The Staggers: Nick Clegg

Nick Clegg has given an interview to The House magazine in which he's questioned about the increasing possibility of a pre-emptive strike by Israel against Iran. Asked if Britain would participate in military action, he replies:

It depends entirely on what Iran's intentions are. I think of course you don't in a situation like this take any options off the table. When you are in a ... read more

I'd be the first to admit that it's not the best catch phrase ever invented. It may be the worst. But clear yellow water is what the party grass roots has been begging for ever since we entered government. And it's a lot better than the sentiment of "not a cigarette paper between us" that we all so disliked for the first 12 months of coalition government.

And while there have ... read more

Nick Clegg's intervention this morning is possibly his boldest since entering government. With the economy on the brink of recession and family finances in "a state of emergency", the Deputy PM will use his speech to the Resolution Foundation to call for George Osborne to go "further and faster" in raising the income tax threshold to £10,000. While Osborne has pledged to reach the target ... read more

There was an intriguing flicker of dissent on the government benches during Prime Minister's Questions today when Andrew George, a Liberal Democrat MP for West Cornwall, asked David Cameron if he would consider abandoning the bill containing controversial health reforms. (He won't.)

As rebellious interventions go it was fairly tame, since quite a lot of Tory MPs privately wish the bungled and unloved health reforms would go away. Still, it was ... read more

It's Nick Clegg's turn to pitch his tent on the increasingly congested terrain of "responsible capitalism" today. As I write, Clegg is delivering a speech at Mansion House in which he makes a distinctively liberal argument for reforming the market. Calling for workers to be given the right to request shares in the companies they work for, he argues:

John Stuart Mill hoped that employee-owned firms ... read more

There is a great (though sadly, totally erroneous) quote attributed to Catherine the Great, which says:

You can be a murderous tyrant and the world will remember you fondly, but f*ck one horse and you will be a horse f*cker for all eternity.

It strikes me that there's a lesson in there for us Lib Dems.

There's an increasing tendency within the party to accept that our languishing in the polls is a ... read more

The Liberal Democrats are fighting back after a grim couple of weeks. Watching David Cameron pursue the most eurosceptic foreign policy for a generation and get an opinion poll bounce out of it was about as pleasurable an experience for Nick Clegg's party as seeing prospects for electoral reform killed off for a generation in May. That also coincided with a poll boost for the Tories.

The Lib Dems are seriously ... read more

It appears to be May 2010 all over again.

A Labour leader is throwing come hither looks at Nick Clegg. And after celebrating what looked like a victory in the small hours of a Friday morning, one long weekend later and Tory MPs are realising that there may be an orange obstacle preventing them doing anything and everything they want.

Meanwhile, a quirk in the coalition agreement ... read more

Where do the Lib Dems, the most pro-European party in British politics, stand on last night's extraordinary events? William Hague told the Today programme that Nick Clegg had "signed up" to the deal but it would be nice to hear from the man himself. Six weeks ago, Clegg, a former Eurocrat and MEP, warned against the emergence of a ... read more

With all eyes on Brussels, Nick Clegg's speech this morning on cities received little attention. But it contained one particularly notable passage on the public sector. The Deputy PM appeared to criticise Tory ministers for allowing the economic debate to become "polarised" between public sector workers and private sector workers.

He said:

I know that some of our public sector workers bristle when they hear Ministers ... read more

A seemingly remarkable opinion poll in today's Sunday Telegraph that shows a Tory lead over Labour of two points -- after a week of economic gloom -- prompts Political Betting to ask:

Is it so bad that voters want to stick with nurse?

Whichever way you look at the ICM numbers -- Conservatives 38 per cent (+2), Labour 36 per cent (-2), ... read more

With the economic climate looking unremittingly bleak, government will have to focus on ways to ease the pain for people on low and middle incomes feeling the famous squeeze. One area that has grabbed ministers' attention is the rising cost of childcare. This is problematic not just because it is a drain on parents' income, but because it can even discourage them from going to work. Eleven per cent of ... read more