[John_D]

Re: Clegg's apology - death throes of a doomed party leader? : Thu Sep 20, 2012 1:25 pm  

He's not even apologising for the right thing, in the very modern style of apology we're so used to. He's apologised for making the pledge, not breaking it.

Re: Clegg's apology - death throes of a doomed party leader? : Thu Sep 20, 2012 1:25 pm  

Stand-Offish wrote:

Sorry only ever means anything if corrective action follows it.

I suppose he could argue that, as he's only sorry for promising not to increase tuition fees, he can't really take corrective action. Unless you class ceasing to be a puppet of one of the most unpleasant governments in living memory as corrective action, of course.

Re: Clegg's apology - death throes of a doomed party leader? : Thu Sep 20, 2012 1:45 pm  

Can we look forward to him apologising for his entire view of economic policy that he consistently repeated during the run-up to the election and then u-turned against when he became deputy PM?
In fact, if he's sorry for what he said he'd do but found he couldn't, shouldn't he just apologise for most of his manifesto?

Re: Clegg's apology - death throes of a doomed party leader? : Thu Sep 20, 2012 3:04 pm  

He made promises at a time when he thought he would never be anywhere near power, in fact he could have promised everyone a free caribbean holiday and a jet ski as he never dreamt he would be in a position to deliver (or not as now is the case). The 'third way' has just reinforced the belief in a lot of people that politicians are all the same, lying, cheating adulterous bustards.

Re: Clegg's apology - death throes of a doomed party leader? : Thu Sep 20, 2012 3:37 pm  

Ah right, I didn't realise Nick Clegg was still in politics. Thought he'd retired.

Re: Clegg's apology - death throes of a doomed party leader? : Thu Sep 20, 2012 3:38 pm  

ROBINSON wrote:

Ah right, I didn't realise Nick Clegg was still in politics. Thought he'd retired.

NAh, just been in hiding for the last 18 months.

Re: Clegg's apology - death throes of a doomed party leader? : Thu Sep 20, 2012 3:47 pm  

Neil HFC wrote:

NAh, just been in hiding for the last 18 months.

He's probably still sh11tting himself at having to be a politician. He spent the entire campaign seemingly safe in the knowledge he would never have to deliver on anything he said.

If ever there was a case of a politician having to be careful about what he wished for, then this is clearly it.

Re: Clegg's apology - death throes of a doomed party leader? : Thu Sep 20, 2012 3:49 pm  

rover49 wrote:

He made promises at a time when he thought he would never be anywhere near power, in fact he could have promised everyone a free caribbean holiday and a jet ski as he never dreamt he would be in a position to deliver (or not as now is the case). The 'third way' has just reinforced the belief in a lot of people that politicians are all the same, lying, cheating adulterous bustards.

My thoughts exactly - Vince Cable is the same, he's had the rabbit in a headlight look on his face ever since he got the phone call from Clegg to say "You'll never guess what I've just signed us up for..." and he realised that all of those wise words that he'd been handing to the press over the years now suddenly had to be put into practice and actually, he'd never said it would really work in practice, it was all just his theory...

Re: Clegg's apology - death throes of a doomed party leader? : Thu Sep 20, 2012 4:22 pm  

Isn't this about the time he joined the Cambridge University Conservative Association?

Re: Clegg's apology - death throes of a doomed party leader? : Thu Sep 20, 2012 5:19 pm  

The Pledge cartoon in today's Times was good. (No link as subscriber only!)