Nick Clegg: King-maker or court-jester?

Ever since the possibility of a hung parliament in the upcoming election arose, there has been talk of the Lib Dems looking to hold the balance of power in such a situation; and further talk on the possibility of them forming a Lib/Lab coalition.  Nick Clegg has today confirmed such rumours with an article in the Independent.  But what do his demands actually mean?


In the article, Clegg sets down four key demands that either the Conservatives or Labour will have to meet in order to count on his party's support:

• A shake-up of the tax system.  Raising the tax threshold to £10,000, meaning that four million people will pay no tax; supported by higher taxes for the rich.
• A boost to education spending targeted at children from poor families through a "pupil premium".
• A switch to a greener economy less dependent on financial services.
• Political reform, including a new voting system for Westminster elections.

It would appear - from this statement - that Clegg has realised that the Liberal Democrats have no chance of forming a government come June, and instead are starting to set out their stall for gaining power through other means.

"Sounds good", you may say.  I would be inclined to agree with you; a hung parliament could potentially be far more dangerous than even a Labour majority.  The problem though, is that Nick Clegg can't seem to be able to decide what he wants.  In a separate article for today's Spectator, Clegg talks about the Lib Dem policy being that of "No tax rises at all [...] purely spending cuts".

This appears to be a very cynical ploy from the leader of the Liberal Democrats.  He is proposing voter-friendly policies in his party's own manifesto with the aim of getting votes on polling day, and then hoping to be able to push his more controversial policies through should the Lib Dems be the key to either party gaining a majority in the House.

Here are my thoughts on his four demands:

Tax

Here is where Mr. Clegg needs to make his mind up.  Is he for increases in taxation or against them?  The problem with increasing taxation on the rich is that we run the risk of ending up with a situation akin to that in the 70s (a higher rate of tax anywhere between 83% and 98%) whereby the richest in society simply up-and-leave; taking whatever tax they'd be paying with them.

Education/Green economy

If anyone can actually tell me what the substance behind these demands are, I'd love to know.  At the moment he just seems to be using weasel words ("green" and "poorer families") in order to persuade non-Liberal voters that he has their interests at heart.

Parliamentary Reform

Simply rephrase this demand to "once we're in power, we want to stay in power forever".  The Liberals are the only party to demand electoral reform (yes, Labour mentioned it a few months back when they thought they were going to lose; but are now surprisingly quiet on the matter).  One has to wonder if their position would change if they actually had a support base that would get them elected in the first place.

Couple these self-serving demands with Clegg's general buttering-up of the main parties (he's even been praising Margaret Thatcher, for goodness sake!), and it would appear that his intentions are clear: to gain power at all costs, even if it means prostituting out his ideals.  What he doesn't seem to realise is that gaining his place in the spotlight by hanging on to Labour or Conservative coat-tails could well cost his party its credibility come the next general election.