Boris’ 20 reasons why Nick Clegg must be saved


by Sunny Hundal    
10:40 am - September 24th 2012

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Boris Johnson is in the Telegraph today trying to save Nick Clegg’s bacon.

He offers 20 reasons for this, which I list below in brief.

1. If it hadn’t been for the good sense of the Deputy PM, we would still have Gordon Brown in Downing Street

2. And it is thanks to the Lib Dems that George Osborne is able to get on with the essential tasks of reform of the economy and deficit reduction.

3. Without Clegg to take the abuse of Left-wing educationalists, it is doubtful that Michael Gove would be bashing on so fast, and so effectively, with his programme for free schools.

4. Without Clegg and the Lib Dems it seems most unlikely that Iain Duncan Smith would be able to get on with his programme of benefits reform.

5. And yet Clegg can say with truth that he has put the party of Lloyd George in power for the first time in almost a century.

6. And he has used that power to deliver some sensible things – like taking the poor out of tax, a long-standing objective of the Lib Dems that ought to have been Tory policy for ages.

7. And he is, when you meet him, a very nice chap indeed.

8. His wife, Miriam González Durántez, is every bit as lovely and clever and funny as she appears.

9. He reads novels, and has all sorts of literary friends.

10. He is very good at tennis, though for some reason he always seems to lose to the Prime Minister.

11. He speaks several languages – a mark of civilisation, in my view.

12. But his Europhilia has been kept in check.

13. He has effectively demolished some of the worst and most opportunistic policies on which the Lib Dems used to campaign, like tuition fees

14. It is thanks to the utterly hopeless Lib Dem campaign for Lords reform we have been saved from an elected second chamber.

15. And thanks to the useless campaign for AV that we have kept first-past-the-post in our elections

16. Every time he half-heartedly proposes some new wealth tax, he reminds us that he doesn’t have a hope of delivering it.

17. He is against a third runway at Heathrow, but sees the case for borrowing cheap to spend on infrastructure.

18. In fact, I have always thought that if you leave out Europe, he is probably a natural Tory.

19. He is certainly tough, and can take a joke.

20. And above all, amigos, it is thanks to Nick Clegg that we are not currently in coalition with Chris Huhne!

* * * * * *

Not the endorsement Nick Clegg was hoping for I think.

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About the author
Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
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Reader comments


1. Cylux

Damned with faint praise indeed.

2. Sally

Well 1 is complete crap. Brown was never going to be able to stay in power. Labour and lib dems did not have the votes.

Beware Greeks baring gifts. If Clegg is being praised by Boris you know Clegg has given the farm away for free. The tories can’t believe their luck.

3. Cherub

That really is quite comprehensively brutal.

4. Alasdair

Judging from this article, Boris is trying hard to bring down Clegg and the coalition, because he knows nothing could damage him more than an endorsement from himself. I wouldn’t have expected to find myself on the same side as Boris, but hey, let’s take whatever allies we can get!

5. Andreas Moser

How much does Boris Johnson get for writing these columns again?
Wow.

6. margin4error

Wow – never thought I’d have cause to agree – unambiguously – with a single thing Boris Johnson ever said before.

But he’s just penned one point in particular that I’ve been saying for longer than we’ve had coalition in government.

Which is that, if it were not for his pro-EU outlook meaning he could have no career at the top of the Tory Party, Clegg would have been a Tory anyway, not a Lib Dem.

He was, after all, Leon Brittan’s man when he first entered politics. Of course in those days Tories could be a bit pro-european.

7. Mike Killingworth

FWIW a lot of Tories thought much the same of Blair (apart from the wife bit, of course) although in fairness Clegg does not appear to be a delusionary.

8. Christopher Heward

Nick Clegg is essentially a liberal, in the original meaning of the word, as are a few Lib Dems (David Laws, and I guess the other Orange Bookers) and a few Conservatives (Daniel Hannan, Douglas Carswell to name two (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LJ5aYhMYRCsC) – Hannan even describes himself as a Whig on his Twitter profile (https://twitter.com/DanHannanMEP); the Whig’s later becoming the Liberal Party). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_liberalism.

For so-called ‘liberals’ nowadays to have a go at ‘neo-liberals’ for wanting lower taxes and freer markets is a bit like Nazis having a go at neo-Nazis for not being fond of foreigners. ‘neo’ just means new, as in a new expression of, although essentially the same at the core.

Modern-day ‘liberals’ are purely socially liberal, and economically are interventionist/authoritarian, and so what they are actually criticising is the classical liberal/neo-liberal/libertarians’ consistency in terms of their economic policy views of government intervention matching their social policy views on government intervention.

In the light of all this, it wasn’t at all surprising that the Coalition was formed, as the Orange Bookers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Orange_Book:_Reclaiming_Liberalism) and the newish Conservatives (which tend to be more libertarian than right-wing) have similarish views on the role of the state/government. Of course, the rest of their parties differ from those groups, in some ways quite dramatically. Importantly, each party differs in different ways. In the Lib Dems, the Social Democrat end is fairly economically-interventionist, whereas the traditional conservatives tend to be socially-interventionist, hence why the grassroots groups can sometimes seem diametrically opposed. Hence, also, why some Lib Dems voters were surprised when they started pursuing vaguely libertarian policies, because these voters naively thought the top ranks of the party were social democrats, just as figures like Kennedy, Hughes and perhaps even Cable, amongst others.

Of course, people like Hannan are a lot more dubious about whether this promised libertarian streak has materialised (http://t.co/SO05InFb). Plus it’s interesting that Clegg and Hannan have very different views on the EU, because Clegg thinks the best way to have free markets is to be part of a single market and reform the EU trade laws, whereas Hannan thinks the best solution is to leave the EU altogether and then lower tariffs and agree free trade unilaterally. But essentially, they still having the broad aim (Clegg wrote a chapter about it in the Orange Book).

Anyway, that’s the end of a long post.

And I say this as someone who is closest to the (classical) liberal end of the Liberal Democrat party, who voted for Labour in 2010 (or actually Hillary Benn, who happened to represent Labour), but who was hoping for a Coalition between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, partly because of a desire bor a liberal/libertarian government, and partly because I believe we should have laws determined by Parliament, not the Government, and a hung Parliament makes that slightly more likely to occur.


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
  1. Kris

    Why a hard-right Tory loves the Liberals MT @libcon: Boris Johnson's 20 reasons why Nick Clegg must be saved http://t.co/udsnFtAI

  2. sunny hundal

    In short, the 20 reasons why Boris think Nick Clegg should be saved (effectively killing him) http://t.co/eQykiegX

  3. Paul Bernal

    In short, the 20 reasons why Boris think Nick Clegg should be saved (effectively killing him) http://t.co/eQykiegX

  4. Charlie Mackay

    In short, the 20 reasons why Boris think Nick Clegg should be saved (effectively killing him) http://t.co/eQykiegX

  5. Ray Sirotkin

    In short, the 20 reasons why Boris think Nick Clegg should be saved (effectively killing him) http://t.co/eQykiegX

  6. Tom Davies

    Why a hard-right Tory loves the Liberals MT @libcon: Boris Johnson's 20 reasons why Nick Clegg must be saved http://t.co/udsnFtAI

  7. Katherine Smith

    In short, the 20 reasons why Boris think Nick Clegg should be saved (effectively killing him) http://t.co/eQykiegX

  8. Marque

    In short, the 20 reasons why Boris think Nick Clegg should be saved (effectively killing him) http://t.co/eQykiegX

  9. Jason Brickley

    Boris’ 20 reasons why Nick Clegg must be saved http://t.co/ndQ8ocjw

  10. Andrew Griffiths

    Boris Johnson's 20 reasons why Nick Clegg must be saved http://t.co/FGZg9F7V >> One of the reason's is, he's a Conservative in all but name

  11. leftlinks

    Liberal Conspiracy – Boris’ 20 reasons why Nick Clegg must be saved http://t.co/POStHzGo

  12. Dave Mellows

    In short, the 20 reasons why Boris think Nick Clegg should be saved (effectively killing him) http://t.co/eQykiegX

  13. Noxi

    RT @sunny_hundal: In short, the 20 reasons why Boris think Nick Clegg should be saved (effectively killing him) http://t.co/WpyjeQ28

  14. Georgina Lansbury

    In short, the 20 reasons why Boris think Nick Clegg should be saved (effectively killing him) http://t.co/eQykiegX

  15. Gods & Monsters

    Ooh, nasty Boris! RT @sunny_hundal: the 20 reasons why Boris think Nick Clegg should be saved (effectively killing him) http://t.co/UC9Dc3VE

  16. Huma

    RR: @sunny_hundal: the 20 reasons why Boris thinks Nick Clegg should be saved (effectively killing him) http://t.co/HNgurFwZ

  17. Shantel Burns

    In short, the 20 reasons why Boris think Nick Clegg should be saved (effectively killing him) http://t.co/eQykiegX

  18. Fat Fonzi

    In short, the 20 reasons why Boris think Nick Clegg should be saved (effectively killing him) http://t.co/eQykiegX

  19. Louis Stephen

    Boris’ 20 reasons why Nick Clegg must be saved | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/kDjW7JEH via @libcon





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