He’s unquestionably posh. He went to one of our better public schools. From there, the road to Oxford and a top job as a political adviser to a senior Tory were mere formalities. A safe seat was lined up for him and the leadership of his party wasn’t far behind.
But Nick Clegg, for it is he, has never been attacked for his unquestionable poshness. He’s as worthy of the description as Dave and George, but Labour has never hung this particular millstone around Clegg’s neck.
Neither has he ever come in for much stick for jettisoning the social democratic heritage of his party, or for the alacrity with which he jumped into bed with the Tories at the first opportunity, or for dutifully supporting their programme in exchange for squeezing in a few token policies of his own.
Labour has spent the past five years treating Clegg with kid gloves. His party and his fellow cohort of human shield ministers have come in for regular attack, with poor old Danny Alexander (the “Ginger Rodent” as Harriet Harman called him) usually serving as a proxy. But Labour needs to get personal. The party needs Clegg’s face grinding into the dust over coming weeks, for three essential reasons.
First, the Lib Dems always improve their share of the vote during an election campaign and given Labour’s current position is boosted by Lib Dem defectors, any improvement for Clegg and his party comes at Labour’s expense. Clegg is clearly rehashing the Lib Dems’ favourite “a plague on both their houses” strategy, in the hope of winning support from both. If they claw back a point or two, it will make all the difference between Labour winning and losing this election.
Second, Clegg is a barrier to Labour sealing a coalition deal with the Lib Dems. If a hung parliament indeed comes to pass, Ed Miliband may need both the SNP and Lib Dems to back him. It is not too strong to describe the Labour grassroots’ attitude to Clegg as seething hatred. The idea of him retaining his role as Deputy PM in a Miliband government would be too much for many in the party to bear.
Third, and to reverse the above point, Clegg remains the best hope of the Tories stitching the Con/Lib coalition back together again. Despite the theatrics during last week’s leaders’ debate, Cameron (son of a stockbroker) and Clegg (son of a bank chairman) have a rapport that has survived five difficult years in government, defying assumptions that their coalition would break apart.
Labour needs to nail Clegg to Cameron in order to stymie any revival of the Lib Dems in the polls. But it needs to do so in a way that doesn’t poison relations with the Lib Dems as a party (and potential coalition partners). Tricky, which is why Labour’s attack should focus on Clegg.
In fact, with his return to Parliament itself a moot point, Labour should do all it can to take Clegg out in his Sheffield Hallam seat. The latest Ashcroft poll shows Labour two points ahead in the seat. A Vince Cable or Tim Farron-led party would be a better prospect for Labour.
Nick Clegg remains the biggest single barrier between Ed Miliband crossing the threshold of Number Ten or not. Its time Labour’s inexplicably lenient treatment of this banker’s son who brought us the bedroom tax, ended.
Tags: Coalition, general election campaign 2015, Nick Clegg, orange book, Sheffield Hallam
“Ed Miliband may need both the SNP and Lib Dems to back him.”
The SNP will be the more important of the two potential suitors as they are set to have more MPs than the LibDems. And, as you suggest, Clegg may be inclined to side with the Tories.
Forget about Scottish Labour. Murphy is unsuited to a leadership role and has failed drastically. He has become irrelevant.
I disagree totally with this article. It does not matter whether Clegg is still an MP in May. Labour should concentrate on defeating Tory MPs.
What a nasty article.
Attack people for their policies, not for what they’re parents did or where they went to school.
A link to this article was just posted to me to remind people like me about the true face of labour
Well done.for added irony I had to type “blair” into the anti spam, just in case I forgot.
He’s unquestionably posh. He went to one of our better public schools. From there, the road to Oxford
A description that fits a large amount of Labour”s MPs and their children.
I used to be a Lib Dem. I believe passionately in Liberalism. I want to see a lot less government and a lot more personal freedom. I am also a Democrat in that I want to see public officials elected by the people and I want to see them represent the people too.
Inside the LibDems, I found a petty dictatorship. It was in no sense free in any way. I also found no democrac: it was the will of the local Gauleiter that went – even in schemes that verged on the illegal.
Mind you, this was when I stood in a Council Election! I was not elected. Whew!
Are you guys at Labour uncut competing to see who can offer Labour the worst political advice? The Lib Dems are struggling to get into the debate all. The media are much more interested in UKIP and the SNP. Attacking the Lib Dems at this point would just give them the credibility and attention that they crave.
And as far as Clegg is concerned – people have already made up their minds about him. His personal ratings are abysmal. Poshness is a liability for a Tory because it plays into their major strategic weakness, the electorate’s perception that the Tories are the party for the rich. But nobody cares that Clegg is posh, they care that he is weak and untrustworthy.
btw, he went to Cambridge not Oxford.
“He’s unquestionably posh. He went to one of our better public schools. From there, the road to Oxford and a top job as a political adviser to a senior Tory were mere formalities. A safe seat was lined up for him and the leadership of his party wasn’t far behind.”
Are you talking about Clegg or Miliband?
Labour have been treating Clegg with kid gloves?? What planet are you living on? The last five years has seen nothing but a torrent of bile from Labourites who can’t get over the fact they lost the 2010 election and blame a man for that who presumeably they thought had in their pocket. Instead he showed his independence by maximising the amount of his own party’s manifesto that he could get into law, which is exactly what a party leader should do. I am on the wing of the Lib Dems that would prefer to deal with a party which takes Labour’s policy positions, but the actual Labour Party needs to grow up if its ever going to be a coaltion partner.
The use of class these days is so depressing. It’s used as a term of abuse rather than a real lens of analysis. What are the problems facing today’s working class? How should it be fixed? Wasting time on saying Nick Clegg is posh is idiotic (Tony Benn was posher). And anyway, he went to Cambridge, not Oxford. But the state of positive thinking on the Labour left is appalling. If only we could get Ralph Milliband back!
“He went to one of our better public schools.”
Westminster is our top public school. I should know, I went there!
“He’s unquestionably posh. He went to one of our better public schools. From there, the road to Oxford and a top job as a political adviser to a senior Tory were mere formalities. A safe seat was lined up for him and the leadership of his party wasn’t far behind.”
Well – you’re not talking about Nick Clegg, because he went to Cambridge. Its only Labour Party leaders that go to third-rate Universities like Oxford.