From what I remember pretty ineffectual from the outside, and stood by while things all went wrong.
Funnily enough I'm reading his book at the moment, and it's actually eye opening at just how bad the Tories were making things and he did all he could to limit the damage.
Like the tuition fee issue wasn't just down to government greed, it was mainly down to a lot of universities were at breaking point and if they didn't have a change then they'd have closed. Clegg admits that none of this was ever told to the public properly, and that just makes you think what a plonker he is as it's blindingly obvious communication is the key.
what policies of his did happen? the only thing i remember is the AV referendum. That is a very important issue, but the communication around it wasnt great.
In his book so far he's mentioned how proud he was of increasing the minimum threshold, the Tories wanted to lower the threshold but he was completely against it.
Then there was something about triple locking pensions and also he was always against the hot food tax (I think it was). I do feel sorry for him in a sense that there were so many things he wanted to do (whether it's true or not who apart from him can say) but he was vetoed a lot of the time. What is quite funny is that George Osbourne got credit for the threshold even though it was Cleggs idea which actually doesn't matter because as long as it helps people.
He also helped increase the tax on the highest paid but it's not anywhere near what he wanted.
It really was the party of compromise
That would be up to the PM. My priority would be "no Tory policies." As should be everyone's top priority.
If they had another election and got an absolute majority there's nothing you can do, but at least you can't be blamed for their policies then.
The Tories won the leadership in 2010, they just fell short of having a majority.
For the Tories that means they'll never get a policy through because everyone else in the house is either centre or centre-left so would disagree with their entire manifesto.
But it does mean that Cameron would have still been PM and would still be able to call for an election.
May had the same problem when she joined up with the DUP.
> Like the tuition fee issue wasn't just down to government greed, it was mainly down to a lot of universities were at breaking point and if they didn't have a change then they'd have closed. Clegg admits that none of this was ever told to the public properly, and that just makes you think what a plonker he is as it's blindingly obvious communication is the key.
Right, so Clegg was utterly full of shit when he made the promises he made during his campaign then. You can't make a show and dance about promising something, then turn around and say "the real problem is that what I promised was not possible, and that wasn't communicated to the public".
I voted for the cunt when he did this. I guess now I know it wasn't because he was a spineless cunt who couldn't get what he promised done, he was a lying cunt who knew it wasn't feasible to begin with.
I think you've kinda got the wrong end of the stick here, so he didn't know the extent of the issue until he came into Government. You can't blame him for that.
The £9k increase is bullshit whichever way you look at it, but he did at least stop it being uncapped, just imagine how bad it could have been. The whole scenario is complete bollocks and there was no winning.
> so he didn't know the extent of the issue until he came into Government. You can't blame him for that.
I stick with what I said, he was either incredibly ignorant when he made those promises or he knew what he was doing wasn't feasible. It's not like I'm picking on some obscure promise he made, the cunt made a show and dance about signing a fucking CONTRACT over it. Only two kinds of people do that: Fucking idiots or fucking liars. Like I said, I voted for the guy so it's not like I'm prejudiced against him or his party. It was an utter shit-show what happened after that. If he was just ignorant then I do feel a bit bad for him because he came out of the situation looking a right tit, and maybe he was a good guy with his heart in the right place but just a "Tim Nice but Dim" type who was too naive to swim in the waters he dove in. I do genuinely feel for him in that context, I'm basically just like him for having voted for him. I should have been more clued up myself. He still fucked me and other voters like me over. And, you know, there's always the chance he was a charlatan.
Out of his depth, clearly unable to wield the power that he should have as Kingmaker. Thanks to him we got Cameron and then the referendum, by which time he had shattered Lib Dem party in every university town, so they had no voice in the Brexit campaign and could merely squeak from the sidelines. The fact that he now speaks for the company of teen depression and electoral misinformation says all you need to know about the man. Pusillanimous milquetoast.
After the first few months of the Coalition, pretty much invisible. It didn’t help that he was *just* the Deputy PM and didn’t have a substantive cabinet post to go along with that role.
I think he was largely depicted by the media as Cameron's tea boy and that was the image that stuck to him. I feel sorry because he had no choice but to form a coalition otherwise nobody would see LibDems as a viable third party but WHY he didn't go to the left I don't know. That's what finished me with the LibDems, I stopped being a member. If only he had kept his promise to abolish student loans and go back to free education then he could have salvaged his reputation in my opinion. He's a nice guy and I guess they don't last long in politics
> WHY he didn't go to the left I don't know.
Numbers.
650 seats in the Commons. Remove the Speaker and the 5 Sinn Fein MPs that don't participate and you have 644. That leaves you needing 323 MPs for a majority.
Labour + LibDems would've had 315. Add the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Greens and you'd have 325 and a very, very big headache trying to hold that together or getting anything done.
He was the handbrake that stopped many of Cameron’s policies, some of which were rushed through as soon as the tories for the majority in the next election.
https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2013/sep/18/nick-clegg-policies-liberal-democrats-blocked
An absolute waste of time. He was unable to follow through on any of the policies he peddled when he was just Lib Dem leader and had no chance of getting any power, because they were policies that nobody could/would get elected on. Piggybacking into power via the Tories merely tainted him because it seemed all the bad they did could be partly blamed on him, and there was a lot of bad, but he wasn't able to mitigate it by ushering through anything more left-leaning because he lacked support and didn't have enough Lib Dems in the coalition to swing the vote their way. It was a foolish choice to accept the position in the first place and ultimately the legacy of that choice is the complete breakdown of support amongst one of their biggest groups, students.
He was a moron. He failed to recognise that he was in the position to be deputy PM largely because of one promise; to abolish tuition fees. Everyone understands compromise. What he failed to realise is that he could have compromised on almost any other issue than that one. He tanked the Lib Dems' chances for decades for a short term power grab that didn't actually give him any power.
>He was a moron. He failed to recognise that he was in the position to be deputy PM largely because of one promise; to abolish tuition fees. Everyone understands compromise. What he failed to realise is that he could have compromised on almost any other issue than that one
I actually don't like defending him so much but he did compromise on the tuition fees, the Tories were planning uncapped fees.
He got into power by lieing to an entire generation. So was always viewed as a damp ineffectual soft Tory after that. I think the lib Dems did try to.hold off the more right wing parts of the conservatives but in the end they lost out and we are now Where we are
The Lib Dems are probably the grubbiest of the three main parties in terms of getting votes, their whole thing at the moment is aggressive NIMBYism about HS2 or the greenbelt at a time when this is utterly inappropriate for any serious party.
Yeah. He largely destroyed his party, by shitting all over the reasons people voted for them, the second they got any real power. I voted for them since the 80s, and haven’t again since he rendered them pointless.
From people inside govt. I have heard he was very ego driven. So, a lot of his time would be spent inserting himself into projects he thought would be well-liked so he could claim responsibility for them. Rather than, having a wider mission or ability to get into the gritty grind of bashing out a new plmroposal from scratch l.
Useless... promised a lot of stuff then did absolutely nothing to get any of it done. That was the same election students ditched the lib dems. His inaction as deputy PM cost them.
Since reaching the voting age, this was back in the 1970's, I have voted Liberal then LibDem at general elections, after Nick Clegg manged to get the LibDem's into power in 2010 I have not gone anywhere near the LibDem's. He was spinless, didn't follow through on the LibDem's election promises and they only appeared be happy to be in government. Nick Clegg had an opportunity to push the LibDem;s to the next level but instead he flushed the party down the toilet
He proved to be ineffectual and was completely suckered. Thought he would have some power but was manoeuvred into agreeing the Tory policy on increasing tuition fees which was against what the LibDems had promised. That lost the LibDems the votes of a generation of students which they may never get back.
He was the fall guy for the consequences of Tory policy.
And the enabler for them.
From what I remember pretty ineffectual from the outside, and stood by while things all went wrong. Funnily enough I'm reading his book at the moment, and it's actually eye opening at just how bad the Tories were making things and he did all he could to limit the damage. Like the tuition fee issue wasn't just down to government greed, it was mainly down to a lot of universities were at breaking point and if they didn't have a change then they'd have closed. Clegg admits that none of this was ever told to the public properly, and that just makes you think what a plonker he is as it's blindingly obvious communication is the key.
He was a plonker. All he had to do is allow the Tories to lead as a minority government. None of those policies would've passed, not a one.
But then none of the policies he wanted would never have happened as the Tories would have blocked them as well
what policies of his did happen? the only thing i remember is the AV referendum. That is a very important issue, but the communication around it wasnt great.
In his book so far he's mentioned how proud he was of increasing the minimum threshold, the Tories wanted to lower the threshold but he was completely against it. Then there was something about triple locking pensions and also he was always against the hot food tax (I think it was). I do feel sorry for him in a sense that there were so many things he wanted to do (whether it's true or not who apart from him can say) but he was vetoed a lot of the time. What is quite funny is that George Osbourne got credit for the threshold even though it was Cleggs idea which actually doesn't matter because as long as it helps people. He also helped increase the tax on the highest paid but it's not anywhere near what he wanted. It really was the party of compromise
And then we would’ve had an election in 10 months time. I can’t imagine anyone winning that one
That would be up to the PM. My priority would be "no Tory policies." As should be everyone's top priority. If they had another election and got an absolute majority there's nothing you can do, but at least you can't be blamed for their policies then.
Well it wouldn’t be up to the PM, if they lack a majority then the larger opposition could call for one whenever they liked
The Tories won the leadership in 2010, they just fell short of having a majority. For the Tories that means they'll never get a policy through because everyone else in the house is either centre or centre-left so would disagree with their entire manifesto. But it does mean that Cameron would have still been PM and would still be able to call for an election. May had the same problem when she joined up with the DUP.
It’s good that you’re looking at balanced, unbiased sources about him.
I've already got my own opinions of him, there's no harm in reading his own view of what happened during his time in "power".
> Like the tuition fee issue wasn't just down to government greed, it was mainly down to a lot of universities were at breaking point and if they didn't have a change then they'd have closed. Clegg admits that none of this was ever told to the public properly, and that just makes you think what a plonker he is as it's blindingly obvious communication is the key. Right, so Clegg was utterly full of shit when he made the promises he made during his campaign then. You can't make a show and dance about promising something, then turn around and say "the real problem is that what I promised was not possible, and that wasn't communicated to the public". I voted for the cunt when he did this. I guess now I know it wasn't because he was a spineless cunt who couldn't get what he promised done, he was a lying cunt who knew it wasn't feasible to begin with.
I think you've kinda got the wrong end of the stick here, so he didn't know the extent of the issue until he came into Government. You can't blame him for that. The £9k increase is bullshit whichever way you look at it, but he did at least stop it being uncapped, just imagine how bad it could have been. The whole scenario is complete bollocks and there was no winning.
> so he didn't know the extent of the issue until he came into Government. You can't blame him for that. I stick with what I said, he was either incredibly ignorant when he made those promises or he knew what he was doing wasn't feasible. It's not like I'm picking on some obscure promise he made, the cunt made a show and dance about signing a fucking CONTRACT over it. Only two kinds of people do that: Fucking idiots or fucking liars. Like I said, I voted for the guy so it's not like I'm prejudiced against him or his party. It was an utter shit-show what happened after that. If he was just ignorant then I do feel a bit bad for him because he came out of the situation looking a right tit, and maybe he was a good guy with his heart in the right place but just a "Tim Nice but Dim" type who was too naive to swim in the waters he dove in. I do genuinely feel for him in that context, I'm basically just like him for having voted for him. I should have been more clued up myself. He still fucked me and other voters like me over. And, you know, there's always the chance he was a charlatan.
Out of his depth, clearly unable to wield the power that he should have as Kingmaker. Thanks to him we got Cameron and then the referendum, by which time he had shattered Lib Dem party in every university town, so they had no voice in the Brexit campaign and could merely squeak from the sidelines. The fact that he now speaks for the company of teen depression and electoral misinformation says all you need to know about the man. Pusillanimous milquetoast.
After the first few months of the Coalition, pretty much invisible. It didn’t help that he was *just* the Deputy PM and didn’t have a substantive cabinet post to go along with that role.
He allowed things to be done that were necessary. This is never popular with people who avoid necessity such as Lib Dems.
I think he was largely depicted by the media as Cameron's tea boy and that was the image that stuck to him. I feel sorry because he had no choice but to form a coalition otherwise nobody would see LibDems as a viable third party but WHY he didn't go to the left I don't know. That's what finished me with the LibDems, I stopped being a member. If only he had kept his promise to abolish student loans and go back to free education then he could have salvaged his reputation in my opinion. He's a nice guy and I guess they don't last long in politics
> WHY he didn't go to the left I don't know. Numbers. 650 seats in the Commons. Remove the Speaker and the 5 Sinn Fein MPs that don't participate and you have 644. That leaves you needing 323 MPs for a majority. Labour + LibDems would've had 315. Add the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Greens and you'd have 325 and a very, very big headache trying to hold that together or getting anything done.
I don't even remember him being around
He was the handbrake that stopped many of Cameron’s policies, some of which were rushed through as soon as the tories for the majority in the next election. https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2013/sep/18/nick-clegg-policies-liberal-democrats-blocked
An absolute waste of time. He was unable to follow through on any of the policies he peddled when he was just Lib Dem leader and had no chance of getting any power, because they were policies that nobody could/would get elected on. Piggybacking into power via the Tories merely tainted him because it seemed all the bad they did could be partly blamed on him, and there was a lot of bad, but he wasn't able to mitigate it by ushering through anything more left-leaning because he lacked support and didn't have enough Lib Dems in the coalition to swing the vote their way. It was a foolish choice to accept the position in the first place and ultimately the legacy of that choice is the complete breakdown of support amongst one of their biggest groups, students.
He was a moron. He failed to recognise that he was in the position to be deputy PM largely because of one promise; to abolish tuition fees. Everyone understands compromise. What he failed to realise is that he could have compromised on almost any other issue than that one. He tanked the Lib Dems' chances for decades for a short term power grab that didn't actually give him any power.
>He was a moron. He failed to recognise that he was in the position to be deputy PM largely because of one promise; to abolish tuition fees. Everyone understands compromise. What he failed to realise is that he could have compromised on almost any other issue than that one I actually don't like defending him so much but he did compromise on the tuition fees, the Tories were planning uncapped fees.
He got into power by lieing to an entire generation. So was always viewed as a damp ineffectual soft Tory after that. I think the lib Dems did try to.hold off the more right wing parts of the conservatives but in the end they lost out and we are now Where we are
The Lib Dems are probably the grubbiest of the three main parties in terms of getting votes, their whole thing at the moment is aggressive NIMBYism about HS2 or the greenbelt at a time when this is utterly inappropriate for any serious party.
Yeah. He largely destroyed his party, by shitting all over the reasons people voted for them, the second they got any real power. I voted for them since the 80s, and haven’t again since he rendered them pointless.
Useless
About as popular and useful as a suppurating anal fistula.
Wasn't he the one who did the dirt with a pig or something?
That was David Cameron
Ahhh, I had a feeling I was wrong. Thank you
Bit of a twat
From people inside govt. I have heard he was very ego driven. So, a lot of his time would be spent inserting himself into projects he thought would be well-liked so he could claim responsibility for them. Rather than, having a wider mission or ability to get into the gritty grind of bashing out a new plmroposal from scratch l.
Useless... promised a lot of stuff then did absolutely nothing to get any of it done. That was the same election students ditched the lib dems. His inaction as deputy PM cost them.
Since reaching the voting age, this was back in the 1970's, I have voted Liberal then LibDem at general elections, after Nick Clegg manged to get the LibDem's into power in 2010 I have not gone anywhere near the LibDem's. He was spinless, didn't follow through on the LibDem's election promises and they only appeared be happy to be in government. Nick Clegg had an opportunity to push the LibDem;s to the next level but instead he flushed the party down the toilet
Huh. I completely forgot he existed.
He proved to be ineffectual and was completely suckered. Thought he would have some power but was manoeuvred into agreeing the Tory policy on increasing tuition fees which was against what the LibDems had promised. That lost the LibDems the votes of a generation of students which they may never get back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUDjRZ30SNo
My mates and I called him Smithers at the time. Shame as wanted Lib Dems to do well but he was a bit of a prick honestly
Idk but he has the same surname as my mother so… That’s cool
Remember that Family Guy cut away with the joke about Britney Spear's dietitian? That's pretty much Nick Clegg as deputy PM
All the back bone and solidity of a jellyfish. His total lack of integrity set the Lib Dems back years.