Mr. Clegg has only himself to blame.

He CHOSE to give the Tories a Majority in government.
In order to do this, he has CHOSEN to support:

a tripling in Student Tuition fees (after campaigning on a promise to scrap them);

a huge hike in VAT to take more money from the poorest (after opposing this in the election campaign);

the ABSENCE of increases in taxation OR regulation for the Bankers who destroyed the economy in the first place (after campaigning on the introduction of BOTH of these things);

the ABSENCE of action to make the Banks resume lending to the small businesses that are the main driver of our economy;

the building of a load of new Nuclear Power stations (after campaigning against them);

and now, the Privatisation of the NHS.

Mr. Clegg has chosen to perform a series of spectacular U-turns (not 'compromises'; U-turns), after campaigning on the basis that we could 'trust him to keep his promises'.

He has broken them all.

Mr. Clegg's CHOICE has enabled (and continues to enable) this government to push through long-lusted-after wet-dream policies of the Tory hard-right, which they dared not mention in their election campaign.

Mr. Clegg has overturned his core promises of the election campaign, including, most damagingly, his own Unique Selling Point; the one about being 'different' from the serial promise-breakers in the other two Parties.

Mr. Clegg has betrayed all of the first-time voters that he managed to attract with his 'new kind of politics' campaigning; he has betrayed all the voters that the party had won from the neocon NewLabour since 1997; and he has betrayed a large number of the Liberal Democrats' own core voters.

He has, in my opinion, fatally undermined his own credibility, and fatally damaged his Party.

I expect the LibDems to suffer huge damage in the Council elections, and especially at the next General Election.

I think that the party's best hope for avoiding extinction at the next General Election would be to remove Mr. Clegg as leader after the Council Elections, and to then pull out of the coalition government.

Because at the moment, as a result of Mr. Clegg's choices, I for one have lost any sympathy or positive feeling for him.
Sadly, I now see him only as a duplicitous (gullible?) turncoat who is propping-up a doctrinaire Tory government of ex-Bullingdon toffs whilst it attacks the poor and vulnerable in order to protect the un-earned wealth of Bankers.

My perception may very well be wholly inaccurate, but it is public perception of a politician that matters, whether it is accurate or not.

He didn't have to perform miracles. All he had to do was make some effort to deliver some of the election pledges on which he was voted in.

It does no good to say that he's got a tough job, working with the tories. Everyone could see before and during the election that Cameron wasn't going to give an inch. We knew it, Clegg know it. Labour offered him everything and Clegg, blinded by the prospect of being able to call himself "deputy PM" got into bed with his political opposites. This election could have produced something great, instead thoses of us without a silver spoon are suffering. This is Clegg's doing, he got there by making promises he was keen to break as soon as it proved politically expedient. He is a man who I would happily punch in the crotch if I found myself in the same room.

He can go to hell and so can you.

Do you really think the Lib Dems should be striving for positive headlines from the Daily Mail? They'd do well to first strive to hold on to their election promises.

Walk on water? He lied when he said he could swim...

Why the constant slavish devotion to your (vain)glorious leader? The man has betrayed the lot of you.

Are we really so entrenched in tribalism in this country that even the clever dogs come back for more when kicked by the master and his friends?

Pathetic beyond compare.

Trying to rebrand unpopularity as seriousness and principle is an approach I guess but a pretty transparent one and one that I’m not sure has been shown to work recently – plus, of course, your man demonstrably has no principles
I expect, and have observed, senior libdems comforting themselves with the flawed logic that the opposition means that they’re somehow right but I wouldn’t base a communications strategy on it
Basically you’re right though – I couldn’t care less what you people have to say anymore – all I can hope is that your evident incompetence limits rather than exaggerates the damage you’re doing.

Clegg has got to be more prepared to stand up for his core principles. Camerons immigration speech was the antithesis of what libdems stand for and we all know Clegg would have hated it. There are times when he must remember that he is the leader of a party aswell as a member of a government and in such cases he must have the integrity to stand up for what he believes in and for the political identity of his party.

What is wrong with you? You think that the only problem Clegg has is that the press are out to get him? Seriously? It's not that this man as not only sold his soul, but the soul of the party you obviously vehemently support for a little bit of power and a state driven car. He has betrayed those who voted for him with tuition fees, allowing the VAT hike, etc. He's even shot himself in the foot championing his "miserable little compromise". My brother, registered to vote for the first time so he could vote for the Lib Dems. Now he says he won't ever vote again because he feels like a fool for believing in that twat. Clegg can go to hell.

Walk on water ?

The Lib Dems are dead in the water.

Use the May 5th elections to help give Clegg an almighty headache.

Olly:
Nick lied to the electorate. Plain and simple. If the Lib Dems want to hang on to even a handful of seats at the next election they need to dump this charlatan of a politician pronto.

Excellent piece Olly - Clegg has got 65% of his manifesto agreed by a government where he has only a tiny percentage of MPs and the government is pushing through radical long overdue reforms. The media will always hate the Lib Dems because it threatens their lazy journalism where there is Labour and Conservatives and life is simple.

Often when there is something unpleasant or risky to announce the Tories wheel out a LibDem to front it and the LibDems jump at the chance for exposure.

Impressively synical Tory PR management -- they are catching up with the tricks of the Labour spin machine.

After all, spin and manipulation of prolertariat biggots won the Labour elite power.

Nasty press picking on poor Cleggy weggy. The press are lagging behind the public on this one. Clegg will be fortunate to keep his seat at the next election

This article is spot on - in the eyes of the rightwing media Clegg can do no right - best to ignore it.Sadly, it's this negative, biased and often inaccurate coverage that persuades the masses.

A great piece, Olly. The Clegg-bashing band-wagon comments show precisely why Olly's piece is spot on. Did any of you READ the Lib Dem manifesto? Do you realise what a momentous achievement the last year has been for Lib Dem policies? Do you actually understand how COALITION government works as opposed to the single party government that everyone (including the Lib Dems) were seeking in their pre-election manifesto? And did any of you actually READ and take in Olly's conversation with the Daily Mail hack? No to all, I think. But the Clegg-bashing band-wagon rolls on, and the mainstream press are pulling it. Usual story - the press have to have SOMEONE to blame even if there is no justification - the parallel with Kinnock is remarkable.

no point preaching to the tribal Labourites in this rag olly.

David Hall is obviously mad. Clegg has implemented most of the front page of his manifesto - increasing tax threshholds, green bank and jobs, reforming politics (AV, recalling MPs, and Lords reform soon), pupil premium. The only thing he has not managed to get is abolishing tuition fees - and who's fault is that? Cameron and Osborne. Why don't lazy overpaid hacks have a go at the real villains instead of the man who is trying to (a) keep the nasty Tories under control, and (b) make Britain better.

Walk on water? the beggars don't try. The more we chuck em in the deep end the more they try to put one foot on the bottom and cling on to their rubber duck.

Olly is absolutely right. Nothing that Clegg can do or say is ever going to be right. Only time or History will vindicate him, and by that time we shall all be dead or have moved on a bit. No wonder the poor man is depressed.
Clegg gave the Lib Dems the chance to Govern, but they are not going to thank him for that.

It's like Ratner. When the brand is shot, you might as well give up. The LibDems will take several generations to recover, if ever.

This mess is entirely your own fault.

You're not getting a hard time because the media is nasty. This is happening because the Lib Dems breached the trust of their voters.

For years, abolition of tuition fees was a signature Lib Dem policy. Your MPs signed pledges and had themselves photographed among smiling students. You didn't have to do that. But there were votes in it.

What do you do in government? You put Vince Cable in charge of a policy to treble fees. Then Lib Dems can't decide whether to vote in favour of their own policy.

How do you explain this? You say that being in coalition involves compromise. But trebling fees was not a compromise. It was the direct opposite of what you had campaigned to do.

You said this policy was forced on you. You had no choice. You would really like to abolish fees, but the Tories/ the deficit won't let you. This was not true.

You betrayed your voters and then you insulted them. When most people are already extremely cynical about politicians, this was suicidally stupid.

For years you positioned yourselves to the left of Labour. You opposed Iraq. You championed civil liberties. And as a result you harvested the votes of disenchanted Guardian readers.

And yet in government you're suddenly all Orange Book. Nick Clegg says he's much more keen on cutting the deficit than he was during the election campaign. After Mervyn King had a word.

You were pious in opposition. You campaigned against Labour's broken promises. You presented yourselves as something fresh and different. But in government you've exposed yourselves as slippery, spineless and incompetent. And now you're bleating about the media treating you harshly?

All the petty scandals and misdemeanours have been on the Lib Dem side of the coalition, from David Laws resigning a fortnight after election day to Vince Cable committing career suicide with two giggling young Telegraph reporters.

Nick Clegg launches a campaign against unpaid internships and unfair family connections and the press prints "Daddy got me my first job" headlines. You should have seen that coming. This silliness and incompetence is now par for the course for the Lib Dems.

I can't imagine how you might recover from this disaster. But you could start by stop deluding yourselves that someone else is to blame.

Tribal Labourite? I have been a lifelong LibDem voter, there are few people I hate more than labour's prescrtiptive, invasive, arbitrary policymakers. All my life I have been looking forward to LibDem getting to show the country what they are all about and they reward us (the people who voted them in) with this farse.

Until last year you could have called me a tribal liberal, not I'm just disollusioned and very bloody angry.

Spit and fury is all very well. It's a shame people don't get what a 'coalition' is. The 100% 2 party state with FPTP and modern persuasion techniques is not a nice place.

It does no good to say that he's got a tough job, working with the tories. Everyone could see before and during the election that Cameron wasn't going to give an inch. We knew it, Clegg know it. Labour offered him everything and Clegg, blinded by the prospect of being able to call himself "deputy PM" got into bed with his political opposites. This election could have produced something great, instead thoses of us without a silver spoon are suffering. http://www.bestgardeningtips.net/