Nick clegg

Nick Clegg has complained to Sir Jeremy Heywood, the Cabinet Secretary, that he was ignored before a government policy was announced, Coffee House has learned. The Deputy Prime Minister was annoyed that he did not get the chance to approve a change to the way Birmingham elects its councillors, from elections by thirds to all-out elections every four years. The change is part of reforms to the struggling local authority announced in a review by Sir Bob Kerslake. But Clegg claims he was never allowed to sign off the policy, which he should have seen because he chairs the government committee that approves most domestic policy – the Home Affairs Cabinet

Nick Clegg announced plans today to end austerity, promising to make sure that the wealthy pay a larger contribution. However, the venue for this sincere declaration from the Lib Dems was one of London’s most expensive hotels. Mr S is curious as to why they picked the Shangri-La in the Shard to unveil their economic plan. It’s a venue that only the wealthy they hope to tax would be able to splash out on. The hotel bills itself as ‘a new level of luxury’, and rooms start from £350, with the most expensive suites reportedly costing up to £19,000 per night. Whether Clegg stayed on after for drinks in the bar is unknown though he has been

With party press officers keen to prevent scenes similar to the cringe-worthy moment of elections past when Gordon Brown dubiously declared his love for the Arctic Monkeys, Mr S notes that today’s politicians are sticking to musicians closer to their own age. First David Cameron declared his love for 70s crooner Bryan Ferry in a radio interview, and now Nick Clegg has been spotted moshing at a Prince gig at KOKO in Camden. Clegg somehow found time out of his election campaign to party alongside the likes of Naomi Campbell, Noel Gallagher and Jimmy Carr. It’s not the first time the Deputy Prime Minister has championed the 80s singer. However, in an interview in 2010 Clegg said

‘The Green Surge’ has already become a fixed feature of the election campaign, but are we just reliving the giant damp squib of ‘Cleggmania’? According to Green Party officials, their membership stands at 45,558. Since Cameron declared they should be in the TV debates, thousands have supposedly signed on the dotted line. Apparently, of the 14,780 new members that have signed up since 1 Jan 2015, just 151 are renewals. But there has been zero independent verification of the numbers; they are asking us to take their word for it. A spokesman tells Steerpike that the party was not prepared for the influx of new members: ‘Our servers did become overwhelmed for

It’s another election Monday and the three parties are still hanging about in their comfort zones, even though they appear to have moved on to other topics. David Cameron is talking about the economy, but with a softer, nicer-sounding edge that has riled some on the Left because it involves him talking about full employment, which is something Beveridge was a fan of, and pay rises, which is something Labour says it wants more (while backing the public sector pay freeze).The Prime Minister will give a speech promising to expand the start-up loans to help 50,000 more entrepreneurs set up business using a £300 million pot. The Prime Minister wants

Nick Clegg always seems oddly upbeat when he’s doing interviews about just how badly his party could do in the General Election. Today when Andrew Marr asked him about Iain Dale’s prediction the Lib Dems will lose at least half their seats, Clegg said ‘I really don’t think thats going to happen’ and that ‘we will do so much better than the pundits are predicting’. The Lib Dems currently have 56 seats (the 57th, Mike Hancock, had the whip withdrawn last year), and this election forecast suggests they’ll end up with 27. The sense in the party is that this will be just about OK, but go much lower than 25 and

Last Sunday, David Cameron marched through Paris in solidarity, so it seemed, with those who stand up for free speech. Anyone who thought he meant it must now be crying out, ‘Je suis un right Charlie!’ Hardly had the march finished than the Prime Minister had rediscovered his other side: the one which reacts to terror by threatening yet more surveillance, more state control. He has promised to revive, in the Conservative manifesto, the ‘-snooper’s charter’ which would allow the state to retain indefinitely information about every email we ever send, every telephone call we ever make. Not only that. He added a further measure: he wants to ban all

One of the obsessions that will only get worse over the next few months – along with checking every poll that comes out every day to see whether you’re six points up, four points behind, or level-pegging – is what ‘red lines’ the parties will set out for their Coalition negotiations. David Cameron has made his EU referendum one, and it turns out that this isn’t as much of a problem for the Lib Dems as all their huffing and puffing on the subject would have you believe. Nick Clegg has been setting more red lines because he is the leader of the party that wants to talk about coalitions,

I don’t always agree with Peter Hitchens but this is by far the best piece I’ve seen on the political reaction to the Paris attacks. As far as Cameron, Miliband and Clegg are concerned, we must all sign up to these shibboleths: The attack was nothing to do with Islam. Almost all Muslims, here and abroad, found those attacks repugnant. The attacks were perpetrated and supported by a minuscule number of people who can simply be defined as ‘terrorists’. Immigration and multiculturalism were in no way contributory causes of either the Paris attack or the attacks which we might experience in the future or have suffered in the past. All

Defeat in May would be dire for either Cameron or Miliband. It would end their political career in ignominious failure. But winning would not be much better: they would be the weakest PM in living memory. Here’s why it won’t be easy for either of them: Miliband would be a prisoner of his own MPs: The best that both Labour and the Tories can hope for is the narrowest of outright victories. The 21 seat majority that John Major ground out in 1992 is, probably, beyond either of them. Miliband would then find himself having to steer swingeing cuts past a party that is simply not prepared for them. It

As Westminster clatters back to life after the Christmas break, so the steady stream of invitations land on Steerpike’s mat. Don’t all rush at once, but David Laws will be giving a speech this month at the Institute of Government on ‘effective government in 2015 and beyond’. While this will no doubt be riveting feast of wonkery, it is a bold move by the senior Liberal Democrat minister. The speech is to launch the the Institute’s ‘Programme for Effective Government’ report which ‘outlines a series of practical measures for parties to adopt in making sure they honour their party manifestos’. Is this really something that a leading light of Nick

Nick Clegg has clearly had an exciting Christmas. He used his first press conference of the year to talk about people playing footsie, exes leaving late-night voicemail messages, frantic January sales shopping and body parts. He was using all these vivid images, dreamt up while he was working out how to deal with Labour’s ‘decapitation strategy’ in his own constituency, to make a pitch for him to remain in power for as long as possible. Forever, hopefully, but at least after the next General Election. The Deputy Prime Minister warned repeatedly of the risks of ‘having a parliament which is held hostage, every hour and every day and every week,

According to a recent YouGov poll, Nick Clegg has an overall rating of minus 54, making him more popular than the hapless Ed Miliband by just one point. While that wouldn’t appear to be much to celebrate, the Deputy Prime Minister seems to actually be in denial about his own standing amongst the British public. In the first ever joint interview he has given with his wife Miriam, Clegg is asked whether his wife’s ‘huge fanbase’ ever causes an issue given that his own reputation has ‘taken a kicking over the past four years’. ‘I also have a great fanbase,’ Clegg replies, looking rather hurt. In the interview, which appears in

Cameron is away in Ankara. His mission is to annoy the Germans by inviting Turkey to join the EU as soon as possible. It all sounds like fun. Let’s hope the Turks know they’re being used as pawns in a much bigger game. His absence left Deputy Clegg facing Deputy Harman at PMQs. Clegg’s chief gift at the dispatch-box is for coining and distributing insults. It’s not a winning talent though, and his manner is far too prickly for national leadership. His attractive looks, posh schooling and agile tongue should have resolved themselves into something softer and more generous. Yet he still comes across as a Leninist crusty who happens