The promises of Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats – what are they worth?
Not a lot, if this cartoon from the Telegraph is worth anything:
Of course, Torygraph reporters are probably aware that Nick Clegg secretly agreed to go into coalition with the Conservatives back in March 2010 – two months before the last general election (the so-called negotiations after the poll resulted in a hung Parliament were a sham) – and it was at this time, not in May, that the Liberal Democrat promise to abolish further education tuition fees was dropped.
Clegg went on to run a relatively successful campaign (as far as these things go for the Lib Dems) on the back of that promise – a promise he had already broken.
Now he’s accusing his Conservative Coalition partners of following a “serve the rich, smash the poor” agenda since they got into office. He was a willing part of that agenda.
In The Guardian on Saturday, his excuse was that the Tories had “mutated almost out of recognition” since the Coalition agreement was signed. This is not true. The Tories we have seen since then are the Tories we recognise. David Cameron’s “compassionate Conservatism” was the lie.
“We went in with partners who told us they were green, but they are not. They told me they weren’t going to bang on about Europe, but it’s all they bang on about. They said they believed in civil liberties and they want to trash them,” said Clegg.
“I can understand why they have done it. They are in a complete blind panic about UKIP, but I like to think we have not raced across the political spectrum like that.”
Wrong again. The Tories are in a panic about UKIP (see yesterday’s article on the Hunting Act) but that has little to do with the policy areas Clegg was highlighting. Tories always want to trash civil liberties; they always trash the environment – one of their first planned acts was to sell off all the common land in the UK; and they always, always “bang on” about Europe. Even if they weren’t so bitterly divided about it, they would use it as a distraction technique to dupe voters.
![[Image: Another Angry Voice.]](https://voxpoliticalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/libdemtorysupport.png)
[Image: Another Angry Voice.]
Labour has ‘scooped’ the Lib Dems on the NHS, with a pledge to increase funding by £2.5 billion per year, knocking Clegg’s £1 billion promise into the proverbial cocked hat. Labour is also promising to introduce a ‘Mansion Tax’, stealing another well-known Clegg aspiration (and did you see how the Tories responded to that? Hypocritical, when one considers their rabid support of their own Bedroom Tax).
One has to wonder what he has left to say.
“Sorry” might be a good start.
Follow me on Twitter: @MidWalesMike
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
asking the searching questions!
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
The Lib Dems are a doomed party, soon to disappear altogether and will not be forming any coalition again in its history. By association the Lib Dems made possible the cruelty against the poor in the UK.
But the Liberals have history with the Tories. They together brought in the
New Poor Law that forbade feeding the starving on the street back in the 19th Century.
Starvation in the UK has risen 70 per cent since 2010, with doctors informing of a massive surge in malnutrition hospital admissions. It takes about a month to starve.
We are the only nation in Europe that does not feed its hungry every day, 7 days a week, with a free hot meal and hot drink. And this is done overwhelmingly for the working poor and poor pensioners.
The same is here in the UK.
97 per cent of the benefits bill is the working poor and poor pensioners.
The 3 per cent unemployed, include the disabled and/or chronic sick losing those benefits and being dumped on Jobseekers, and then liable for the months’ long benefit sanctions, when it takes one month or less to starve to death.
Even someone 60, disabled, chronic sick, can be benefit sanctioned, which then means have difficulty in accessing food vouchers for a food bank, which anyway is only 3 vouchers in a year.
The Lib Dems made the Tory rule possible and aided the Tories in the moral theft of the state pension, in a time of low wages, lost benefits, and the disabled / chronic sick over 60 liable for the slavery of Workfare, where a company cannot provide even a free lunch as that would be payment.
The Lib Dems have shown the breathtaking hatred of the old, disabled, chronic sick, and poor in general, as they have done throughout their history, and more so today.
The pre-2010 election negotiations were the real measure of the Lib Dems. Danny Alexander (Beaker) was their leader, along with Osborne. So in many respects, Alexander should also be listed, with Clegg on any action that may be taken on the Human Rights issues now affecting our poorest and most vulnerable.
It was always possible to enter into a pact, without full coalition, so they could vote against the excesses, but in fact the nature of the coalition ensured that the Tories would get all their worst policies supported. This was a political stitch up of the Uk population, and it is utterly informing of the type of low-lifes they are that they can brazenly dis-avow any responsibility for their own actions.
Clegg saying sorry and dragging his sorry a**e around every town, that has been massively hit by his enabling the Tory policies, while he flogged his bare back with a cat o nine tails wouldn’t be enough Mike.
“Now he’s accusing his Conservative Coalition partners of following a “serve the rich, smash the poor” agenda since they got into office. He was a willing part of that agenda”
So true Mike if he disagreed with the Tory agenda as he says he could have ended it at any time which would have caused a general election mid term but he didn’t because he was so eager to stay in power at any cost.
I have always voted Liberal except for a few times when I voted Labour I can honestly say hand on heart I would never vote Liberal again, I also wrote to Clegg a couple of years ago telling him of my feelings, I didn’t get a reply, as far as I am concerned they are YELLOW livered hypocrites.
The Lib Dems are teetering on the brink of electoral annihilation and it’s their own fault. Clegg led them there after all. Everything that has happened to the poor and disabled is his fault.
Simple answer: Squiddly dot!
WHAT ARE THEY WORTH? I don’t think you need to read my tirade.