Sunday, July 15, 2012
Sorry is the hardest word?
Nick Clegg went on the offensive yesterday and told the Liberal Democrats to stop apologising and instead tell people about our successes.
According to the Independent on Sunday the Liberal Democrats Leader told a Social Liberal Forum conference in London that the party needs to have "self-confidence" to tell people what it has achieved:
"If there is one thing that has chilled me to my marrow in the last two years, it is meeting friends who I have campaigned with for years who have stopped knocking on doors. We are sensitive violets. A few people shout at you, you get a few doors slammed in your face so we retreated; but we cannot afford to do that."
He added that those who doubt his influence should read the right-wing press: "I am some sort of Rasputin figure who fooled this hopeless toff Cameron into getting into government."
I agree. The Liberal Democrats have achieved a great deal in government, much more than keeping the worse excesses of Toryism at bay. We have introduced additional funding for the poorest pupils, taken hundreds of thousands of people out of tax and cut the tax bill for millions of low earners, introduced a billion pound scheme to help young people get into work and training and delivered the biggest pension increase ever. We have done all of this whilst cutting the deficit by 25% and helping to protect the British economy from the worst consequences of a world wide recession.
These are achievements we need to be trumpeting, not apologising for the fact that we had to work with Tories to deliver them.
According to the Independent on Sunday the Liberal Democrats Leader told a Social Liberal Forum conference in London that the party needs to have "self-confidence" to tell people what it has achieved:
"If there is one thing that has chilled me to my marrow in the last two years, it is meeting friends who I have campaigned with for years who have stopped knocking on doors. We are sensitive violets. A few people shout at you, you get a few doors slammed in your face so we retreated; but we cannot afford to do that."
He added that those who doubt his influence should read the right-wing press: "I am some sort of Rasputin figure who fooled this hopeless toff Cameron into getting into government."
I agree. The Liberal Democrats have achieved a great deal in government, much more than keeping the worse excesses of Toryism at bay. We have introduced additional funding for the poorest pupils, taken hundreds of thousands of people out of tax and cut the tax bill for millions of low earners, introduced a billion pound scheme to help young people get into work and training and delivered the biggest pension increase ever. We have done all of this whilst cutting the deficit by 25% and helping to protect the British economy from the worst consequences of a world wide recession.
These are achievements we need to be trumpeting, not apologising for the fact that we had to work with Tories to deliver them.
