As Nick Clegg took to the platform to close the Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton on Wednesday, one might have been forgiven for expecting a rather sheepish and defensive address from the Deputy Prime Minister. Last week, some opinion polls had the Lib Dems at less than 10%, whilst others suggested a change of leadership might bring renewed appeal to the party. In addition, much has been made of Clegg’s belated apology over tuition fees (and a spoof version created by The Poke); a broken promise which has undoubtedly alienated a large number of voters since the last election. Despite this, there was in fact no sign that this was a leader fighting for his political life. On the contrary, Mr Clegg was defiant. “The past is gone”, the leader told his party, “and it isn’t coming back”.
Mr Clegg titillated the chamber with his assertion that “to make blue go green, you have to add yellow”—obligatory Tory-bashing, yet suitably harmless to the coalition. Clegg reproduced popular Liberal Democrat buzzwords concerning a “free, fair and open society”, whilst announcing that former leader Paddy Ashdown would be returning to chair election strategy in 2015. At the same time, he left the door open for possible future co-operation with the Labour party, choosing Ed Balls rather than Ed Miliband as the leftist ‘straw man’. Yet gone were the promises on constitutional reform—bread and butter of Liberal Democrat conferences of the past. Conspicuous by its absence too, was any reference to foreign policy, and in particular Cameron’s reassertion at the United Nations that Britain was committed to increasing the budget for development aid. This is perhaps unsurprising: Clegg has no interest in undercutting Mr Cameron’s visit to New York. More importantly, however, this speech was as much about the Deputy Prime Minister addressing the nation as it was simply leader addressing party.
Clegg focused on the issues which matter to the ordinary voter: economic recovery, employment, tax and education. It was, as Menzies Campbell observed, very much “an austere speech for an age of austerity”. One only had to look at the plinth behind which Clegg was standing to get to the heart of his political message: “fairer tax in tough times”. As expected Clegg once again promoted the accelerated low-income tax cut brought in last year, whilst claiming credit for a rise at the higher end to 45p when compared with Labour’s 40p policy. The Deputy Prime Minister also announced a new ‘catch-up premium’ aimed at schoolchildren struggling to make the transition to secondary education. Mr Clegg sought to present the party as the ‘good cop’ vis-à-vis their coalition partners and, more significantly, as direct competition to the Labour party on the centre-left. Given present economic uncertainty, this is likely to be a key battleground in 2015, and it is one which the Lib Dems are presently losing. If the party are to fulfil Clegg’s claim to be “one of three parties of government” over the longer term, it is a strategy which simply must succeed.
The real question will be whether anyone is convinced. In comparison to the media attention afforded to Clegg’s belated tuition fee apology, coverage of the conference has been relatively minimal. The Liberal Democrats are unlikely to see any real bump in the polls, especially once the Labour and Conservative conferences get underway in the coming weeks. Does this matter? In the long run, perhaps not. The most important factor for party popularity going in to the next election will undoubtedly be the state of the economy, and this message was not lost on the conference. “If we secure our country’s future”, Mr Clegg stated, “we will secure our own.” He portrayed a sense of ownership of key Liberal Democrat policy areas, and an acknowledgement of his responsibility both to the party and the nation. Of course, wedding the party’s fortunes to the economy in this way is a risky if unavoidable strategy. If it comes off, Clegg must make sure he continues to take ownership of these core policy areas to boost party popularity. If it fails, his YouTube satirists might well brace for further material.
Transcript of Nick Clegg’s speech can be found here:
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