Bank Reform Needed, Says Deputy Prime Minister Clegg

BBC: Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has told the BBC the UK banking sector must be reformed so taxpayers are never again liable for its mistakes. >>> | Sunday, January 23, 2011

A step backwards? Hardly

In an interview with the FT, Nick Clegg today declared that the Coalition Government would not use the negotiations over a new EU treaty to repatriate powers from Brussels to London. "We are not going to reopen this issue of the repatriation of powers. We are not proposing to go backwards", he said.

Well, we kind of suspected that was the Government's position already, but "not going backwards"?! That's an utterly silly comment - it belongs to a time when the EU debate was divided between arch-eurosceptics harking back to the British Empire and European federalists equating more EU integration with "progress".

Europe and UK politics have both changed however (clue: the coalition itself). Clegg's assertion is a bit like saying that the Coalition's drive for more localism - which the Lib Dems champion - is somehow a reactionary move. Bringing back powers from Brussels to the UK means bringing decisions closer to people. That, Nick, is not a step backwards by your own definition - on the contrary.

The interview wasn't all nonsense though. Clegg did suggest that the UK's willingness to passively wave through an EU Treaty change, must be matched by reforms to the budget and changes to some of the EU's more counterproductive habits.

He said,

There is no interest for the EU in getting entirely on the wrong side of public opinion on this budget issue...They have got to get real. You can’t make these budget decisions in a political vacuum.

He also lashed out at the EU's “summit inflation” which left EU policymakers “chasing their tails”.

That's sensible stuff. But the question now is: having given away its veto over Treaty change, how does the Coalition plan to deliver in the post-2013 EU budget negotiations?

Talking about EU reform as a "step back" is probably not the smartest way of doing things. Not least since many member states would make the same argument about any change to the EU budget.

Nick Clegg: 'The Lib Dems Have No Future on the Left'
THE TELEGRAPH: Nick Clegg has said that there is no future for the Liberal Democrats as a left wing party.

The Deputy Prime Minister said he sympathised with voters who had turned to his party as an alternative to Labour and were unhappy that they had formed a coalition with the Conservatives.

But he risked alienating key supporters by dismissing those who see the Lib Dems as “a sort of left-wing conscience of the Labour Party”.

"There were some people, particularly around the height of the Iraq war, who gave up on the Labour Party and turned to the Liberal Democrats,” he said.

"I totally understand that some of these people are not happy with what the Lib Dems are doing in coalition with the Conservatives. The Lib Dems never were and aren't a receptacle for left wing dissatisfaction with the Labour Party. There is no future for that; there never was," he told the Independent. >>> Heidi Blake | Saturday, September 18, 2010

Nick Clegg: There Is No Future for Us as Left-wing Rivals to Labour
THE INDEPENDENT: As the Liberal Democrats' conference begins, their leader gives his party an uncompromising message

Nick Clegg has declared that there is "no future" for the Liberal Democrats as a left-wing alternative to Labour as he appealed to his party to show "patience" and maintain a united front with the Conservatives.

In an interview with The Independent on the eve of Liberal Democrat conference starting today, he promised his party it would reap the electoral rewards if it held its nerve about its slump in the opinion polls. >>> Andrew Grice, Political Editor | Saturday, September 18, 2010

Poor Must Accept Benefit Cuts: Clegg on Collision Course with Own Party by Backing Welfare Axe
MAIL ONLINE: Nick Clegg has waded into the row over welfare reform by warning that benefits should not be there 'to compensate the poor for their predicament'.

On the eve of the Liberal Democrat conference, the Deputy Prime Minister backed the Coalition's programme of welfare cuts and dramatically shifted his party's policy on the subject.

He said the billions spent on welfare should be used as an 'engine of mobility', instead of just leaving people 'stuck on benefits, year in, year out'.

His comments are likely to infuriate his party's left-wingers, who have publicly accused the Coalition of targeting the vulnerable and Mr Clegg of breaking promises to ensure all cuts were 'fair'.

The issue is likely to prove a flashpoint with the LibDem Left when activists gather in Liverpool from Saturday for the first time since joining the Tories in government.

But Mr Clegg made clear he considered welfare reforms to be essential. In a newspaper article, he said: 'A fair society is not one in which money is simply transferred by the central State from one group to another.

'Welfare needs to become an engine of mobility, changing people's lives for the better, rather than a giant cheque written by the State to compensate the poor for their predicament.

'Instead of turning the system from a 'safety net' into a 'trampoline', as Labour promised, people have been stuck on benefits, year in, year out.' Read on and comment >>> Jason Groves | Thursday, September 16, 2010

Coalition Will Improve Lives Not Offer Handouts, Vows Nick Clegg
THE TELEGRAPH: The Coalition Government will try to boost social mobility by ''improving people's lives'' rather than giving them handouts, Nick Clegg has insisted.

The Deputy Prime Minister accused Labour of spending ''huge sums'' on welfare for low-income households without any ''discernable impact'' on the life chances of their children.

Mr Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, confirmed that former minister Alan Milburn has been appointed as the Government's independent reviewer on social mobility.

Speaking at an event organised by the CentreForum think-tank, Mr Clegg said: ''Under Labour huge sums of money were spent pushing low-income households just above the statistically defined level of household income - sometimes by just a few pounds a week - but with no discernible impact on the real life chances of the next generation.

''Tackling poverty of opportunity requires a more rounded approach. Welfare reform, for example, should be based on the need to improve people's lives, not just raise their incomes. >>> | Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Clegg: We Want to Spread Wealth