The revelation about Clegg comes hot (literally) on the heels of the vast number of reminders of how Conservative leader David Cameron was a member of Oxford University's Bullingdon Club in his younger days, along with the current London Mayor, Boris Johnson. The Bullingdon was a sort of Hells-Angels-for-Bankers, except that the Angels would probably object to being compared to such badly behaved people. As Cameron himself gleefully recounted in 1986, as well as their regular routine of smashing up restaurants and pulling the trousers off of people they took a dislike to, on one infamous occasion with these oiks "Things got out of hand and we'd been drinking a bit much. We smashed the place up and Boris set fire to the toilets."
It is difficult to see which is worst - that people with such attitudes should now be running our country; or that, having done the things they did when they were youths, they are so utterly condemnatory of young people, mostly from rather less privileged backgrounds than their own, for acts which in many cases are not as serious as their own past crimes and misdemeanors. It's almost like one law for them and another for...
But of course, perhaps that is the entire point.
Go to 4 mins 44 seconds to hear Nicked Nick challenged about his fiery youth.
I'd say that was a fairly robust rebuttal of the ridiculous question he was asked.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think what he's been saying about restorative justice is exactly what we need to hear, especially compared with the drivel Cameron and his colleagues are coming out with.
If Nick was advocating hanging and flogging, you might have a point; but he isn’t he is calling for restorative justice. The burning cacti, along with the foreign ancestors was well known because of by the right-wing press using it against Clegg. How did your German Green comrades deal with anti-nuclear protesters, they had supported, once in power? I won't ask about Danny!
ReplyDeleteRestorative justice is a perfectly good idea; but Nick Clegg is trying to have it both ways - he talks about that, but his ideas on work gangs in distinctive clothing sounds more like public humiliation - as well as an open invitation for self-styled vigilantes to seek their own form of justice on those marked out in public. And yes, his past activities at 16 are relevant, because he is part of a Government that has changed sentencing guidance to impose exceedinly harsh penalties on a large number of people, including jailing for 4 years someone who made a joke facebook page while he was drunk and nothing happened; jailing a man for stealing two scoops of ice cream, and raising reporting restrictions to name and shame an underage kid. Perhaps he has not sounded as condemnatory as some of your Conservative colleagues, but you can't be in opposition and in government at the same time. You are now collectively responsible for what happens.
ReplyDeleteAnd as to Germany - I am not a German; if I was, I'd be a member of Die Linke, not the Greens. And I don't understand your reference to Clegg's German relatives - I didn't mention that and his family history is of no concern or interest to me - just what he is doing or colluding with now.
If Liberal Democrats are “collectively responsible for what happens”,then you as a member of the GPEW - part of the European Green Party, are collectively responsible for the actions of your fellow Greens in Ireland Which As for Die Linke; formed from two parties, one being the re-named Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands – the former ruling party of East Germany. The former DDR wasn’t renowned for it’s lenient sentencing policy !
ReplyDeleteI would and will disagree with any party that commits or colludes with acts I disagree with - and that certainly included the Irish Greens. However, they are not part of GPEW and there is a big difference being part of a loose federation of European parties and being part of a government. My point about Liberal Democrats collective responsibility is not that every single Lib Dem is responsible for the actions of the Government - that would be absurd. But Lib Dems who are members of the Government, and especially the Deputy Prime Minister, ARE collectively responsible for what the Government does. So Nick Clegg can't argue that he is against the punitive sentencing that the Government has actively encouraged the judiciary to impose. That was my point about not being able to be in opposition and in government. And in any case, Nick Clegg does not appear to be on record disagreeing with Cameron - rather he appears to go along with his rhetoric. The restorative justice is still a proposal and is twinned with somewhat more condemnatory actions - and this was my original point; we all make mistakes at 16 or whatever - why condemn kids so harshly as has happened in the last few weeks when he and Cameron, etc, were treated far more lightly (in Cameron's case, with no sanctions at all)? Evicting people from their homes and banging them up will not bring them into society.
ReplyDeleteIf Caroline Lucas was supporting the Government's policies, I would criticise her and eventually would inevitably question whether I should remain in the Green Party. Unsurprisingly she isn't, but if she did I'd imagine she would not face the unquestioning laudations that Clegg appears to enjoy in spite of being a member of perhaps the most rightwing government in history.
You should never take the position of "my party right or wrong". It was after all the late Roy Jenkins who said that he did not enter politics to support a party, but to pursue ideals - for which parties are nothing more than vehicles, a means rather than an end.
And as for Die Linke's link with the SED, well, even the liberal FDP merged with the LDPD which had been part of the National Front ruling block along with the SED in East Germany. I still don't follow why we are talking about Germany though!
Why has the sustainable Lucas got three children? Can we all do the same?
ReplyDeletejust asking...
I'm not going to get drawn into an argument about someone's family. But your information is incorrect.
ReplyDelete