Nick Clegg – the invisible man?

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

There was a time when it felt like Nick Clegg was everywhere. Every time you turned on the TV he was unveiling a new (and invariably unpopular) policy initiative on behalf of the government. Everywhere he went he was met by boos and jeers. He made the uncomfortable leap from Lib Dem leaflets to opposition leaflets. We in the Labour Party (no strangers to unpopular leaders ourselves) marvelled at the depths to which the Deputy PM continued to sink. The AV referendum was a personal vote of no confidence in Nick Clegg. The local election results we a slap in the face. The Lib Dems were in crisis. This was their nadir. The abyss beckoned. And then….well, Nick Clegg disappeared didn’t he?

He was still popping up from time to time on TV, of course. He attempted to get the constitutional ball (or should that be boulder) rolling again, with his plans for reform of the upper house. He was still widely vilified. But worse than that, he was largely ignored. The major events of recent months – phone hacking, the riots and Libya – have largely passed him by. His time as a public hate figure seems – for now – to be over.

And so Nick Clegg reverted to his traditional role in the British political pantomime.

Whatshisface.

Thingamabob.

You know.

The Lib Dem one.

Tuition fees guy.

The media are bored of Clegg the panto villain – and since he has little left to offer, they largely ignore him.

It was an easy transition for Clegg to make. The Cleggphobia of May 2010-May 2011 was a monster of his own creation – the inevitable side effect of the collective hysteria known as “Cleggmania”. His whole “new politics” schtick in the TV debates brought his unparalleled popularity, but also created an image that he could never live up to. After a year of anger and vitriol, the public decided that he was just another Tory. And despite what some on the Tory Right would have you believe, that’s probably the case. Clegg the conservative Liberal is comfortable with Cameron the liberal Conservative. And the Prime Minister is certainly more comfortable in this muddle of a coalition than he would be in a majority Tory government, hamstrung by his right flank.

So Clegg has been allowed to drift away into relative obscurity, though it seems that’s no bad thing for his party. The relative silence of their leader has only served to boost their poll ratings. Where once they were desperate for the media and the public to take notice of their leader, now they’re keen to keep him hidden away – their dirty little secret.

Of course the only reason I’m writing all of this is because Clegg was back in the papers this morning – for all the wrong reasons – after being splattered with paint (possibly by a former party activist). It surprised me that Nick Clegg still aroused such hatred. I had assumed that interest in him had passed. I had almost forgotten he existed.

Then again, perhaps like the invisible man – you can only see him when he’s covered in paint…