Lacking in-Clegg-rity

“Education is the key”, stated Nick Clegg in his speech in Glasgow on September 18. Lovely. So why is it that many feel an uneasy sense of distrust and disbelief as they read this statement? Perhaps because Clegg promised students would retain this key three and a half years ago, then wrenched it from our hands in the form of upping tuition fees after swearing blind he wouldn’t, creating a huge financial burden for students across the country and marring the Liberal’s previously trustworthy exterior.

Clegg’s speech declared the Lib Dems have a sense of individuality, a debatable statement. After the tuition fee fiasco, has the party done enough to win back the trust of the nation’s people? Has the party’s integrity been restored?

The behaviour of a politician and party who have restored their integrity? Or does this smack of a party desperate for a place in government?

Clegg claims that the party have stood up to the Conservatives regularly since 2010. This means Clegg believes the steady selling off of the NHS privately is acceptable. Clegg has the audacity to criticise Labour’s lack of policy on the NHS, yet he stands idly by and allows the Tories to begin a process of privatization.

At the Lib Dem party conference, Clegg claimed that the party were there to protect the most vulnerable, yet it has fallen to Labour to oppose the Bedroom Tax Bill that is ravaging the lives of the vulnerable, whilst Clegg and the Lib Dems prop up the Tory government who imposed it, barely kicking up a fuss. The behaviour of a politician and party who have restored their integrity? Or does this smack of a party desperate for a place in government?

However, Clegg’s stance on Equal Marriage Rights highlights a glowing yellow slither of integrity pushing it’s way through the otherwise rather cold, blue Tory shell that seems to encompass him. Also, Clegg’s recent plans for free school meals for all children in Primary Schools does radiate a certain glow of genuine party specific policy. However, if claims that this policy was a trade off for the Conservative’s Married Tax Breaks policy are true, Clegg’s integrity is sent spiraling back downwards.

Clegg claims that the Lib Dems aren’t any party’s “little brother”, they are their own party with their own beliefs. So why does it seem the Lib Dems are cruising their way through government as the Tory’s puppets? It seems they have not done enough, particularly for students, in recompense for selling their souls at the 2009 general election. It will take a lot more than a few shiny showpiece polices to restore Clegg’s integrity.

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Header Image courtesy of Flickr/ Liberal Democrats