiff of 'conspiracy' about it, but I thought it was interesting too.

I'm not sure TB hid it, did he? Everyone went on about it all the time - from both sides.

100x - did you se Johann Hari's piece yesterday? I love him.

Exactly herbietea. The left have been loving the fact that Cameron has a posh background and have promoted the fact endlessly and gleefully.

The mail are just pointing out that actually Clegg has a pretty similar background in terms of wealth and privilege.

Which is a reasonable point imo.

was it something like this 100x?

x-posted with the exact same link, never mind

lemonmuffin - yes, but odd to point it out to the Mail readers no? That's not smearing - that's saying, look he's okay, he's a bit like Cameron actually.

Yes to you both! That's the piece I read. I found it quite interesting.

Clegg has never hidden his background, end of. If he says "my city of Sheffield" (and often adds "where I'm an MP") it's because he likes it, spends a lot of time in his constituency and is hoping the Lib Dems will win Sheffield Central. He's mentioned the house in France in interviews in the past, too, when asked where he goes on holiday.

and it was all in the papers when he became leader (although not in as much detail).

Tory press, December 2007-April 2010: apparently some fella called Phil Legg is in charge of the Loiberal Dermocruts. He believes in muesli.

Tory press, April 15 2010-present: Nick Clegg, whom we have been warning you about for literally days, is Satan Incarnate! How is it possible that you did not know this, you pustulous fools? See pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 etc etc

Readership: eh?

lol.

What did make me laugh was immediately after the last TV debate the You Gov /Sun poll giving it to Cameron.

I mean millions of us had been watching that with our own two eyes.

It was quite clear that really there wasn't a winner. Nobody won. Brown did better, Clegg maintained, Cameron did better but not as well as he needed to do.

They think we're thick don't they?

Not only is Nigel Evans (shock, horror) Welsh, he went to university in Swansea University. Evans is famously the only MP to come out of the politics department there as a Tory. He gets ribbed about it every time the old Swansea crowd meet up (my Dad's one of them - not an MP, a politics graduate from Swansea).

Oh, Atlantis, are you sure you aren't mixing up David Davis and David Davies, btw? Think the one who lost out in the leadership contest is not the civil libertarian from Haltemprice and Howden (the one who stood down to force a bye-election over detention without charge).

Please don't bring up the Welsh again, I've only just got my cortisol levels back down

(lol 'he's one of them (not an MP)')

100x - I don't know whether they think people are thick (to be fair, there is some empirical evidence for that ) or whether they're just absolutely terrified. I do know that I'm enjoying it enormously, whatever it is.

Btw, difference between Alastair Campbell and Andy Coulson is that Campbell, AFAIK, didn't run a newspaper that repeatedly and deliberately broke the law by tapping mobile phones.

Must admit, I tend to think, perhaps optimistically, that people aren't as thick or as susceptible as the press would like to believe - and that they're essentially decent too.

I'm loving it too PW. The cat got out the bag, and nobody can get it back in again.

... and to continue the Welsh theme for Policy's benefit, David Davis and David Davies sound very Welsh. The Tories are clearly a Welsh conspiracy!