Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, said in an interview with BBC Radio 4′s Today programme this morning that it was important to “treat people like grown-ups.”
His use of language in the rest of the interview made a mockery of this noble intention.
Seconds after this comment he pointed out to the Today listeners that “money isn’t growing on trees”. Is this a serious politician talking to people like they were grown-ups? Money doesn’t grow on trees? That’s what my Mum used to say to me when I wanted to buy something expensive! It’s the complete opposite of what he stated just moments before – he’s talking to people like they were children!
Overall, his comments were stuffed full of broadly meaningless metaphor – ”the politics of plenty… we can’t bandy about shopping lists…I am absolutely wedded to it…a heavy weight of debt around their necks…we haven’t got a magic wand…”
Really? So money doesn’t grow on trees and you don’t have a magic wand, Nick? And presumably the LibDems don’t have a unicorn at party headquarters, right?
Nick Clegg’s problem is that he, and his party, often aren’t taken seriously. He knows this, and tries very hard to look and sound as serious as possible. Watch his performances at the weekly session of Prime Minister’s Questions and you will see every sinew strive to be as statesmanlike as possible. He is constantly undone, however, by a use of language that is lightweight in content and far too earnest in terms of delivery. A deadly combination. This allows even Gordon Brown – hardly the most nimble of political performers when it comes to communication – make Clegg look foolish on a regular basis.
Clegg is not a statesman – he is the leader of a medium sized political party that has never been in government in its current form. His strategy should be to avoid these daft political soundbites and cut the grandiose delivery. Instead, he should be hard hitting and punchy in terms of content but much lighter in terms of delivery. At the moment, he looks and sounds out of his depth and far too keen. High impact content delivered in a calm, measured way (ie: actually talking the way grown-ups talk to each other) can be devastatingly effective. Clegg doesn’t understand this and tries to be an Obama-Brown-Cameron hybrid. Of all the party leaders he seems the most obsessed with style. It’s never going to work. No wonder the LibDem’s polling numbers are stagnating.
For as long as Clegg’s language is lightweight and frothy, he will never be taken seriously. As I say over and over – start with the content and then work on the style and delivery. Just read my transcript of the closing statement from the Today interview:
“I think we need to rebuild a Britain of fairness, but in terms of characterising politics I agree I think the politics of plenty – and most people now realise this – is over so it’s the politics of priorities and that has to be driven by conviction; if you don’t have conviction you can’t make those choices and that’s why I’ve sought to be as open as I can about my core conviction, the core conviction in the Liberal Democrat manifesto which is fairness and that will drive all the choices we will make.”
What?!
In terms of content he is absolutely nowhere. Remember the principal that if the opposite of something is nonsense then it probably isn’t worth saying. And what political party or politician has ‘unfairness’ as a core conviction?
No grown-up will vote for this.
Simon Hoggart being very funny (and spot on) on the same theme of Nick Clegg’s language in today’s Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jan/12/sketch-hoggart-election-pledges