We knew it would get ugly but maybe not this ugly. April 15 was the date that Nick Clegg punctured the political/press/PR gasbag and left them all a muddle.
I couldn’t contain a squirm of Schadenfreude when it became apparent that the Lib Dems had lopped the Conservative tree and trampled on Labour’s rose. You can imagine the chagrin of the tabloid nexus at seeing the Tories’ lead dwindle, and the years of election hopes dashed by the third party. Labour’s cronies must be equally shocked at being outgunned by the Cleggster. What a delight to see the glib bastards rattled and disarrayed.
It wasn’t long before the press backlash began, as expected. Plenty of opprobrium was heaped on Clegg, especially on the morning of the second debate. The Telegraph had something about donors and bank accounts, the Mail a ‘Nazi slur’; the Express screamed about a ‘crazy’ immigration policy. The criticism has been so intense that Clegg’s election coordinator, Danny Alexander, claimed that the Tories had orchestrated a media campaign.
Peter Oborne writing in the Mail found his inner Littlejohn and wrote this spiteful bollocks:
‘The truth is that Clegg is the leader of a profoundly dishonest party that is prepared to lie, cheat and on occasion issue outrageous smears on its opponents in order to win power.’
Equally applicable to all parties, more so to Labour and Conservatives in my opinion. And at least the Lib Damns have for years been advocating the reform of the political system so that dishonesty, lies, cheating and outrageous smears aren’t the modus operandi of British politics.
Despite all the violent criticism, Rasputin refuses to die–the Lib Dems remain strong in the polls. Maybe the conservative press is using diversionary tactics by obsessively focussing on Clegg so the electorate might forget about the inconvenient Vince Cable whose ability and likeability make him one of the biggest political assets in the Commons.
