Nick Clegg

[Henkeman]

I do feel a little sorry for him.

You'd be less than human not to feel for him and note his clear distress.

On the level of a fellow human being who is suffering, undoubtedly compassion is in order, but as a duplicitous opportunist bastard who has consigned his party to the electoral wilderness and rendered them an unelectable laughing stock for the foreseeable future for a brief scintilla of power that he never really had anyway, you could argue that what comes around the corridors of Westminster goes around them too.

Yes, that's about it!

 

[Phil Meup]

I do feel a little sorry for him.

You'd be less than human not to feel for him and note his clear distress.

On the level of a fellow human being who is suffering, undoubtedly compassion is in order, but as a duplicitous opportunist bastard who has consigned his party to the electoral wilderness and rendered them an unelectable laughing stock for the foreseeable future for a brief scintilla of power that he never really had anyway, you could argue that what comes around the corridors of Westminster goes around them too.

Easy to say that with hindsight (and very well put) but at the time, he had little choice.
Labour didn't offer him a deal so he had to go with the tories.
The media have played him like a cheap fiddle.

 

[nijinsky's fetlocks]

You'd be less than human not to feel for him and note his clear distress.

On the level of a fellow human being who is suffering, undoubtedly compassion is in order, but as a duplicitous opportunist bastard who has consigned his party to the electoral wilderness and rendered them an unelectable laughing stock for the foreseeable future for a brief scintilla of power that he never really had anyway, you could argue that what comes around the corridors of Westminster goes around them too.

Easy to say that with hindsight (and very well put) but at the time, he had little choice.
Labour didn't offer him a deal so he had to go with the tories.
The media have played him like a cheap fiddle.

Maybe I was a tad harsh mate, which I admit is most unlike me, but he was a hardnosed and seasoned politico before he decided to dance with the devil, and must have had at least some inkling at the potential ramifications and price he would end up paying.
I know several party activists in Withington who worked their nuts off to get their man elected, and the Labour candidate defeated, only to have to deal with this fallout when explaining things on the doorstep, and some of them hate him more than they hate the Tories now, and will never even vote for the party again.
If that's what they think, then God only knows how much support they have left amongst their core vote, especially given that the Liberal mantra in many constituencies was 'Only The Liberal Democrats Can Keep The Tories Out'.
Well, that clearly worked well.

 

[Henkeman]

You'd be less than human not to feel for him and note his clear distress.

On the level of a fellow human being who is suffering, undoubtedly compassion is in order, but as a duplicitous opportunist bastard who has consigned his party to the electoral wilderness and rendered them an unelectable laughing stock for the foreseeable future for a brief scintilla of power that he never really had anyway, you could argue that what comes around the corridors of Westminster goes around them too.

Easy to say that with hindsight (and very well put) but at the time, he had little choice.
Labour didn't offer him a deal so he had to go with the tories.
The media have played him like a cheap fiddle.

I don't think it was that Labour didn't offer a deal, it's that there would have been absolute uproar if Labour had got back into government on the back of it. The Tories didn't win the election, but Labour certainly lost it.

 

[denislawsbackheel]

You lot need to read a bit of history.
The first leader Clegg visited post election was Brown to see what Labour would offer him.
They didn't offer enough so the whore went off to Cameron.

I have no sympathy for him whatsoever and to talk about him being in torment or distress - if so he needs to get a life.
Losing a child like Cameron or Brown, that's torment and distress - not having your place at the trough removed.

 

[Henkeman]

You lot need to read a bit of history.
The first leader Clegg visited post election was Brown to see what Labour would offer him.
They didn't offer enough so the whore went off to Cameron.

I have no sympathy for him whatsoever and to talk about him being in torment or distress - if so he needs to get a life.
Losing a child like Cameron or Brown, that's torment and distress - not having your place at the trough removed.

He did go and see Brown - as he was the sitting Prime Minister it would have been strange had he not. He also made it abundantly clear - publicly - that if it was going to happen, it would be with the largest party.

 

[Chancy Termites]

On the level of a fellow human being who is suffering, undoubtedly compassion is in order, but as a duplicitous opportunist bastard who has consigned his party to the electoral wilderness and rendered them an unelectable laughing stock for the foreseeable future for a brief scintilla of power that he never really had anyway, you could argue that what comes around the corridors of Westminster goes around them too.

Easy to say that with hindsight (and very well put) but at the time, he had little choice.
Labour didn't offer him a deal so he had to go with the tories.
The media have played him like a cheap fiddle.

I don't think it was that Labour didn't offer a deal, it's that there would have been absolute uproar if Labour had got back into government on the back of it. The Tories didn't win the election, but Labour certainly lost it.

Agreed, and I still cringe at the thought of Pillock Brown locking himself in 10 Downing Street and refusing to leave.

 

[nelsons willie]

I wonder how many posting on this thread predicted in 2005 that the coalition would collapse within a year?

The bitterness from the left is tiresome, but predictable. It is the main reason they aren't the natural party of government. The reality is that Clegg went with the Tories because of mathematics - nothing more nothing less. Any "Rainbow Alliance" would have collapsed within months as the numbers simply didn't add up. Given the inevitable chaotic nature of that collapse, I am willing to wager that the Tories would have ended up with an outright majority at the consequent General Election, although that wouldn't have been Labour's fault of course, it never is.

I don't think for a minute that Clegg's primary motive was the good of the nation when he got into bed with the Tories, naked power was, but the best interests of the country were served by stable government at that time and subsequently. This country would be in a much worse state now if he hadn't followed the path he did.

2010

Leave gordy alone. He's had lots of sleeps since then, mainly in pubs.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

On the level of a fellow human being who is suffering, undoubtedly compassion is in order, but as a duplicitous opportunist bastard who has consigned his party to the electoral wilderness and rendered them an unelectable laughing stock for the foreseeable future for a brief scintilla of power that he never really had anyway, you could argue that what comes around the corridors of Westminster goes around them too.

Easy to say that with hindsight (and very well put) but at the time, he had little choice.
Labour didn't offer him a deal so he had to go with the tories.
The media have played him like a cheap fiddle.

I don't think it was that Labour didn't offer a deal, it's that there would have been absolute uproar if Labour had got back into government on the back of it. The Tories didn't win the election, but Labour certainly lost it.

There was the offer of a deal from the LibDems but it involved Brown and the deadbeats of the Lab Gov getting shoved over the cliff. I think they couldn't agree!