Remember Cleggmania? Those heady days when with an eye on possible post 2010 General Election Glowering Gordon said several times " I agree with Nick" and there was an outburst of political knicker waving in adulation of the young Clegg throughout the land? It really does seem a long, long time ago now.
Unexcited by his senior coalition partner's speech on a less top down, all controlling future for the EU and not having heard or understood Cameron's dogwhistle to other members disturbed by a seemingly unstoppable march to undemocratic almost totalitarian political union, the habitually ashen faced boy Clegg today denied his colleague anything like a "I agree with Dave" statement. Instead in his new weekly phone-in session he firstly claimed that the UK was tying itself in knots, exactly the opposite to what Cameron was actually doing in his speech which was about clarity rather than the present confusion over where the EU really aims to go. The lad then went on to say "It is wholly implausible to think rules could be written to benefit us and to disadvantage everyone else". Again this is precisely what Cameron was not saying. He was taking a firm and decisive urging that the rules be rewritten to advantage everybody, thereby bringing the issue of the EU's self imposed burden of ever increasing, expensive and restrictive over regulation and centralised control of even the minutiae of life into the open. Nothing could have been clearer.There was no suggestion of disadvantaging everyone.
Charitably we therefore have to conclude that Mr Clegg, exhausted by the weight of his governmental responsibilities, must have nodded off at crucial moments during the 40 minute speech. Fair enough, these things happen. If not, and he was awake and listening carefully throughout, he has much more disturbingly shown a failure to grasp what was actually being said. Surely not for a man of his intellect and public school background ? Alternatively it could just be that to a good LibDem someone must always be being disadvantaged by almost anything done or proposed by anyone so his mind simply went into auto-disadvantage and out came the statement,- just like that. Couldn't help himself.
In shying away from reforms of the vast EU burocracy, of which he was once an enthusiastic part, and of what it does and how it does it and by opposing a referendum Clegg is in effect saying "We must go with the flow and take what comes even if it is an almost total loss of sovereignty and real democracy." Even worse, he is saying to the electors "You of course are too thick to understand all that is involved so you must leave it to the politicians and officials to decide". In the words of a switch selling expert in a fast talking Hong Kong shop "You like this one" which means of course "This is the one you are going to get".
In another corner of the strange,contrary and even intellectually arrogant and intolerant world of the LibDems, they are supporting a Labour private members' proposal for the lowering of the voting age to 16. "Much more democratic " they say. That is code for "Young people tend to be much more hazily idealistic and therefore likely to vote for us", a belief long shared by the Labour Party which is why they advance it. It honours a LibDem election promise. Those promises look as far away as "I agree with Nick" . Another undertaking at the start of the coalition was to support Conservative moves to action the most recent review of constituency sizes and number by equalising the numbers of voters in each . Very democratic but since reneged on by the Clegg in pique at the further reform of the House of Lords having been set aside.
One thing new 16 year old voters need to know up front as an intellectual reality check and health warning is that the neither of the words Liberal nor Democrat on the tin necesarily represent what is inside. Now what about some new labelling laws and an overhaul of the Trades Description Act as a new cause Nick? Are you with us?
