"Many British feel betrayed by Liberal Democrats; Tuition hike leads list of grievances" by Anthony Faiola, Washington Post / January 16, 2011
LONDON — During a riveting election campaign last year, a photogenic 43-year-old stole the hearts of the British people, cutting through their pea-soup-thick cynicism with a Barack Obama-like message of change. But eight months later, Britain has fallen out of love with its new deputy prime minister, Nicholas Clegg.
I know the feeling.
In a country long dominated by the Conservative and Labor parties, Clegg’s star turn in US-style television debates elevated his typically also-ran Liberal Democrats into contenders last year. Even Colin Firth, star of “The King’s Speech,’’ jumped off the movie set and onto the campaign trail for the new prince of British politics.
Clegg emerged as the kingmaker of the May elections, striking a hard-fought coalition deal with the Conservatives that brought his party into government, albeit as junior partners, for the first time in almost a century.
Clegg, however, is discovering the high price of success. Thousands of voters are deserting the party, with support for the Liberal Democrats falling from a high of 34 percent last April to a rock-bottom 9 percent last month.
If you can call that "success."
Even Firth is openly disavowing the Liberal Democrats. “I am without an affiliation now,’’ he recently told reporters at the Dubai Film Festival.
After snowstorms engulfed Britain last month, Clegg proclaimed: “I am getting blamed for everything. I will be blamed for the weather.’’
The news is bad not only for Clegg. The Liberal Democrats’ extraordinary decline marks the first real sign of weakness in Britain’s coalition government, which the conservative prime minister, David Cameron, must hold together to serve out his five-year term.
The waning of Clegg stems from what many of his former backers call a series of bitter betrayals, analysts said. None was more stinging than Clegg’s decision to back the Conservatives in dramatically scaling back subsidies for university students, forcing an increase in tuition as part of the coalition’s crusade to bust the mammoth British budget deficit.
It came only months after the Lib Dems had swept up young voters in an undercurrent of excitement during the campaign, promising that they would oppose tuition increases.
Politicians lied? You're kidding?
Going back on that pledge has made Clegg the main target for thousands of young protesters who have taken to London’s streets in recent months to oppose the coalition’s austerity measures.
Isn't "target" a poor word choice in the current climate?
Like Obama, Clegg was an inspirational candidate who energized a generation of young voters.
And now they understand bitter betrayal and the cynicism of their elders.
Although the US president’s ratings have also fallen sharply, Clegg appears to be facing a far stronger backlash, especially among students.
“I supported the Lib Dems. I campaigned for them amongst my friends and handed out leaflets,’’ said Rachel Sullivan, 20, an English literature major at Oxford who has taken part in the demonstrations. “But now I feel that I was championing a childish cause, a cause for people who were not honest about what they stood for. . . . There are many students who will never vote Lib Dem again.’’
The Liberal Democrats, who run the spectrum from left-wing liberals to fiscally conservative libertarians, have emerged as what many here are calling “human shields’’ for the Conservatives.
Is the WAR TERMINOLOGY really proper for POLITICS?
Next thing you know they will be calling them "insurgents."
They are taking most of the flak for the unpopular policies the government is advancing.
It could have severe consequences for Clegg, his party, and potentially the coalition. Clegg’s plummeting support is jeopardizing the chances of success for a measure seen as the main reason he entered into the coalition: a referendum on election reforms that would make it far easier for the Liberal Democrats to beat the dominant Conservative and Labor parties in votes.
Under an agreement with the Conservatives, that referendum is set for May, at the same time as regional elections in which analysts are predicting significant setbacks for Liberal Democrats....
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Related:
"Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday waded into waters in which past British governments have foundered, promising fundamental changes to the country’s expensive and over-stressed public health care system.
Not the change they wanted.
The health service is Britain’s biggest employer, costs more than $158 billion a year — and is a political football, reformed and criticized by governments since it was established in 1948.
How much the Brits spending on war -- or waste, for that matter?
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Also see: Labor keeps seat in British special election (New York Times)
"The British prime minister’s powerful spin doctor resigned yesterday amid assertions that he sanctioned widespread illegal phone hacking against politicians, celebrities, and royalty when he was editor of a top-selling tabloid newspaper.....
Aren't they all?
Oh, the hypocritical elite don't like it when it is done to them?
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Yeah, it's all unraveling.
What will take the people's minds of the failing government?
"ENGAGING POSE -- Students from the Royal College of Art in London wore Kate Middleton style engagement outfits and rings at Buckingham Palace. The students were having fun ahead of the April wedding of Prince William and Middleton (Boston Globe January 20 2011)."
Related: My Fair Middleton
Also see: UK princesses may get equal throne access
Britain exempts royals from FOI law
Betrayal even behind the castle doors.
