Clegg: Dishonest or just deceptive?

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Nick Clegg revealed yesterday that he had changed his mind about Tory cuts before the election, rather than after he was given a ministerial car and a comfy chair in Downing Street as he had previously led us to believe.

There has already been a great deal of discussion about how important this is. For me, it is further re-inforcement of the line that Labour have been using since the formation of the coalition – that Clegg has let down those that elected him and his party. If anything these revelations add something new into that mix – deception.

Were voters deceived? Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats campaigned on a platform of opposing the massive cuts to public spending that were advocated by the Tories. A few weeks ago we brought you video evidence of this, showing Clegg lambasting potential Tory plans that sound identical to those which he eventually supported. So at what point did he change his mind? Was there a point at which he was arguing against plans for Tory cuts, and yet believed that they were the correct course of action. Was he at any point deceiving them electorate? Was he deceiving himself?

If Clegg wasn’t deceiving the electorate during the election, then he’s being dishonest with them now.

Soon after the coalition, many threw the barb at Vince Cable – “When did you realise that George Osborne was right on the economy and you were wrong?”. The question for Nick Clegg now is, “When did you realise that you were in favour of Tory cuts? Before you told the public they were wrong, or after?”

If the answer is before, then Nick is just another deceptive politician. If the answer is after, he’s dishonest – and that’s much, much worse.