Nick Clegg tells his coalition government story: We fucked up, but the Tories were huge dicks
13 replies, posted
[t]http://i.imgur.com/cll07e5.jpg[/t]
[url]http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/sep/02/nick-clegg-george-osborne-cut-welfare-poorest-boost-tory-popularity[/url]
[quote]Nick Clegg has accused the former chancellor George Osborne of casually cutting the benefits of the poorest people in society because he believed taking the austerity axe to welfare would boost Conservative popularity.
In a candid interview looking back on his five years as deputy prime minister in the Tory-Lib Dem coalition, Clegg said he found the behaviour of his senior Conservative partner “very unattractive, very cynical”.
“Welfare for Osborne was just a bottomless pit of savings, and it didn’t really matter what the human consequences were, because focus groups had shown that the voters they wanted to appeal to were very anti-welfare, and therefore there was almost no limit to those anti-welfare prejudices,” he told the Guardian.
Speaking before the publication of his anticipated political memoir, written after his party was reduced to eight seats in last year’s general election, Clegg hit out at David Cameron and his Conservative partners in government.[/quote]
[quote]In a wide-ranging interview, Clegg expressed deep frustration that his party had received little credit for its work in the coalition, and admitted to “big mistakes”. He also:
- Said he could now see that his decision to back a policy that would triple tuition fees to £9,000, breaking a Lib Dem pledge, was like delivering a punch in the face to parents who dreamed of watching their children graduate.
- Described how he became “fat, pale and unhealthy” as he stopped exercising and began smoking too much to cope with the long hours and the stress – leading Paddy Ashdown to berate him for being overweight.
- Revealed that he suffered pneumonia, chest pains, chronic coughs and bronchitis “while trying to look perky in public at all times”.[/quote]
the scary part is that hes absolutely right that parties today dont care about everyone just the people who got them to the office. thats why we have a nationalist running for president who doesnt care that hes alienating most of the country, thats why one side of the isle has consistantly tried to fuck the poor out of healthcare, thats why we have such extreme partisanship today
Glad he admitted his mistakes, but 'whoops' (not even sorry) will only go so far for the people whose directions were changed irreparably and still are being, because of a bill he backed when he was essentially PM. Students in the UK have pretty much never been fucked that hard in one event, and by a Lib Dem no less.
His criticism of George Osborne is unsurprising. It was hard to believe simple austerity was the reason for repeatedly stepping on the disabled and unemployed.
I feel bad for Nick Clegg. He made some mistakes and wasted an opportunity that the Lib Dems won't get for a while now, but I can tell he's reeling from it.
[QUOTE=Jon27;50989160]Glad he admitted his mistakes, but 'whoops' (not even sorry) will only go so far for the people whose directions were changed irreparably and still are being, because of a bill he backed when he was essentially PM. Students in the UK have pretty much never been fucked that hard in one event, and by a Lib Dem no less.
His criticism of George Osborne is unsurprising. It was hard to believe simple austerity was the reason for repeatedly stepping on the disabled and unemployed.[/QUOTE]
But he did say sorry
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUDjRZ30SNo[/media]
It must have been pretty horrible to be Cameron's bitch
It might be an idea to take this all with a grain of salt. Of course he's going to pitch the blame on somebody else, there's no other way to get people to forget about all the broken promises his party has made. This just seems like backpedalling disguised as an 'expose' of the evil tories who were really responsible for all of the things the coalition didn't achieve.
He's just as responsible as the tories are, there was no way Osborne could implement the ridiculous policies the Lib Dems promised, especially with austerity.
[QUOTE=KillerLUA;50991804]It might be an idea to take this all with a grain of salt. Of course he's going to pitch the blame on somebody else, there's no other way to get people to forget about all the broken promises his party has made. This just seems like backpedalling disguised as an 'expose' of the evil tories who were really responsible for all of the things the coalition didn't achieve.
He's just as responsible as the tories are, there was no way Osborne could implement the ridiculous policies the Lib Dems promised, especially with austerity.[/QUOTE]
None of what he said seems particularly out there. The Tories have shown for decades that they don't care about the poorest and most vulnerable. I mean the disability cuts alone should show you the sort of attitude they have towards those people so this all seems fairly realistic really.
Yes the lib dems did help them with some policy but I think people overlook how the lib dems did to some degree keep the Tories in check as we are now seeing, with the Tories having their limiter taken off.
[QUOTE=Tacooo;50989570]It must have been pretty horrible to be Cameron's bitch[/QUOTE]
On the contrary. It's often the smallest group in a coalition government that wields the most power. The Conservatives had much more to lose from failing to cooperate, than the Lib Dems had to lose.
Eg the most-powerful faction during the Australian 2010-13 minority government was a group of three independents. The government of the day could only pass bills that those independents chose.
And yet there are still people who will actively vote for these same Conservatives screwing them over because "MUH IMMIGRATION/SCROUNGERS/BLOODY HUMAN RIGHTS" like morons.
There is, of course, a [url=http://nickclegglookingsad.tumblr.com/]tumblr dedicated entirely to Nick Clegg looking sad.[/url]
And in hindsight I'm not surprised in the slightest - the idea it was a functional coalition was an absolute joke - the Tories got to rope the Lib Dems into all of their unpopular policies and knew they were destroying the party in future elections as well.
[QUOTE=RearAdmiral;50995956]And in hindsight I'm not surprised in the slightest - the idea it was a functional coalition was an absolute joke - the Tories got to rope the Lib Dems into all of their unpopular policies and knew they were destroying the party in future elections as well.[/QUOTE]
If anything, it seemed like the Lib Dems were merely holding the Tories back in some regards. Which in a way was a good thing.
But now we're heading down the bad timeline, no breaks on this rollercoaster.
He's not saying anything surprising in the article, it's obvious the Tories took him and the rest of the Lib Dems for a ride. I don't understand why they made the deal in the first place; you couldn't have picked a party less suited to their ideals.
He will always be a traitor to me as I believe the student loan scandal is something that shouldn't ever be forgiven, but the coalition government nuking the Lib Dems altogether is regrettable.
[QUOTE=Menien Goneld;50998739]He's not saying anything surprising in the article, it's obvious the Tories took him and the rest of the Lib Dems for a ride. I don't understand why they made the deal in the first place; you couldn't have picked a party less suited to their ideals.
He will always be a traitor to me as I believe the student loan scandal is something that shouldn't ever be forgiven, but the coalition government nuking the Lib Dems altogether is regrettable.[/QUOTE]
The coalition was the first opportunity to have real power the lib dems have had in decades, I'm sure they went in with good intentions but they made bad decisions and didn't make it clear that were actually doing anything other than being the tories bitch.
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