Mr Clegg and I

In the 1960’s and 70’s if you moved in left wing circles the word liberal was often spat out like a profanity, liberals representing all that was worst in bourgeoisie culture, wanting to have their cake and eat it, to enjoy the feeling of being ‘good,’ without any personal commitment or engagement, turning a blind eye to the realities and implications of inequality. I was never completely at ease with this view; liberal minded my self respecting civil liberties, free speech and pluralism in political discourse. I distanced my self.

However when I see Nick Clegg I am minded of this older characterisation and boy does it hit home. Even before the coalition agreement he always left me feeling uneasy, positively queasy, all that smug middle of the road, ‘a plague on both your houses,’ platitudinising claptrap. We use to shout ‘Take the politics out of politics vote SDP.’

For the first time in my life, since February 1974 I did note vote in the last general election. I could not vote for the Labour party, given its civil liberties record, however I did wobble briefly toward the Lib Dems, however one sight of Clegg, the old Etonian card sharp was enough to persuade.

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