Nick Clegg’s problem – the hangover from 2010

(GETTY IMAGES)

Callum Jones ponders the governmental achievements of the Liberal Democrats, as he heads to their party conference in Brighton.

Justin Bieber. Cheryl Cole. Nick Clegg. Before this week an unlikely trio, but today it’s a safe bet that they’ll be the three most popular auto-tuned vocalists of 2012.

Here we go again. As I write this on the slow train to Brighton for the Liberal Democrat 2012 Party Conference, I can’t help but draw similarities with twelve months ago, when I was on my way to the 2011 event in Birmingham. We’ll undoubtedly be told over the next few days that the party has vastly moved forward since last year, but has it?

There have certainly been achievements. When I asked a senior Lib Dem for their highlights since the last autumn meet, they cited the raising of the tax threshold and the £1.25billion pupil premium fund as their party’s accomplishments. And of course, Nick Clegg’s upcoming number one smash-hit.

Looking at the Liberal Democrat power record on paper, they have done well. The issue, so say many commentators, has been the sudden transition from decades in opposition to coalition government. It’s so much easier to fight for those steep pledges for electoral reform and free education when you don’t make the final decision.

On Thursday night, I went to the pub. Most of my friends don’t follow politics with the slightest bit of interest (“what reshuffle?” one obliviously asked me after a twenty-hour day earlier this month). Yet, they all seem to know enough about Nick Clegg to confidently form a judgment – for some it’s frustration, for others it’s sympathy. They scarcely tune into Today, visit PoliticsHome or watch the News at Ten, but less than twelve hours after the deputy prime minister’s remixed apology video had been uploaded, they had all seen it.

None of us were old enough to vote in 2010, but the number of people our age expressing an interest in politics during the election was impressive. To Nick Clegg’s credit, he reached out to a new generation of voters. Sure, Cleggmania reached the bandwagon stage, but most people were genuinely intrigued by the man. After suffering the media stereotypes and turbulent teenage years, young people had a voice at last.

What goes up must come down. They don’t feel like that anymore. This, more than anything else, is the Liberal Democrats’ biggest problem – Clegg woke after that incredible party of May 2010 with a monumental hangover, and it hasn’t left him since.

Let’s be honest, whether they made firm election pledges or not, a junior coalition partner would always be in choppy waters right now. But, regrettably, that dark cloud of broken trust constantly looms over the Lib Dems. People of all ages made a leap of faith and put their electoral trust in a party which went back on its word.

The hurdle is communication. No matter what the party manages to do in government, it does not have the formal backing of a national newspaper. This means figures like Tim Farron and Simon Hughes have to work even harder to get their points across. But this was flagged up as an issue at the last conference, and their popularity hasn’t seen a drastic surge upwards since then.

Nick Clegg can champion political reform and the future of Westminster as much as he likes, but he won’t get past the scores of voters who feel let down. There are two things that the Deputy PM can do to improve his electoral woes before 2015. Firstly, reshuffle his priorities so that only policies which directly affect voters are at the top of the pile. Secondly, get into the studio and start working on a follow-up single – no one likes a one hit wonder.

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• flux5000

  Libdems watching as the tories dismantle the NHS. I think you must be in bed, dreaming….

• flux5000

  Labour did indeed introduce student fees, I remember it very well. That does not make what LD’s have done right, they are complicit with the tories, they could always leave the coalition, but they won’t because they ‘have’ to be in Government. So they will be damned by the electorate.

  G e t a g r i p.

• aveyron

  Come on the press were just surprised that a third party even existed.
  None of them before the debates ever bothered to attend a lib dem conference – in fact Murdoch press were expressly forbidden. After a brief flirtation they soon returned to their owners bias. The only papers that has objective writers on the lib dems are the guardian and the independant

• aveyron

  What good would it do the lib dems to leave the coalition – inability to stand up under fire would also be added to their list of crimes. Although people who NOW believe that Labour alone or Conservatives alone would have done a better job than the coalition, they conveniently forget the good things that the lib dems have done in government and many of the bad things they have been able to water down get rid of

• flux5000

  The good it would do would be to show the people that they actually have some morals, not that I expect them to exhibit such behaviour…

  As far as I am concerned, all three parties are corporate whores, they represent the corporate interest, not that of the electorate.

• Ben

  The Lib Dems have allowed an entirely corporate focused government to accelerate the erosion of the welfare state, dismantling of the NHS and general burden of economic failure to fall on the poor and vulnerable whilst simultaneously demonising them.
  Callum your party posed as a supporter of the needs of the general population but allowed a government to do the opposite and cause real pain and lasting damage to the hopes and opportunities of future generations (Labour are generally worse).
  Lib dems where the only party I would vote for but now realise that was naive. Power has exposed their true colours as it always does.
  I would have thought this will destroy the lib dems, at least for a generaton. At least I hope so

• Rick B

  Nick Clegg is a right-wing liberal… some might say conservative

• Graculus

  If Clegg’s only problem was a hangover then the electorate might listen to him. The comments below say it all. I can imagine UKIP going into the next election with the slogan “A vote for LibDem is a wasted vote”.

• http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-J-Cawood/541263442 Michael J Cawood

  “became the reason why people supported the Lib-Dem’s” – supported the Lib-Dem’s what?

• http://www.facebook.com/people/Ryan-Mercer/100000315785740 Ryan Mercer

  Clegg was doomed the moment he lost seats at the general election. Without the realistic alternative option of making a coalition with Labour as it would need the tiny parties too and would have had a tiny majority (who were under the much hated Brown anyway) then not only were they obligated to work with the Tories, but they were in a terrible bargaining position. All they could get is token concessions, because the alternative would have been a new second successive general election at a time of national crisis, and would we have been any more forgiving of Clegg for that? Sure not standing firm on tuition fees was a political mistake, although speaking as a recent graduate on the old system, I think the new system with lower contributions and higher starting level would be financially better for me even if the £9000 a year figure sounds scary. Compared to Labour with Iraq, and the Tories “no top down reforms of the NHS” promise how bad has Clegg really been?