Clegg’s apologist cavalry rides in
It might seem a bit rough that David Laws and Vince Cable have been, this morning on Radio 4 and last night on Newsnight, the senior Lib Dems sent out to apologise for the tuition fees policy in the 2010 manifesto.
Both were trying for two years before the election to get the policy dumped. The party’s federal policy committee dug its heels in and all Nick Clegg did to the policy was water it down a bit, saying the abolition of tuition fees would be phased in over two parliaments.
Vince Cable hated that policy. Nick Clegg found it easier to live with. He didn’t want a fight with his own party he wasn’t sure he would win and he didn’t think he was going to be in government as early as 2010.
Nonetheless, both Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander got their way in insisting that the tuition fees policy would not be a main plank of their election campaign. The main campaign points were the four points on the manifesto cover – the non-negotiables of coalition, as the leadership saw it (I wrote yesterday about how manifestos could forever be changed by this tuition fees experience and the practicalities of coalition – certainly, the press conferences launching manifestos will be dominated by questions about “non-negotiables” if they’re not made clear in a manifesto).
Alas for Nick Clegg, the NUS pledge was too tempting a vote-winning sweetie to walk past in the shop and just about all candidates signed it on the advice of Lib Dem HQ. Some MPs now look strangely like hostages in the faded phone camera pictures of themselves holding the pledge. Once again, Vince Cable’s advice was “don’t sign,” as was David Laws’ advice.
Nick Clegg’s point is that this whole episode was part of the growing pains of a party maturing into being a party of government – thanks to him, voters should note, Lib Dems are different now, more responsible.
What’s also very interesting about this whole TV apology saga is that it appears to be part of a very concerted effort to boost Nick Clegg’s personal standing and build a credible narrative round his leadership that can shore up and sustain his leadership. Columnists and leader writers seen as allies of the Tory government in the written media seem to be falling over themselves to flatter and “big up” Nick Clegg.
It all makes you wonder how terrified Tory high command is of a Nick Clegg meltdown (a flat-lining poll position followed by a coup)… let alone how anxious some in Nick Clegg’s own team might be that their man just won’t be able to keep his whole strategy for party change going or keep his job unless opinion about him starts to shift.
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