There was an extensive interview with Nick Clegg in the Independent this morning. It was quite interesting...I noted the other day that the public perception of Nick has been utterly dreadful throughout the entire coalition government so far, and he's actually acted as kind of a shit-umbrella for David Cameron and the Conservatives; so enraged were the People with Nick's decision to get in bed with the Tories, they've blamed him centrally for going along with things that weren't even his idea. His complicity is apparently worse than the more run-of-the-mill bastardry perpetrated by the Tories, which everyone expected anyway.
Nick is struggling manfully to change this perception ahead of the AV referendum, though, and David Cameron is actually playing along, for once. Nick confided to the Independent (obviously with the express permission of Dave, but still) that he often heckles the PM quietly from just behind him on the front bench. On wednesday, he claims he told Dave that his position on the AV vote was "complete bilge". Now, for once Nick might actually have the right idea here, but he's going about it in completely the wrong way. To start with, you don't emphasize your difference from the Prime Minister that the rank and file of your party are ideologically utterly opposed to by telling everyone what great mates you are. "We were very good humoured about it. We mutter to each other." I mean, christ, I'm starting to think they're more than just friends...they mutter sweet nothings to each other, now? Christ, it makes you wonder why David Laws had to steal £40,000 to hide his sexuality when the Prime Minister and his Deputy are openly flirting on the front bench...
His main line of defence isn't fantastic, either. "We were right to go into government. We are doing the right things in government". We were right, right, right...wing? Well, not exactly, but maintaining again and again that he's in the right kind of suggests that everyone who has opposed him so far has been wrong. There's no concession to all those students who were led to believe (via a signed document, no less) that Nick wouldn't support a rise in tuition fees. Nor is there any room for those who didn't like that VAT tax increase, or the new immigration rules - never mind that many Liberal Democrats vehemently opposed these things, Nick was right. And that's all that matters, apparently.
I reckon he's done himself no favours by trying to learn about what it is to be in government, in such close partnership with the Conservatives. When you're leader of the Conservative Party, the most important thing is to be Right. You always have to win the argument. The Liberal Democrat Party of old weren't like that; you didn't have to be right all of the time, as long as your heart was in the right place. There's still a lot of fondness in the party for Charlie Kennedy, for example, despite all of his troubles. If Nick really wants to make progress with the Liberal Democrats - and surely step one in regaining his image is to win over his own party - then he need to listen to what they're thinking, for once. Not what he thinks he should be thinking, or indeed what he thinks Dave thinks he should be thinking. He's trying to play to too wide a crowd. The Liberal Democrats won't hate him if he apologises about tuition fees or the VAT, if he admits giving up ground to the Conservatives and making decisions he finds less than palatable in order to be part of government. They will hate him, though, if he refuses to ever admit any guilt - if he turns completely into the kind of politician that he personally railed against before the General Election, and in those debates that propelled him into the nation's political consciousness. What happened to the New Politics?
The Spring Conference in Sheffield is going to be utterly critical for Nick's attempts at a new image. He can't afford to make the same mistakes he did at the Scottish conference; that is, sneaking in the fire exit to avoid the mobs of protesters, refusing to engage with the anger his own party members are feeling, before delivering a mind-numbingly predictable speech which actually might have been written by Cameron himself. Or at least his personal speech-writers. Nick needs to remember who he's talking to here; it's his party. It's the Liberal Democrats. He needs to get himself out of Coalition mode and think about the grass-roots of his own party. If he can't make them like him, he won't be able to budge the national perception of him one iota, not with all the Tory spin-doctors in the world at his back.
