Anyone else going off Clegg?

[dinosaurinmybelly]

I thought he was very cocky last night, interrupting the others several times to slag off their debating style rather than their policies. It was probably justified in one instance, but certainly not the 4 or so times that he did it - in fact it was annoying that he interrupted what was good quality debate at times.

I'm starting to worry about exactly how much he would listen to the public if he were elected. I didn't like his comment that he was a negotiator "on behalf of all of us" in his early career. How much do we know about this guy? Who would be his key advisors if he were to govern, and how much would he actually listen to them? I love the idea of electoral reform and a fresh new government, but is this really the time to be electing someone with less experience, who is pro-Europe, sketchy on defence, and populist on the economy?

If you are in the EU as Britain is you are partly governed by the EU.

"If you are in the EU as Britain is you are partly governed by the EU. "

But it does not have to be this way. DC wants to take back powers from the EU, and I agree with that.

CLEGG I'm glad people are going off him, I didn't mind the man, but he has not got any policies. I don't like 'bigot gate' brown either, but at least he appears to have more substance. LOL roll on May 6th.

Crystal - what evidence do you have of Nick Clegg having fewer policies than the others. Have you counted the points in the manifestos?!

Brown did come across as having substance in the last debate and challenged Cameron and Clegg well. I don't know how anyone thought Cameron won the debate when he didn't answer half the questions, particularly those posed by Gordon.

I do feel sorry for Gordon Brown even though I've never voted labour. However I think people have lost confidence in labour running the economy and if labour do badly it will be due to that rather than bigotgate. I quite like Gordon as he is himself rather than playing to the cameras but being prime minister doesn't seem to have suited him. The press and his own party have been pretty cruel to him so it would be nice to see a few of the worst eg. Blears, Clarke lose their seats. Can't believe the potential labour leaders are already plotting to oust him on Friday. They are deluded if they think a labour govt will be more appealing with miliband or balls at the helm.

I consider myself a fairly intelligent person, but the more coverage I see, the more confused I become. I'm no longer sure what is true anymore, what with all the 'well you're going to do such and such' ...
'Oh no we're not - YOU are going to do this that & the other'!! Hung Parliament? Messy divorce more like. And yes I DO realise the irony of using the word 'truth' when referring to politics

Cameron would be the UK's George Bush. I think this is an insult, but people on here may disagree. What do you think people?

To be honest, not that into personalities of these guys although I do have a soft spot for Gordon Brown as he was my MP from home in Fife, Scotland and I know for a fact he is a good, authentic man, but my concern is this:

what the dickens are their policies? I think Clegg speaks a little too much from the heart. He needs to engage his head if he is indeed to stay in this race to the most difficult, challenging job in Britain. Just don't think he will be up to it. Seriously. He needs to quite honestly, 'Get Real' and realise that he has done very, very well in these live debates as a promotion for his party. But now it's time for getting beyond the spin, beyond the pomp and it is time for substance. And for that, you need a serious man. And you know what, we have that already. Let's keep Brown in. He's our Heathcliff or is it Mr Darcy according to the Press. Well, didn't those heroes come through?

It is time for women to use their vote for the future of our children!

Engage with your standing candiates in your consticuency. Get out into the community and see what they can do for you and then you can do stuff for them. Leaflet? Or doorstep campaign. It's exciting out on the street. Just don't believe everything you see on TV or read in the papers anymore, that's all I would say.

Speak to your neighbours, local schools, doctor surgeries...connect. And if you like what you see, hear, you are part of the Good Society.

Whatever you do, just vote. This is the peoples choice, not the pollsters or journalists. It's ours. Go for it! Do it for your kids....

Bring on May 6th! This THursday!!

And let's just see what happens....

xx

THe beginning of this thread was disturbingly anti-Clegg in unprecedented rapid fire!! You would forgiven for thinking that Tory and Labour Central office were launching an attcak on the site.

I have surrendered my vote to Cleggie (yet) but I think he is better than the other two altho' I think that the other two are decent people as well. Lucky to have these 3 leaders to choose from compared to what we see in US leaders for example.

Snowlady:
No matter what party wins the election, there will have to be cuts in EVERYTHING. It may appear that teachers and public sector workers have got off lightly as it is the private sector that has had to take pay cuts etc, but I believe, if people actually knew the depth of what teachers do, then they would agree that, like nurses and surgeons, they work extremely hard for their money.

People seem to believe that we start work at 9am and finish at 3:30pm and then go home and do nothing, in addition to 13 weeks holiday a year. THIS IS NOT THE CASE... I am up every morning at 5:45am to get ready for work and have to wake my 3 year old and 14 year old at 6:00 to get them ready in the morning.

I certainly agree with DC that teachers profiles have to be raised. We do work really hard, so much so that the stress is unbearable: I don't get to take my kids anywhere remotely interesting at teh weeknds, as I'm always working. I'm willing for pay to be frozen under a Tory government for us, because I htink we need to make sacrfices to save the country from meltdown.

If you are asking me personally how I would tackle benefit scroungers, then I would say that more spot checks on homes have to be carried out; once people's children reach school age, they MUST actively look for work or enrol on training courses; and personally I don't think that people should carry on having kids if they can't afford it: why can people have 5 or 6 kids and get the state to pay for them????

As for the case of child tax credits: my husband and I pay £150 PER WEEK in childcare and we STILL don't get any help because apparently we earn too much???? However, under the Tories we wouldn't be considered as earning too much as we would qualify for the married tax allowance...

I think it's all about incentive: Clegg will give the green light for illegal immigrants to come here and be able to stay in a few years time, he WILL sell us out to the Euro: as dinosaurinmybelly said: Tory and Labour will be part of the EU but they will not hand power completely to Brussels as the devious Clegg will. We only need to look at the state of Greece today and how Spain and Portugal are now in dire straits to know that it is not right for Clegg to lumber us in the EU.

The Tories give people the incentive to be hard-working, with the marriage tax break and ideas on benefit fraud: this is something that has gone completely to pot over the years under Labour: people used to want to work because they were, quite rightly, better off.

The Tories will also link state pension to earnings: another incentive not to carry on claiming...why should i have to give up my house to pay for my care when someone who hasn't worked a day in their life gets the same care for free???? My house should be left to my children, not to pay for other people getting their care too!

PS: No, I haven't read the Daily Mail: I sadly haven't had time to read as I'm always bogged down with the paperwork that the Labur government has inflcited on us!!!!

Crystal 123: I believe you are completely right to say that Clegg has no policies: how many times did he avoid the questions on the debates? How many stories did he tell about people he'd met, jobs he'd done?? Didn't actually say 'If I were your PM, I would do this...' Didn't mention the expenses he had claimed for either did he?!!!! Had no idea what he was going to exactly replace Trident with? Who says it will be cheaper? Or is he going to leave this country wide open to attack? Clegg??? LMAO!!!

I'm an EX Tory voter now switching with conviction to LIB DEM. If it were about personality we wouldn't vote for any of them. It's about their manifesto and about us having a say in a voting system that is distorted currently in favour of two main parties.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/politics/957903-Why-I-39-ll-be-voting-LIB-DEM?rnd=1272875581087

LIB DEMS want serious electoral reform. It's our only chance for a real democracy.

Incidently what percentage of votes would LIB DEM need to gain overall political power? Anyone know?

Totally mystified by claims re. Lib Dem lack of policies. Most Lib Dems reckon there are too many

Clegg rates best in polls as being the most unspun leader. 38% think Cameron is spun, 27% Brown and 17% Clegg. So Labour's efforts to portray him as a game-show host obviously aren't working.

Cablepower - the usual figures cited are 38% for most seats, 40 or 41% for a majority and 42% for a landslide. Although I've also seen 36% for most seats in one analysis.

No one quite knows how the swingometers are going to work, though - they're not set up for surges - and the polls are also likely to be underestimating turnout in younger age groups in particular.

GB said that Clegg is a game show host. I hadn't noticed it before, but Clegg does bear a striking resemblance to Jim Davidson. I have started to suspect that Clegg might be a Tory, could he be Jim Davidson in disguise? Davidson is a master at putting on different voices.

Judith - you will not get any married tax allowance under the tories. If both of you work you will get nothing as far as I'm aware. It is being paid to families where one person is at home looking after young children and the other person earns less than 45,000. The amount on offer is also peanuts. If they brought back proper married couples tax allowance it would be completely different.

Lots of people not just teachers can't afford to go back to work when their children are young due to the cost of childcare plus commuting cost. If one parent is on higher rate tax the other parent gets nothing towards childcare even if they are on a very low paid job. Everything is biaised in favour of families who have two smaller salaries (eg 2 salaries of 20 k) and households that have the same income on one salary (40k) lose out through paying higher rate tax and losing any help towards childcare if the wife goes back to work on a lower salary.

I didn't make any comment about how hard teachers work or not but I think generally speaking the liberal democrats will offer teachers support through smaller class sizes. The only thing I am aware of in tory education policy is this idea of people setting up schools which will mean money might be channeled away from schools that are not David Cameron's flagship schools. Also if private money is involved the investors will want something back.

The tories are offering no incentives to those who earn more than 40k unless you have rich parents who are about to pop their clogs and leave you a million or you have a house worth 2 million and can avoid the mansion tax. Gordon Brown made this clear in the debate and Cameron didn't disagree.

Re: nick clegg - I don't think you have described liberal democrat policy on immigration or the EU very accurately. It does sound indeed as though you take everything Cameron or the daily mail say at face value.

Lots of people who vote lib dem are not particularly pro Europe or joining the euro. Some of the tories are pro europe - eg ken clarke.

I didn't ask you about benefit scroungers but thanks for letting me know your views.

Judith - another thing. You are saying clegg avoided answering questions. I think he answered far more than cameron who stood out as the one not answering questions. Were we watching the same debate?

Clegg was consistently the most impressive. GB has substance but struggles to charm and isn't at ease with himself as DC and NC and that really comes across....benefit of a private education i think

"Cameron would be the UK's George Bush. I think this is an insult, but people on here may disagree."

Cameron is more like Obama (he has stolen borrowed a lot of his policies, big society, schools etc ), Brown is Bush and Clegg is Zippy from Rainbow.

DC is no Bush but he aint no Obama either. NC is our Obama.

"GB said that Clegg is a game show host. I hadn't noticed it before, but Clegg does bear a striking resemblance to Jim Davidson. I have started to suspect that Clegg might be a Tory, could he be Jim Davidson in disguise? "

Well we know he's a Tory, but he knew he wouldn't get the leaders job so he choose to go with the Lib's.

As for which game show host would he be I think he reminds me of that Family fortunes host Les Dennis, "and the survey says...".

"DC is no Bush but he aint no Obama either. NC is our Obama."

PMSL.

How could you possibly equate Clegg with Obama, Obama has a spine, Clegg doesn't, Obama has the vision to change the schools to a charter system, Clegg doesn't agree with that, Obama believes in trident and nuclear protection for his country, clegg doesn't, Obama believes in handing power to the communities and scaling down government involvement, Clegg doesn't and when Obama speaks, he speaks with conviction, passion and incite, Clegg's reading from a shopping list.

But DC believes in all of these things.

" incite" ??

Insight.

Snowlady: first of all I apologise for putting your name at the top: not all of my comments were aimed towards you!

Not aimed specifically at snowlady....
I do not like Clegg: he is smarmy, smug, a great actor and I think his policies carry no weight: he has the ideas, but has yet to state how he will carry them out....Smaller class sizes? Great in theory but what's he going to do? Employ double the number of teachers we currently have to cope with this idea? No way...money will be taken out of the public sector not ploughed in, so clearly this is not going to materialise...
I am aware snowlady didn't mention how hard teachers work, but I didn't like the comment that 'so far teachers have got off lightly,' which is why I added that bit in!

I think most people in general have made up their minds who they're going to vote for...but...the Lib Dems cannot win this...due to the current way that Parliament works, the Lib Dems need something like a 70% majority to take control, which will clearly not happen, therefore, it is between the Tories and Labour: if you vote Lib Dem, I think you are just steering the country towards a Hund Parliament, which will be more detrimental to us than anything.

The Lib Dem policy as I have found in their manifesto on their webpage is that they will hold an amnesty to allow illegal immigrants to stay here as long as they can prove that they have been here for that length of time (how does that work, because clearly if they are illegal they can't prove when they came here!)
On the EU, the lib Dems believe that it is in this country's best interests if we are fully active members in the EU. He will not give a referendum and he did not agree with Cameron that it was the people's (our) choice whether or not to surrender the pound nor retain our own powers from Brussels.

I think it gets to the point when people who work just think 'enough is enough' why should the unemployed get full housing benefit, full council tax benefit, free prescriptions, free dentist treatment and get to do what the hell they like everyday whilst the rest of us get up at silly o'clock, work our guts out, don't get to spend quality time with our children and get stung for supporting them? It is not fair...We can rarely afford to go out once a month or afford to go on holiday every year as everything we earn goes in tax and NI and we get NOTHING back! Is that fair?????

I've voted Lib Dem since 1997, I saw the NuLiebour project for what it was even before they won in 97.
I liked Paddy Pantsdown Ashdown, Charles Kennedy (sadly alcohol dependent) and Menzies Campbell (spun as being too old)
Apparently Clegg maneuvered himself close to Menzies to be his heir...
Make no bones, Clegg is also a political animal

I don't really like Clegg I find him smarmy and disingenuous.

Funny though I dont find that with Cameron. I find him genuine, thoughtful and concerned.
Think about it Cameron and his Missus have pots of money, millions. They dont need to line their pockets, like BLair, DarkLordMandelson, Gordo, Blears etc etc

Mind you maybe I just hope for the best in people. I remember saying to DP Gordon Brown is from a solid socialist background, he wont sell us out, "no more boom or bust"

But as I am a LibDem/Labour marginal I will again vote LibDem.

If I was in a Labour/Conservative marginal I would despite being left leaning, vote Conservative to keep shower of shite who are NuLiebour, out of office.

atlantis NC and Obama are both liberal Democrats who were not given a chance and ran suburb campaigns to prevail. NC is the closest thin to Obama that we have this side.