Deputy prime minister admitted failure to communicate core messages but said conscience was clear about the big decisions
Nick Clegg issued an impassioned plea to his fellow Liberal Democrats on Monday to stop "beating ourselves up" over the compromises the party had to make in forming a coalition with the Tories.
In a pep talk at the Lib Dem conference, the deputy prime minister admitted that he had failed to communicate many of his core messages during a "really tough year", though he insisted the party had made the right judgment call overall.
Clegg, whose comments came during a 45-minute question and answer session, said: "We have had a really, really tough year, a really tough year, the like of which I think many of us could not have predicted. But we have got to stop beating ourselves up about it. A political party that does not move forward always ends up going backwards."
The deputy prime minister said that the party had a clear conscience after forming a coalition in the national interest. "I remember looking in the rear view mirror at all the people ranting, saying, why did you do this? The supporters we lost. But at the end of the day, when you explained to them calmly over and over again why we did what we did and that our conscience is clear on the big judgments ? not on individual decisions ? we have nothing to apologise for."
The remarks by Clegg, who appeared impatient at times, encapsulated his core message at this year's conference in Birmingham. First, the Lib Dems had a duty to form a coalition, after the electorate declined to hand any party a majority, and to show this could work by working in a civilised manner with the Tories. Second, Lib Dems now had the space to trumpet their own achievements after showing the coalition is stable.
Clegg reeled off a list of policies that would not have been introduced if the Tories had governed alone:
? Taking 1 million people on low pay out of paying income tax.
? Making every basic rate taxpayer �200 better off because of the increase in the income tax threshold.
? Restoring the earnings link for pensioners.
The deputy prime minister illustrated the Lib Dem influence in government by announcing a new �350m programme to help educate an extra 1 million girls in Africa and Asia. "That is us bringing our convictions to bear," he said.
Announcing the policy, Clegg said: "The evidence is now overwhelming. If you want to deal with the demographics in the developing world, if you want to deal with levels of economic development, educational performance ? start with women, start with girls." Illustrating how the Lib Dems will now hail their achievements, Clegg said: "You have got to constantly, constantly, constantly tell our side of the story. If we don't tell our side of the story, I tell you, very many other people won't."
But he said people had to understand that both parties had to compromise because neither won the election. "It is a coalition. It is built on compromise. People either accept that compromise can work. It is not a dirty word. You've got people on the left who hate it, who scream at us 'treachery'. People from the right, like Nadine Dorries, cannot get over the fact that the Conservatives didn't win the last election."
He lit up when a delegate highlighted research showing that the Lib Dems had managed to include 75% of their manifesto in the coalition agreement, compared with 60% for the Tories. "I have always been taught by my mum to be modest about your achievements. But the fact that the BBC should choose to publish research showing that 75% of our manifesto is being delivered in the coalition agreement ? more than even the Conservatives ? exposes the lie that somehow we have sold ourselves short."
But Clegg said the leadership was guilty of a failure of communication over policies such as university tuition fees. He said the coalition's policy, which will see a trebling of fees, is fairer because the repayment threshold has been lifted from �15,000 to �21,000.
"I totally accept the challenge, self-evidently, that have we been really successful in communicating all that? No, clearly not. Do we need to? You bet," he said. "Are we getting better at doing that? Yes, we are. Have we got a long way to go? Even more so, yes. If you look at what ministers are doing, day in day out, and what we did when we negotiated the coalition agreement, I don't think any fair-minded person looking in the round can say we did anything other than punch above our weight."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/sep/19/lib-dems-tough-year-nick-clegg
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