Nick Clegg bounced along through the last debate, all floppy haired and puppyish, and the message he seemed most eager to get across was that he was quite unlike ‘you two’ as he constantly referred to Cameron and Brown.
He stood to one side and eyed them suspiciously as they traded insults; he verbally winked at the audience as he reinforced his message – “all my life I’ve opposed the old politics”.
The refreshingly ‘honest man’ in parliament.
It took an 18 year old politics student – rather than any of the professional hacks – to bring ‘openness and transparency’ into Nick Clegg’s political CV, by ambushing him at Cardiff University with a question concerning his past employment as a lobbyist with GJW, the firm which worked with Colonel Gaddafi to keep the Lockerbie bomber from standing trial in Britain.
Nick Clegg had pointedly excluded this information from his CV on the Lib-Dem web site. He would like us to believe that he is a fresh and invigorating figure in politics, rather than yet another career politician.
The lobby firm was set up by Andy Gifford, Wilf Weeks and Jenny Jegar.
Wilf Week’s short description of the back story to setting up this firm gives a hint of Nick Clegg’s political background.
In 1980 I set up a lobbying company with Andrew Gifford, who had worked with David Steel during the time of the Lib-Lab Pact. He felt that people hadn’t seen the potential of using the Liberal relationship with Labour to influence policy. We decided there was scope for a firm to advise people on how to work with Parliament and government.
We needed a third arm so we went to speak to Peter Mandelson. He made it clear it wasn’t for him, but he suggested Jenny Jeger, who had been working with Callaghan at Number 10. She was interested, and we formed GJW.
GJW’s reputation is not squeaky clean, during the cash-for-access affair it emerged that Karl Milner, previously aide to Gordon Brown, had breached parliamentary privilege by leaking an embargoed report to a client. Mr Milner was one of two lobbyists – the other was our old friend “Dolly” Draper, former adviser to Peter Mandelson who were asked to leave their trade association while an investigation was undertaken – following boasts of their influence in government
Clegg described 18 year old Chris Williams’ question as ‘bilge’ – we can assume he didn’t like the question then?
Why would he want to hide his background of seeing the scope for using the Liberal relationship with Labour to influence policy? Of working for a firm that put pragmatic profit before patriotism by lobbying on behalf of Ghadafi? Of working for a firm that married friends of Peter Mandelson with senior LibDem and Labour figures?
So, career politician, public school educated (intriguingly the documentary maker Louis Theroux was his ‘fag’, deputised to ‘bend over and push him awake’ each morning at the £28,000 a year Westminster School), great, great, grand nephew of a colourful Russian double agent, and scion of a Dutch multi-million heiress and a Russian nobleman.
Why would he be so keen that we see him as a ‘man of the people’, representative of the ‘Nuclear Free Zone’ Sheffield’s common man, and committed campaigner against renewing the Trident missile aimed at the land of his forefathers?
*Thinks*
SBML is the landlord of the Raccoon Arms. He lives North of Watford and has an eclictic range of interests from Science and Technology to Politics including Woodwork and Genealogy. His political viewpoint has evolved from being a student demonstrator to more liberal views and has now seen the light in Libertarianism.
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Who cares you and I do but the electorate wont, they have got their new messiah, all’s well now the economy is going to make a miraculous recovery, and there is going to be peace, prosperity and contentment for all.
I found it most interesting that Adam Bolting (sp) from SKY NEWS reported about this students questions, then said… he (the student) was most likely a labour activist!! And that was the usual rhetoric… Isn
I think most of the electorate know the main paries are all the same, even St Vince of Cable is a career bureaucrat and politician. For too much has been read into the Lib Dem surge following last week’s debate. All it shows really was that Liberal Democrats are not tainted by the failures and deceptions of the past thirty years.
Nick Clegg is being defended by Peter Mandelson.
Be afraid, be very afraid.