What a terrible indictment of the British press we see this morning. The Mail runs a spurious story about Nick Clegg making a supposed Nazi slur against Britain. The Expressreckons he wants us to be overrun by immigrants. The Telegraph accuses him, of well, properly declaring donations made to him to employ a member of staff. I haven't seen The Sun yet, but judging by their tirades against him over the last few days, he will probably be accused of fathering Kerry Katona's latest child and then paying her to get rid of it.
What a disgrace. And they say blogs are biased. On Sunday I wrote...
Personal attacks on Nick Clegg will not work. They will backfire on those who make them and rightly so. Everyone who knows Nick Clegg likes him. He's a transparently likeable individual. Anyone trying to make out that he's anything else will come a cropper.
I don't want Nick Clegg to win. I don't want him to be Prime Minister. But he is not the devil incarnate. He's a nice guy, doing a fair job of leading his party. I do not agree with many of his policies. I think many of them are misguided. But I am happy to accept that he believes they will be best for the country. I am happy to debate them with him or any other LibDem and that's what politics and this election should be about. It should be about debating ideas, arguing about policy. It shouldn't be about this sudden urge to denigrate Nick Clegg as a person. It will backfire on those who promulgate these attacks because most people can see with their own eyes that he is a transparently decent individual.
Of course politicians should be scrutinised and questioned. But not like this.
It's these kind of stories which my mother will tell me prove her right in her delight that I was never selected as a candidate. She thought I was mad to want to get into parliament because she thought I would be subjected to personal attacks like this, or worse.
And who's to say she wouldn't have been right. And there you have it. An explanation of why so many good people don't even bother to apply to be candidates any longer. Why would they put themselves through what Nick Clegg is going through?
I predict that these vicious attacks on Clegg will only serve to increase his popularity and position in the polls. If that happens it will be a sure sign that the power of the press to influence an election is on the wane. And that would be about the only good thing to come out of this sorry state of affairs. Because in those circumstances, we would definitely be in hung parliament territory. And that would not be good. Not good at all.
