Ever since Nick Clegg went into full coalition there has no been shortage of leftish detractors questioning his principles and integrity. With tuition fees that noise has now become deafening as the Lib Dems are widely pilloried as lying, duplicitious and dishonest.
There are may be a simpler explanation though, that plain and simple Nick Clegg and his LibDems are incompetent.
Nick Clegg was initially praised by political columnists for playing his hand well in the coalition discussions. With Brown or Cameron, Clegg, so the story goes, was a hard headed and tough negotiator. This view is completely wrong.
First Nick Clegg played his hand early in the election campaign. He stated that he would look to form a coalition with the party that won the most votes. This may have been honest of him but it was naive. It was clear that the largest party would be the Tories and as a disenchanted Labour voter I decided not to vote for him as a result. I'm sure others did the same which explains the now forgotten elephant in the room of election night - the poor showing from the LibDems.
Second, in the coalition negotations David Cameron ran rings around him. Cameron did indeed make him an offer - a third of all ministerial appointments - that Clegg just couldn't refuse. Cameron gave a lot but in return gained far much more - almost total control of economic, health and education policy. The result is that we have a programme of change that is being enacted as though the Tories won by a landslide. They did not.
Third, Cameron tied Clegg into a guaranteed fiver years and offered him a high profile job. This approach, rather than demand and supply, has meant that the LibDems have very little room to object or influence policy. In demand and supply the Libs could simply have voted down Tuition fees, it would have made them popular. They would have appeared serious political players, principled and worthy partners in coalition. But they would have less ministerial appointments.
Fourth, AV. This was Cameron's masterstroke. He made a big concession on this but by adding reform of electoral boundaries to the referendum has created change that he knows Labour cannot support. The LibDems will be completely isolated in their campaigning for AV and with 10% approval ratings, the wider electorate will be in no mood to do them any favours.
For a party that wanted to be in coalition for so long they have proved to be remarkably inept at being in one.
Nick Clegg and his colleagues were unable to resist the carrot dangled in front of them by David Cameron. Clegg has the distinction of being the first Liberal leader to take his party into government since Lloyd George. The price of that distinction is they are now seen as being without principle, truth or conviction. They are all of these things but most of all they are just plain incompetent.
