Cleggmania: Round Two? (London Liberal Democrats)

London Liberal Democrats <info@libdems4london.org.uk>

Cleggmania: Round Two?

November 23, 2011 11:25 AM
Originally published by Twickenham & Richmond Liberal Democrats

• [Nov 20] Peter Watt writes: I AM intrigued by Nick Clegg. In fact I'd go further - I am intrigued and I like Nick Clegg. I met him a few months before the election when we were both appearing on the Marr show. He probably won't remember but we spent a few minutes before the show started sat alone on the set and chatted. It could have been awkward but it wasn't because he was actually very nice. We talked about families and exchanged brief views on the forthcoming election. And I was left with the sense of a decent man. And first impressions count, which is why when the election started, and the electorate really got their first impressions of him; on the whole they liked him. And Cleggmania was born.

. . while [Cameron and Miliband] are fighting to a standstill, Nick Clegg has stopped making things worse for himself. Because actually, to be a player after the next election he actually doesn't need to do anything dramatic at this stage. In reality getting his polling numbers up into the high teens is entirely possible in the months leading up to the poll, so he should be content to stay relatively quiet right about now. Come the election though he will want to talk about the future. And he will be able to talk about the difference that Lib Dems have made in Government policy. Ironically the Tories will need to reinforce this as they will want to talk about what they would want to do if they were unencumbered by coalition. And I would suspect that the public will, even if only for the brief period of the election, rediscover that Nick Clegg is likeable and they will listen a bit more than they would now.

And if he was polling in the high teens in a tight election then he will be courted by the other Parties and he can again name his price. So it might look like a return to two party politics is likely. It might even be that the faithful in the Labour and Tory ranks think that for all intents and purposes it already has. But I think that there is still a fair chance that it is Nick Clegg that is having the last laugh come the morning of Friday May 8, 2015.

* former General Secretary of the Labour Party.

• Cleggmania: Round Two? Peter Watt urges us not to write off Nick Clegg come 2015 [Dale & Co. Nov 20]