Will Nick Clegg tip the balance in British politics?

I was pretty frightened by this report from the great D'Ancona on how he spent his Saturday morning:

I spent the morning at the LSE, listening to Nick Clegg’s first big speech at Lib Dem leader and then participating in a panel on the issues he had raised.

What fun.

Yet he was, at least, rewarded with a top class speech from Clegg.

I was very critical of Clegg's leadership campaign. I thought it unconvincing and ludicrously cautious. In the process, of course, he almost lost. But this speech is a great improvement.

Should Tories be worried by it? Not at all. For my hope for Clegg is that he will help tip politics in Britain to the centre right. With both Liberals and Conservatives standing for smaller central government and much more choice in public services the debate will, hopefully begin to change.

The question marks are over Clegg's ability to resist pressure from Liberal activists and over whether his choice of big issue to make his mark will be a centre right issue or a more traditional centre right one.

When we know the answer to those questions we'll see whether Clegg is willing not just to make this speech but to live by it.

Comments

[Julian Melford]

Clegg has shown he cannot be trusted over the EU Constitution issue.

Not only was commitment to a referendum in his 2005 manifesto, he wrote a Guardian article in 2003 demanding a public vote, claiming the real reason that the Blair government didn't want a vote was fear that it would lose!

Despite his own bible 'My Vision for Britain' calling for power to be given back to the people, Clegg has sycophantically closed ranks with Brown to deny the British public their referendum.

More honest continental politicians freely admit that the 'Treaty of Lisbon' is the rejected Constitution but for a few cosmetic tweaks.

[David Moss]

"The question marks are over Clegg's ability to resist pressure from Liberal activists and over whether his choice of big issue to make his mark will be a centre right issue or a more traditional centre right one.

When we know the answer to those questions we'll see whether Clegg is willing not just to make this speech but to live by it."

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I'm afraid he's off to a rotten start.

On Monday evening a story appeared on the Guardian website about a new computer system, the 'Server in the Sky' (SitS) [1], to be launched by the FBI, in co-operation with the police forces of several countries, including the UK.

The idea is to pool information about the biometrics of criminals and terrorists so that their activities can be impeded by international co-operation.

The story is odd for at least two reasons.

Firstly, the world already has Interpol and goodness knows how many other organisations already dedicated to precisely this end. Why is another initiative needed? What's wrong with the present ones?

Second, the story is a Guardian world exclusive. Any other newspapers in the world that carried the story lifted it from the Guardian. And there is nothing about SitS on either the FBI website or the US Department of Justice website. It is a great honour, of course, for the Guardian to have been briefed exclusively by the FBI. But what have the Guardian done to deserve it?

Mr Clegg wrote an article called 'Let's not spy for the FBI' which appeared in yesterday's Guardian on their 'Comment is free' blog [2].

He's against state intrusion into people's privacy -- SitS is a worry. He's in favour of counter-terrorism measures based on international co-operation -- SitS is a comfort. Biometrics are invaluable [no they're not, 3]. But the US always go in for overkill -- just look what happened to Cat Stevens. And Star Wars annoys Russia (yes, I miss the Cold War, too). We should only deal with countries who can match our standards of data protection (it would be hard for the US to reduce their level to ours, but I suppose they could try).

So, is he in favour of SitS or not? Yes. One of those.

The EU gets a few mentions in Mr Clegg's article. They agreed with the US to send advance passenger information to the US whenever anyone boards a flight in the EU, even if it is an internal flight and the passenger isn't going anywhere near the US [4].

And of course the ID cards scheme Mr Clegg opposes so loudly is an EU initiative, too [5, 6].

How does this sit with Mr Clegg's opposition to ID cards and championing of personal privacy? How can he remain so in favour of the EU?

We have three months of Parliamentary debate on the EU Reform Treaty which isn't a Constitution coming up. Perhaps, over the course of that debate, we shall find out the answers to those questions.

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References

1. http://www.guardian.co.uk/humanrights/story/0,,2241005,00.html

2. http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/nick_clegg/2008/01/lets_not_spy_for_the_fbi.html

3. http://dematerialisedid.com/Biometrics.html

4. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200607/ldselect/ldeucom/108/108.pdf see question 96

5. http://dematerialisedid.com/BCSL/Hall.html

6. http://dematerialisedid.com/OffTheHook.html