Getting Hammered with Nicky
It is 100 days today since Nick Clegg became leader of the Liberal Democrats and, like his predecessor but one, it appears that he is obsessed with being hammered, although not quite in the same sense. See if you can spot a pattern…
Thursday 27 March 2008
Nick Clegg criticises plans by the Commons authorities to appeal against an Information Tribunal ruling calling for the full breakdown of 14 MPs and ex-MPs’ expenses to be published.
“The reason why this feels like a needless, additional hammer blow to public confidence in the House of Commons and what MPs do, is, I think we all now accept, that there should be a full declaration of all MPs’ expenses”.
Friday 14 March 2008
Nick Clegg reacts to the publication of ‘the John Lewis List’, showing the maximum amount that MPs have been able to claim on expenses for common household items.
“Clearly the recent scandals about MPs’ pay and expenses have delivered a real hammer blow to public confidence in politics. It needs to change rapidly”.
Thursday 21 February 2008
Clegg is invited to the Today Programme to comment on a data blunder at the Crown Prosecution Service, connected to serious offenders from the Netherlands being left free to commit crimes in the UK.
“This is just yet another hammer blow, if you like, against public confidence, which has been so severely damaged over recent months by the various cases of data losses”.
Friday 28 December 2007
The newly appointed Liberal Democrat leader offers his condolences following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
“Her tragic death is a hammer blow against the dream of pluralism and tolerance in modern day Pakistan”.
Friday 14 December 2007
In his very last days as Home Affairs spokesman, Clegg took issue with the ruling that found that a terrorist suspect had not breached their control order.
“This ruling is another hammer blow to the increasingly discredited control order regime”.
It is easy not to blame Clegg. After all, who ever pays such close attention to anything that the Liberal Democrats have to say? Nevertheless, the time may have come for the third party to think up some new terms of condemnation. This will be at the forefront of Clegg’s mind, no doubt, as he plots the next 100 days.