Nick Clegg - Revolution?

William Hooper, April 2010

A week before the UK's first leaders debate I advised a friend to bet on the Liberal Democrats. The Labour Party should have replaced Brown with Darling before the election, but political infighting prevented them. David Cameron is widely perceived as a visionless PR man prepared to say anything for power. Voters are in a state of flux and the bookmaker odds were not reflecting the Liberal Democrat potential.

Now the impossible has happened and according to some polls the Liberal Democrats are the most popular party in the UK. In today's Guardian there is an article written by Nick Clegg called Only the Liberal Democrats are Listening to Britain. The article has several Obama-esque lines, and it describes the Lib Dems as the revolutionary party of change, yet it is flawed.

The budget deficit, the expenses scandal and the unpopularity of politicians tells us that something is wrong with politics - but what? Clegg claims the Labour and Conservatives parties  are not listening to the people, but it is absurd to accuse Cameron of failing to take into account public opinion. So what is really wrong? Television, tabloids, internet, blogs, modern marketing techniques and large budgets are ruining politics. It is not that politicians are not listening, rather they are listening too much.

Today all political pragmatism has gone and policy is condensed into simple ideological messages designed to resonate with voters. Because these messages are naïve, those that sell them know they are false, so they necessarily turn away from idealism and embrace dishonesty. Anyone who peddles lies long enough is corrupted.

Recently I came across a fascinating article about the former Sun editor David Yelland. He explained “All Murdoch editors, what they do is this: they go on a journey where they end up agreeing with everything Rupert says. But you don't admit to yourself that you're being influenced. Most Murdoch editors wake up in the morning, switch on the radio, hear that something has happened and think, What would Rupert think about this?' It's like a mantra inside your head. It's like a prism. You look at the world through Rupert's eyes... I was paid to be angry... The difference between me and the people I was condemning was nothing.”

The "prism" that Yelland adopted took him away from the truth and turned him into an alcoholic. Today he is recovering and has just published a moving book about his childhood relationship with his much loved father.

Anyone who sets out to convince others of something other than the truth takes a terrible risk. Deep down a part of him knows his message is a lie, by suppressing that realization he corrupts himself. It is not just Sun Editors who suffer, it is all ideologues. This is why Christian priests in the Spanish Inquisition once tortured, and why some now abuse children. This is why today's politicians fiddle their expenses and bankrupt their country with disastrous economic policy.

I have been deeply critical of Obama, but he has realised something that many other politicians have not. Obama is a champion, most of all, of pragmatism. He believes we have to put ideological judgements aside and embrace honesty. He has described a world of post-partisan politics, and he has described how this world will be more wholesome that the corrupted world of politics today.

Unfortunately Nick Clegg is no Obama. He does not use the word pragmatism, he does not talk about post partisan alliances, he talks about wish washy liberalism and speaks of "Listening To Britain", not turning off the television cameras in Parliament and getting down to business.

Update: Jan 2011 - Looking back I got the alliance bit wrong, Clegg did go into coalition. But it didn't become a businesslike alliance of pragmatism, rather it has become some sort of alliance of absurd ideological liberal idealism which he Cameron both share.