Nick Clegg
Judge us on fairness and social mobility - Clegg
Posted by Mark Pack at Wed, 18/08/2010 - 2:00pm in Political commentary
Tackling the budget deficit may the coalition government's short-term overriding need, but its legacy will be both a stronger economy and also a fairer society according to the speech Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg gave earlier today.
The history of Prime Minister's Questions
Posted by Mark Pack at Wed, 21/07/2010 - 9:35am in Political commentary
Today sees Nick Clegg take to the Despatch Box to answer Prime Minister's Questions in David Cameron's absence from the UK.
Several Liberal Democrats have taken to twitter expressing their anticipation, such as Jo Swinson:
reserving a seat to watch a little bit of Lib Dem history later today - Nick Clegg taking #pmqs, first Lib leader to do so since 1922
The size of the House of Commons in historical context
Posted by Mark Pack at Mon, 05/07/2010 - 4:18pm in Political commentary
Earlier today the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, announced plans to cut the size of the House of Commons to 600 seats from the current 650 size. The Commons has often changed in size over the previous decades, but as this graph shows 600 would be the smallest number of MPs since the 1867 Reform Act and only the fourth time the Commons has been reduced in size. The cut however is smaller both in seat numbers and proportionate terms than that introduced after 1918:
Doom and/or gloom at Westminster
Posted by Rupert Lewis at Tue, 22/06/2010 - 1:26pm in Political commentary
For what seems like months now, political and economic commentators have been offering their own 'advice' to the new Chancellor on how to get to grips with the worst national balance sheet since the Great Depression.
Welcome to the new politics
Posted by Gavin Devine at Tue, 01/06/2010 - 9:53am in Political commentary
So the backlash against Danny Alexander has begun. No, not the half-hearted effort by the Telegraph to detect scandal in his apparently pretty blameless expense claims (NB: exactly when will the DT stop pretending that buying and, er, reading a document counts as 'investigative journalism'?). More the muttering that has started over the weekend that he is not qualified for the Chief Secretary role and/or simply not up to the job.
The beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning?
Posted by Nick Laitner at Tue, 25/05/2010 - 11:21am in Political commentary
Given the conflicting priorities, personality clashes and short lead time involved in putting together today's Queen's Speech, it is testament to the political will behind the coalition government that the Queen was able to read out a full list of bills at all.
Some of what has been announced today demonstrates quite how much the coalition partners have in common. Scrapping of ID cards, removing unitary council status for Norwich and Exeter, and eviscerating quangos are all policies which both sides of the government can agree on.
Leaders step up campaigning with a week to go
Posted by Hannah Cornick at Fri, 30/04/2010 - 2:36pm in Political commentary
Showing no signs of fatigue after the final Prime Ministerial debate last night, the party leaders have been back on the campaign trail in the East Midlands today.
Cameron tackles broken society, while Labour suffers celeb no-show
Posted by Jo Cole at Tue, 27/04/2010 - 4:37pm in Political commentary
Family and society were the key themes on the election trail today and party leaders stayed close to home, with Cameron speaking in London and Gordon Brown in Scotland.
Great telly, but did it make any difference?
Posted by Nick Laitner at Fri, 23/04/2010 - 2:53pm in Political commentary
Clegg's rousing, cheesily Obamaesque peroration; Cameron's effective Lib Dem expenses jibe; and Brown's "Dave would be bad for the economy, and Nick would be bad for security" combo. There were some great TV moments in last night's debate. But what effect, if any, will they have on the wider campaign?
Where is the battle on ... health?
Posted by Bill Morgan at Thu, 22/04/2010 - 3:59pm in Health Mandate commentary, Political commentary
The Labour press conference on Monday witnessed Gordon Brown admit that the election so far has been, “a tale of two Nicks”: of NICs (national insurance, of course) and, perhaps most obviously, of Nick Clegg.
Mr Brown was almost right – it has been a tale of two Nicks, and a volcano. This was an event of extraordinary newsworthiness after all, which – even today – continues to crowd out coverage of the General Election. And the coverage which does manage to achieve that vital ‘cut-through’ is about the TV debates, and specifically about Nick Clegg.
