Clegg's comeuppance
Last year's star of British politics was the Liberal Democratic leader Nick Clegg. He was outstanding in the first televised debates among party leaders.Now, not so much. His popularity and power have fallen to the point that the coalition government is threatened. The game of politics has different rules for people who hold power and for people who are out of power.
Deputy Prime Minister Clegg appears to be losing Britain's love
During a riveting election campaign last year, a photogenic 43-year-old stole the hearts of the British people, cutting through their pea-soup-thick cynicism with a Barack Obama-like message of change. But eight months later, Britain has fallen out of love with its new deputy prime minister, Nicholas Clegg.
In a country long dominated by the Conservative and Labor parties, Clegg's star turn in U.S.-style television debates elevated his typically also-ran Liberal Democrats into contenders last year. Even Colin Firth, star of "The King's Speech," jumped off the movie set and onto the campaign trail for the new prince of British politics…
Clegg, however, is now discovering the high price of success. Thousands of voters are deserting the party, with support for the Liberal Democrats falling from a high of 34 percent last April to a rock-bottom 9 percent last month. Even Firth is openly disavowing the Liberal Democrats. "I am without an affiliation now," he recently told reporters at the Dubai Film Festival…
The waning of Clegg, analysts say, stems from what many of his former backers call a series of bitter betrayals. None was more stinging than Clegg's decision to back the Conservatives in dramatically scaling back subsidies for university students, forcing an increase in tuition as part of the coalition's crusade to bust the mammoth British budget deficit…
Like Obama, Clegg was an inspirational, out-of-the-box candidate who energized a generation of young voters. Although the U.S. president's ratings have also fallen sharply, Clegg appears to be facing a far stronger backlash, especially among students…
Indeed, the Liberal Democrats, who run the spectrum from left-wing liberals to fiscally conservative libertarians, have emerged as what many here are calling "human shields" for the Conservatives. They are effectively taking most of the flak for the unpopular policies the government is advancing.
It could have severe consequences for Clegg, his party and potentially the coalition. Clegg's plummeting support is jeopardizing the chances of success for a measure seen as the main reason he entered into the coalition: a referendum on election reforms that would make it far easier for the Liberal Democrats to beat the dominant Conservative and Labor parties in future votes…
"The Liberal Democrats are finding themselves held accountable in a way they were never held accountable before," said Andrew Russell, senior lecturer on politics at the University of Manchester. "The irony is that because they are being blamed for everything, they may now be set to lose the one chance in a generation to change the electoral system in Britain."...
See also: With power comes unpopularity
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Labels: leadership, politics, UK
posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:26 AM
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