The Clegg paradox

By Bagehot

MY COLUMN in the print edition this week looks at a puzzle facing the Liberal Democrats, junior partner in David Cameron’s coalition. Among Lib Dem members of parliament and among party activists there are growing demands for their leader Nick Clegg to stake out distinctively liberal positions, in opposition to the Tories. I report on a striking meeting of the parliamentary party at which the role of Lib Dem peers in amending the NHS bill was cheered but also deplored because—according to one leading MP on the party’s left—it is a waste for members of the House of Lords to take all the credit for beating up the horrible Tories, when it is elected MPs who need all the differentiation they can get.