Cameron to fly the England flag… but watch Clegg’s reaction

On Wednesday David Cameron pledged that the England flag would fly over over Downing Street for the duration of the World Cup.

It was in response to a request by Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi. But watch Clegg’s enthusiastic reception to Cameron’s plans…

Imran at LibconTrick points out:

…the Prime Minister is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, comprising four footballing nations, three of whom detest the English football team, and has a duty to show some dignity.

Who cares about that little fact eh?

The Tory right are happy about the 1922 win, and so am I

James Forsyth at the Spectator says ‘The Tory right asserts itself‘. Tim Montgomerie at ConservativeHome is also ecstatic that Graham Brady has been elected chair of the 1922 committee.

So am I.

The more powerful and assertive the Tory right gets, the more it will weaken the coalition and expose Cameron’s hand. Let’s be clear, strategically: Cameron doesn’t really like the Tory right. He knows he has to remain centrist to keep the government together and that’s where he likes to be. You think he wants to go around pleasing Mongtomerie, Heffer and the rest of the Tory right? Not really.

It also won’t bode well for the future of their coalition: if the Libdems take fright at the growing strength of the socially conservative Tory right, then they either bleed some serious support or they avoid a coalition in the future.

And so, paradoxically, the left should be cheering on the Tory right and hoping they create trouble. That is the surest way to create discord in the coalition and a dysfunctional government. It’ll also teach the Libdems who they have actually gotten into bed with.

Watch: ‘It’s Not Easy Being Brown’ (satire)

Written and performed by Nathaniel Tapley (with apologies to Jim Henson and Joe Raposo)

Nathaniel Tapley is also on Twitter here.

Watch: MP resigns and urges people not to vote Libdem (satire)

Late this afternoon, in shock announcement, Sir Ian Bowler, MP for Buckland and Ruttington, announced that he was to step down just a week before the General Election.

Visibly shaken by the screams of the feral rhesus monkeys that could be heard from outside, he gave his parting statement…

Labour unveils new attack ad against Tories

via Paul Waugh, who compares it to Hillary Clinton’s ‘3am phone call’ attack ad.

I think it’s quite effective.

Poll: Majority of Libdems would be “dismayed” with a Lib-Con pact

Around 53% of Lib Dem supporters would be “dismayed” by an alliance between the Libdems and Conservatives according to a YouGov poll yesterday.

Only 6% would be “delighted”, while just under a third were ambivalent.

The findings are unlikely to enthuse those frantically urging a Conservative-Libdem coalition in case of a Hung Parliament.

The survey also found that Gordon Brown was particularly unpopular with Libdem supporters. Only 21% would be “dismayed” by a Labour-Libdem coalition with a different Labour leader. A larger percentage (24%) said they would be “delighted” by that arrangement and 44% said they were ambivalent about such a prospect.

A coalition between Labour and Libdems with Brown as leader dismayed around 41% of Libdem supporters and delighted only 11%.

Watch: The spoof leaders’ wives!

via BBC comedy

New Statesman comes out for Lab-Lib coalition

The New Statesman magazine’s editorial this week calls for a Hung Parliament and a Labour-Libdem coalition to “repair politics”.

The magazine argues:

For some time now, we have been arguing in our leaders that a hung parliament offers the prospect of a realignment of progressive politics in this country on the basis of a common programme of fundamental constitutional and economic reform, stronger civil liberties and an enhanced Freedom of Information Act.

A month ago, before the campaign began, we wrote that it “may fall to Mr Clegg to resolve the historic ‘progressive dilemma’ in British politics”. This is no longer merely wishful thinking – but only if Labour and the Lib Dems are prepared to form a partnership of principle, as they should have done after the 1997 landslide election victory, a partnership founded on a desire to clean up and repair our broken political system.

The magazine goes on to applaud Libdem policies on regulating the financial sector and taxation.

It also agrees that, “there is some truth in Mr Clegg’s claim that the Prime Minister has previously stood in the way of constitutional reform.”

Nick Robinson confirms CCHQ’s newspaper smear operation

Nick Robinson adds this tidbit to his blog tonight:

I now learn that political reporters from the Tory-backing papers were called in one by one to discuss how Team Cameron would deal with “Cleggmania” and to be offered Tory HQ’s favourite titbits about the Lib Dems – much of which appears in today’s papers.

The key personal allegation about payments from donors into Nick Clegg’s personal bank account came, however, from the Telegraph’s expenses files. Incidentally, the party has now published details of Nick Clegg’s bank statements and party accounts showing that Mr Clegg received payments totalling £19,690 from three businessmen (Neil Sherlock, Michael Young, Ian Wright) and then paid staff costs of £20,437.30 out of the same account. According to these figures, Mr Clegg actually paid £747.30 out of his own money towards staff costs.

Was this after testing some negative messages with YouGov?

Want to know Clegg’s Achilles heel? Here it is

Mark Pack over at Libdemvoice writes: Mad, mad, you’ve all gone mad, in response to the positive coverage Libdems are getting. He says: “But Guido producing a wholly positive film about Nick Clegg? That volcanic ash must be hallucogenic.”

I don’t quite see it that way. Anyone who thinks Paul Staines is not a fully paid-up member of the ‘get Cameron in as PM‘ crew is being naive. He’s been shilling for the Tories ar far back as I can remember. What Staines is doing actually with the video is trying to push the one narrative that could burst Clegg’s bubble.

In the US they called it the ‘Messiah complex’ – and it started with the ad produced of Obama and compared her to Britney Spears etc. Clegg is pushing himself as the change candidate: the one who will sort out British politics. Attacking the Libdems on policy won’t bring them down.

What could puncture Clegg’s persona is a mocking tone that says Clegg is painting himself as the saviour but he’s just the same as everyone else. The Daily Mail is already playing that line. The Tory surrogates will soon start mocking ‘Cleggmania’ as a media obsession holding him up on a pedestal even though he is as tainted as the rest.

I’m not saying this is what I believe. I’m merely pointing out that giddy Libdems need to get a reality-check and figure out how to deal with the media backlash when it comes. The Tories will intentionally build up ‘Cleggmania’ as a celebrity-driven-vacuous-politics and claim that they actually have some experience in changing the country. This guy is just a celebrity propped up by the media. He’s just running in a ‘beauty contest‘.

Clegg is lucky in that with more debates coming up, and the British public’s tendency to switch off from politics, even that line of attack is unlikely to shift the polls back in their favour by more than 3%. Still – it’s worth looking out for and countering, for the Libdems.