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Nick Clegg is a former Liberal Democrat who became deputy Prime Minister in a coalition with the Conservative Party in 2010. Following this, his Liberal Democra
by vixen99 4y ago
Nick Clegg is a former Liberal Democrat who became deputy Prime Minister in a coalition with the Conservative Party in 2010. Following this, his Liberal Democrat party lost 49 of its 57 seats at the next election. He subsequently got a job with Facebook.
- Arnt 4y agoOh, it's the same Nick Clegg? Do you have any idea why he didn't insist on a new electoral system when he had the chance, even if it meant sacrificing everything else?
- SideburnsOfDoom 4y agoThey tried and failed in 2011 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_United_Kingdom_Alternative_Vote_referendum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_United_Kingdom_Alternativ...
- thinkingemote 4y agoHe did insist! The country had a referendum after he got in. It was one of the main pre-conditions for the coalition. He did sacrifice everything because of that too! (Ref lost, low if not the lowest ever turnout, party lost huge support generally and he exited politics failed)
- ljf 4y agoHe/the Lib Dems weren't pushing for a referendum though - that wasn't part of their manifesto was it?
- rogual 4y agoHe got his referendum, but the Tories promptly ran ads saying proportional representation would hurt babies [1] and it didn't pass. [1] https://eu-browse.startpage.com/av/anon-image?piurl=https%3A%2F%2Fpaperbackrioter.files.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F02%2Favkillsbabies.jpg&sp=1665656094T8c24fec71cc260222db27ef4725e7909934d121b5b216c7c213f393c8ba722d5 https://eu-browse.startpage.com/av/anon-image?piurl=https%3A...
- gpderetta 4y agoThat's almost as bad as the Brexit busses!
- ZeroGravitas 4y agoSame guy ran the two campaigns.
- mijoharas 4y agoThat link is dead for me. Do you have any more information on that? (I've not heard of this).
- mijoharas 4y agonever mind, took a bit of googling, but I found some info on it.[0] Christ that's in bad taste. EDIT: wanted to add this quote from [1]: "On 5 May, David Blunkett, one of the Labour Party former-government ministers who had supported the 'No' campaign, admitted that the £250 million figure used by the 'No' campaign had been fabricated, and that the 'No' campaign had knowingly lied about the figure and other claims during the campaign." So it does seem like it was a testing ground for the brexit busses. Just make a bunch of stuff up. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/feb/25/no-to-alternative-vote-baby-ad https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/feb/25/no-to-... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_United_Kingdom_Alternative_Vote_referendum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_United_Kingdom_Alternativ...
- rogual 4y agoAck, sorry, I'm from a time when you used to be able to just link to things on the Internet. That is indeed the ad I meant. There were a couple of others where the proportional representation would hurt a soldier or an old lady instead. I remember feeling like I had learned a little bit about how the world worked, seeing that campaign succeed.
- 4y ago
- denton-scratch 4y agoAll political careers end in failure.
- SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago> Nick Clegg .. became deputy Prime Minister in a coalition with the Conservative Party in 2010. He has fallen a long way since then. It's a remarkable descent.
- vmilner 4y agoThe traditional destination for spectacular Uk political falls (EU Commissioner) has been blocked.
- pjc50 4y agoHe's probably paid a great deal more as Facebook VP and has a less stressful job which doesn't involve dealing with the press or public nearly as much. Looks like an ascent to me.
- shapefrog 4y agoBack then he had to sell his Sheffield home for £350,000. Now he has had to sell up his Silicon Valley home for $11,000,000. Oh the fall.