Before he became Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg told close colleagues that his first 100 days in the job would be crucial and that he was determined to use it to make a dramatic impression on the voters. He would not get bogged down in internal party manoeuvrings like his predecessor Sir Menzies Campbell. Inevitably, Clegg has found the task tougher going than he imagined.
Unfortunately, the highest profile he achieved during his first 100 days was a messy abstention by his party in a vote over Europe which ended in the resignation of three senior frontbenchers. Some readers asked me to explain why Clegg acted in the way he did, which was a struggle. I suspect the kerfuffle has faded in most voters' minds by now. But it highlighted the perennial problem facing Britain's third party: how to secure media coverage which isn't about a LibDem split or internal sniping at its leader.
Overall, Clegg has had a solid start rather than the spectacular one he planned. He hasn't landed a killer punch at Prime Minister's Questions but (more importantly) he hasn't fallen flat on his face either. Some of the issues he has raised first - such as fuel poverty - have taken off.
There is some disappointment in LibDem ranks that Clegg hasn't made more impact. It was ever thus, and a lot of hard pounding lies ahead. The good news is that he may have found what the marketing men call a "unique selling point". He is starting to carve out a timely niche as the politician who voices public concern about what he calls our broken political system.
Clegg has been quick off the mark during the controversy over MPs' expenses. Although David Cameron has too, senior Tories admit privately that it will be difficult for their Eton-educated leader to be seen as head of an anti-politics movement. It will be hard for Gordon Brown too after 11 years in power. So there is a precious gap in the market which Clegg can fill.
Nick Clegg? Is he any issue at all?
I cannot understand why, after all these years, nobody has ever bothered to go back to ABCs and explain in KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) language, what Liberalism means today and how it differs from the naive liberalism of the Sixties and Seventies.
It is lazy for the Liberals to just pick up the voters who flee Labour but would rather die than vote for the Conservatives. The Liberals, more than the other two parties, stand to gain the most from defining in clear terms and conditions what their ideology is, and how it relates to the world today and in the future.
Posted by: Verano | Thursday, 27 March 2008 at 01:08 PM
A solid start? It's been rubbish if you ask me. I agree much more with this article:
http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/577766/one-hundred-days.thtml
After ignoring a manifesto promise to the people, how can we take Clegg seriouslt as the "head of an anti-politics movement"??
Posted by: Lily Sutton | Thursday, 27 March 2008 at 05:46 PM