Oh shut up...

Here we go. Another slag off . . . 12kazuko12 quick off the market with the first schoolyard comment.

Spectacularly deluded ... so no change then.

Guardian, when are you going to cut your losses?

Your weirdly uncritical reportage of all things LibDem is getting tedious.

Listened to the interview, unimpressed.

Oh no, not another 'Clegg vows' story.

The words Clegg and pledge, vow, promise, hand signed pledge should be banned in the same sentence.

Radio 4 this morning said a Lib Dem Voice commissioned poll shows 75% of those who voted Lib Dem in 2010 say they would not vote for them again.

Clegg should spend a few weeks in retreat meditating upon that.

What makes Mr Clegg think that anyone will believe a word he says? He is as big a liar as Mr Blair and Mr Cameron.
The saying goes we get the government we deserve. I dont believe that either.

Another Liberal leader saying whatever he likes because there is no realistic chance of it ever being implemented.

Not these policies. Not in his present company. Not a snowball's chance in Hell

Sometimes the truth hurts, doesn't it ?

Also a somewhat odd remark, considering that if it were a bash Ed M or Ed Balls story you'd be doing the same sort of slagging off, according to your previous posting history.

So after the days get Miliband article we have the traditional promote Clegg article.

Nobody is listening to this walking political corpse (9 percent in the polls and a hugely negative personal rating). Osborne certainly won't do anything he says so it is just more vapid PR.

Give up Guardian the lib dems are finished and the pro Clegg propaganda is becoming laughable.

Blah, blah, blah...........the Jimmy Cricket of the Coalition chirrups his disgust in order to placate what few of his own supporters remain loyal yet will do absolutely nothing at all. How many times do we have to hear the Lib Dems wring their hands in public only to join in with the Tories back in Westminster. They disgust me.

First thing we want to know from David Clegg is why he supported £9k pa student fees, the average graduate will now leave Uni owing roughly £50k.

I see David is at realistic about his position, of course he's not going to write Osbourn's budget. That's not the Lib Dems role, they are simply in coalition to wave through Tory policy.

sounds like great news for excessive executives and tax avoiders...

Oh well - at least Clegg appears to give a flying f***, unlike the last Labour lot who were "intensely relaxed" and didn't even pretend to give a toss.

Oh No! Little Nicky Clegg is on the case! When he makes these bold, dramatic statements he always seems to remind me of Ozimandias, but for all the wrong reasons.

@ maughanlibrary, 12kazuko12's comments are justified in my opinion. Cleggs credibility is shot to shit, alot of people probably feel Clegg is untrustworthy since the election.

Does this mean he shall be tackling these ridiculous tax exempt religious organisations? Now there's some serious tax avoidance!

Am now waiting in anticipation for Cameron to undermine his deputy with a "Tax Avoidance OK" story.

Same Old Tories. Can we Have Paddy back for the next Election please?

I'll believe it when it happens.

Clegg vs Combined Multinational Corps --- Not a contest, more a delusion.

I would be one of those 75%! Never again.....and my politics have taken a sharp turn leftwards. I loathe the current government not just because of their policies but the way they continually demonise and insult huge sections of our communities whilst fiercely protecting the bloated privileges of a very few.

Play the ball, not the man. Clegg is clearly right about the appalling tax avoidance by the rich in this country, some of whom pay little or no tax. Whether he can do anything about it is another matter. I truly hope he can.

I remember when I believed in the LibDems and wanted to vote for them, my cousin said it was a wasted vote......I think she was right.

maughanlibrary
5 January 2012 09:51AM
Here we go. Another slag off . . . 12kazuko12 quick off the market with the first schoolyard comment.

But he's right isnt he ?

What is Clegg going to do about it ? Bugger all

Its the usual twice weekly empty Guardian arse kissing of Clegg.

Which oddly enough appears at the same time as the twice weekly slagging off of Milliband

tax avoidance, oh yes the biggest issue currently affecting our country.

Britinswitz I remember when I believed in the LibDems and wanted to vote for them, my cousin said it was a wasted vote......I think she was right

I wish it was a wasted vote, unfortunatly its allowing the government to ram through a lot of the policies counter to what Nick is suggesting above

Guardian, when are you going to cut your losses?

Your weirdly uncritical reportage of all things LibDem is getting tedious.

It's called reporting, not reportage.

The idea is that you report what people said or did as straightforwardly as possible without adding your own opinions and it's getting damn rare these days.

Why wait for a budget,he knows the big boys who are avoiding tax,if they don't pay take it off them with a wealth tax.

Wor Clegg is pledging again- tax avoiders. Dave's chosen are those on benefits. Which one takes the day? Guess.
I note that the lazy old beeb has a programme called Scroungers and Saints. Guess who the scroungers are- tax avoiders and evaders?

Clegg sets out priorities for 2012, promising to target 'wealthy elite or large businesses that get out of paying fair share of tax'

Right. Mmm. Is this promise made with any more or less certainty than, say, his promise on student fees?

Honestly, Guardian, this is getting ridiculous. The two leading political stories on the website, at the time I clicked on, were this uncritical veneration of Clegg, and yet another Miliband-bashing exercise from Glasman.

It was only recently that the BBC was accused of being an 'echo chamber' for coalition views. It's disappointing to see that the daily political writers of the self-styled "world's leading liberal voice" are veering in the same direction (some would say, are already there). The saving grace appears to be the consistent stance taken by certain of your regular columnists.

The burden of political challenge and opposition isn't meant to be carried solely by one political party. It would be nice if the left-leaning press would join in at some point too. Enough churnalism and echo-chambering, please.

Greater transparency?

That's becoming an impossibility now.
Was anyone watching BBC news 24 this morning -cameron answering questions in Maidenhead from small businesses?

When one employer berated Cameron for appealing the high court decision against the government on their sloar panels/feed-in fiasco leading to the loss of 25,000 jobs-the BBC swiftly pulled the plug.

Blatant censorship- but not too late for viewers to see that all is not hunky dory in at least one tory heartland.

Something is very rotten at the BBC...

(Clegg, pretty boy, purely for ornamental purposes these days)

solar panels

If only I could believe what Clegg says.
If only I could have confidence in the LibDems.
If only there was someone with a little backbone in opposition.
If only pigs could fly.

If only it wasn't just all PR spin and if only Clegg could stop spouting unbelievable bullsh*t.

Caroline Lucas has already been trying to get a Tax and Financial Transparency Bill through parliament (and has posted it on the governments epetitions website as well), which, if implemented, would be a simple yet highly effective and comprehensive policy for tackling tax avoidance and evasion across the country. How about showing some support for that, eh Cleggy? No? Thought not, because we all know you have absolutely NO intention of following through on your hollow words.

Clegg says: Lets tackle tax avoidance
Clegg does: £300m budget cut to Revenue and Customs, plus a 44% cut in their capital budget

Then people wonder why only 1/4 of LibDem voters are still LibDem voters.

Was Holzy that wrong when he/she used the word reportage ?

re·port·age (rpr-täzh, r-pôrtj, -pr-)
n.
1. The reporting of news or information of general interest.
2. Something reported

Your pedantic response seems odd.
After all, you once presumed that I believed in God, when I criticised the more militant New Aethists.

Yet another impossible task handed down to the guy with the biggest Non job in the Coalition. If there had been any remote possibility of success CallMe would never have given such a popular policy to to him. I can see another Clegg failure or is that betrayal coming on. Remember the Coalition agreement your only there to support a rightwing Tory government.

Yes? And what is a Nick Clegg vow worth these days? Wake me up when he actually does something.

I think I'm going to change my end-of-week newspaper buying habits if the Guardian doesn't stop printing this relentless stream of puff pieces about bloody Clegg.

It's become beyond absurd. I'm beginning to think if the pound collapsed tomorrow, followed by an armed invasion landing on the south coast, coupled with the LibDems nodding through tory legistation to kill every first born male child ("because Herod knew about fairness"), the headline on the Guardian website would be Clegg Vows Night Will Follow Day, or some such claptrap.

Nick Clegg strikes me as a good man with his heart largely in the right place who was more than a little politically naive when he took over as leader of the Lib Dems, and hadn't improved much by the time he became Deputy PM. I'm sure he goes to sleep wishing he had played his cards differently, but fair play to him, he seems to be doing his best to make the best of the situation he has found himself in. I would imagine history will suggest his political sacrifice has probably saved the nation billions in terms of the credit rating on our National Debt - possibly saving our economy from disaster.

Milliband strikes me as an opportunist who is the living embodiment of the peter principal. As for Ed Balls - I'll quote the new statesman:

There is a simple reason for this paradox. Labour's own economic policy has no clothes. The deficit is the defining issue in British politics. And Tory attempts to brand Labour as deficit deniers have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. In fact, they have not so much branded shadow ministers as embalmed them, placed them in a glass case and erected a sign "Deficit Denier, official exhibit, 2010 - present".

Balls and Milliband get paid a salary to act as an opposition. They have had not only the opportunity but the responsibility to define a new vision of opportunity for Labour and cast aside the huge Corporation sensitive, Greed is Good, Individual is secondary direction of the last Labour Administration.

New Labour ministers are taking our money, and by failing to present a clear vision to save Britain, they open themselves to criticisms that they are failing to perform the duties required of them in return for the generous package received. The leader of the opposition gets a substantial salary to lead the opposition and its about time he started delivering the goods.

Once same old new labour do something more serious than trying to justify the last administrations inept fiddling with VAT in the Christmas Sales and come up with a vision for the future that doesn't rely on public sector growth fuelled through debt expansion I may have a little more time for them.

Will the real leader of the Labour Party please stand up.

Nick Clegg vows to ……

Yeah, yeah....How embarrassing it must be for this little lad, who clearly doesn’t realise that his big mate in the gang keeps giving him important –sounding jobs to make him feel significant, and then they all snigger about him behind his back.

Really that Paddy who has stood by every decision clegg has made? doesnt matter who leads the Liedems at next election, 75% have abandoned them Polling 9% , personally i didnt think 9% of the population were idiots but there you go.

The Cleggster's promises aren't worth a damn.

Remember that when the Guardian is telling you to vote LD next time around.

And why is the G giving the coalition such a free ride? Where is the reporting of the likes of Maud and Pickles' activities?

Gawd help us. And Mr E is out to lunch...

Just a couple of figures-
Dave-' We need to do more to stop 1.5bn of hard earned taxpayers money being stolen from the taxpayer. This is not acceptable.'
Amount lost through tax fraud- 15bn.
Amount lost through tax avoidence by the wealthy- 13bn.
Amount lost throughtax avoidence by companies- 12bn
Amount lost to the taxpayer by the banks- your guess is as good as mine.

Saw "Nick Clegg vows" and decided to skip the article and go straight to the comments. New Captain Ska tune released today - "What's the point of Nick Clegg?" -Very good..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWT-o-H4srg

I listened to this interview and all I heard was a tired stream of bluster and bullshit. He avoided answering any direct question and tried that typical bullying politicians trick of talking over the interviewer repeatedly.
Deeply unimpressive and deeply cynical.
The main question he refused to answer was about whether the coalitions policy of targeting the poorest in society was fair. Well, Clegg, nows your chance to answer, or perhaps your publicists can do it on your behalf.
Guardian: do you think the coalitions policies are fair?

I heard the interview on R4 this morning and found myself shouting those exact words at the radio. Clegg did his level best to avoid answering questions by steam rollering over the interviewer with a verbal stream of self justification delivered at such a speed it was rendered barely inteligable.
He seems to use this technique quite often in interview situations...... perhaps signifying some one who is extremely defensive and ill eqiped to argue or debate his point.
An asset for the cons!

Stick to what you're good at Nick. Lashing out at the vulnerable.

The "wealthy elite or large businesses" are so far out of your league.

It's almost as though you think you actually shape government policy, rather than slavishly support it.

Sounds good, but I'll believe it when I see it.

I would play the ball, not the man, only he dribbles so much.

Seriously, no one could disagree that appalling tax avoidance by the corporate sector, wealthy individuals and many small businesses is endemic. Even moderate Tories would probably conceed as much in private. My problem is - like many others on this thread - I don't trust, and now never will trust the man.

Get out of bed with the Tories and give the people another election now that we know what the real choice is.

I assume that the Clegster will start with the tax avoiders and excessively well paid who are donors to the coalition parties and advisers to the government.

I am inclined to say "Oh, shut up you silly man". However it appears to be what your contributors have already said. What I find most interesting is how this man can go on like this. He must surely be aware of how stupid he appears. An unkind ( and I am sure incorrect ) person might suggest that someone is 'making it worth his while'. Or perhaps has promised to do so when he is sacked - sort of 'do a Blair'. You know, advising a bank here and there, perhaps a nice EU job?