Clegg - Lapdog or Lothario?

Well, well, well. How quickly things change. Just 3 short months ago, Nick Clegg appeared to be THE flavour of the month for the upcoming election. But it appears that his 15 minutes is dragging to an uncomfortable end, if you’re to agree with Mark Seddon who writes a scathing article in this weekend’s Daily Mail.

Easily the most attractive politician since….well, ever - either everyone was actually THAT cheesed off with Gord that when it came down to choosing between an aging Scottish bloke or an uptight former public schoolboy for Prime Minister, the suave, chiselled lothario with a proclivity for yellow ties was the best of not a very exciting bunch; or they staunchly believed Clegg was the man to single-handedly change a rapidly deteriorating Britain.

Some compared him to Obama – could this doe-eyed straight talker with a keen sense of empathy for the middle classes really transform the country with his promises of ‘new politics’? All the other parties had failed miserably, he argued. Vote Lib Dem for a better future.


And many did. In a remarkable turn of events, we ended up with not one toff running our country, but TWO of them. I, for one, was extremely interested to see how all Cameron’s policies would clash spectacularly with Clegg’s, after hearing both of them slag the other’s off in the run up to the election – but as yet there have been no fisticuffs at dawn. The waters of Downing Street are running smoother than silk, and Cameron and Clegg seem to be as pally as two members of the Famous Five.

But according to Seddon, the Lib Dems are becoming increasingly disillusioned with the amount of enthusiasm their party leader has shown in signing up to his so-called ‘rival’s’ policies. Their poll rating has slumped to a measly 12 percent and Clegg’s own personal satisfaction has fallen by a whopping 64 points since the election.

A big factor in his declining popularity was the alleged deceit he showed over Spending Cuts. Though he didn’t support the idea of a faster programme of deficit reduction back in March, claiming that early cuts would be ‘economic masochism’, he recently admitted to changing his mind and is now backing the Tories’ plans for a faster package of cuts.

When he was asked why he kept schtum to his constituents about this, Clegg said: "... to be fair we were all ... reacting to very, very fast-moving economic events."

So what’s the truth? Is the Clegg to be trusted? I must admit to sitting on the fence here. I’m no ‘lefty journo’, nor do I claim to know everything about our political situation, but I did believe Nick Clegg could be a welcome symbol of change for Britain, as I believe, did many others. But it seems to me that at this moment in time, that Clegg Factor is most definitely on the decline.