David Maddox: Nick Clegg offers to hold your nose for you

The speech by Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg will be covered in tomorrow's Scotsman, but its message was pretty blunt and not exactly expected.

He wants to have the chance to hold the balance of power so his pitch has got to be that only a hung parliament can deliver change if he does.

But these lines are of particular interest:

"I want to warn you about something that is coming in the next few weeks.
"We are going to hear a nonsensical claim from the two old parties designed to scare people into voting against their best interests.
"The Conservatives will say: vote Lib Dem… get Brown.
"Labour will say: vote Lib Dem… get Cameron.
"Don’t believe it for a second. They are wrong."

He added later:

"Some people are thinking of holding their noses and voting for Brown just to keep out the Conservatives. I say to you: don’t do it.
"Some people are thinking of holding their noses and voting for Cameron just to get rid of Labour. Don’t do it.
"You have a once in a generation opportunity for real change."

The problem with this message is that if he holds the balance of power we will still get either Gordon Brown or David Cameron as Prime Minister, we will not get Nick Clegg bar an extraordinary shift in political opinion in the UK.

So in reality what he is saying is let me make the choice for you. In his words he is offering to be the one who holds the nose.

Glasgow North East: Eileen Baxendale, Liberal Democrats; Campaigning for Change

I think this is a great idea from the Steamie. I would love to see more newspapers and media outlets adopt innovative approaches to help get more people engaged in politics.

I want to say right from the start that I think it was simply outrageous that the Labour party have allowed the people in Glasgow North East to go without an MP for so long, well over 125 days now. This just shows that the Labour Government has lost touch with the people it serves.

Since this campaign kicked off all those weeks ago, I have been working hard, knocking on doors and listening to people right across the constituency.

The message that I am getting again and again is that people are fed up being overlooked and ignored and that they want change. They want their politician’s focus to be on sorting the economy, creating more local jobs and tackling local crime.

I believe that it is Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats that have the policies and ideas to make a real difference on these issues.

To really tackle these problems we need more than just sensationalist, headline grabbing soundbites. We need a new approach.

On the economy and banking, it is Vince Cable that has been the voice of reasoned authority over recent months. It was he who first warned about the impending economic collapse. Labour were too slow to act and the Tories were simply nowhere on sorting out the economy.

On tackling crime and creating jobs, Liberal Democrats believe that this is best done at a local level. We are committed to putting the heart back into our communities and giving local people a greater say over their own affairs.

Locking everyone up and sending our young people to prison is not the best way to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour. We need more community based initiatives that tackle the root causes of why young people in our society get involved in crime in the fist place.

Labour’s recession has led to tough times for all of us. The Liberal Democrats want to sort out the tax system to give a boost to those on low and middle incomes. We want to raise the income tax threshold so those on less than £10,000 a year don’t pay tax. This would put around £700 a year back into the pockets of those on low and middle incomes.

It is the Liberal Democrats who are the only party offering real progressive change to our society. Unlike the SNP it is the Liberal Democrats who can make a real difference at Westminster and stand up for the people of Glasgow North East.

David Maddox: Is the SNP trying to suppress democracy?

Interesting developments today over the great TV debate debate, if you get my drift.
Gordon Brown finally accepts, if somewhat reluctantly, to have one in principle. To be fair on him this is further than any of his predecessors have gone, even if he did have to be harried into accepting the idea.
Then, rather sinisterly, the SNP announce they will go to court to block any Scottish viewing of such a debate if they are not allowed to participate.
The Nationalists' argument is obviously that as arguably the best supported party north of the Border they would be unfairly disadvantaged if Alex Salmond or Westminster leader Angus Robertson were not part of it.
No doubt they still believe in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s that separation from the UK is the most important issue to discuss - most people in Britain might disagree.
If this were a Scottish election then they would have a point, but it is not. It is a UK election and this is the opportunity for people to see who they would rather want as Prime Minister - Gordon Brown or David Cameron.
There is just about enough moral justification to include Nick Clegg as leader of the Lib Dems, even though nobody but himself actually seriously believes he will be resident in Number 10 any time next year.
It would be a nonsense for tens of millions of non-Scottish voters to have to listen to a party they cannot vote for and a subject (Scottish independence) for which they care little and have no real say.
And where do we draw the line? Should we have the Greens, UKIP and the BNP who have more supporters across the UK than the SNP? Should we have all the leaders of Plaid Cymru and the various Northern Irish parties?
No we should not. The whole thing would become a joke.
So what the SNP want, essentially, is to make sure that Scots are the only voters who cannot watch these debates and take a view on who would be the best PM for Britain. It would be Scots, thanks to the SNP, who would have their democratic rights undermined.
The one compromise that seems reasonable here is the suggestion that there should be debates involving other cabinet ministers and their shadows.
If this were to happen Messrs Salmond or Roberston could take on Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy, David Mundell of the Tories and Alistair Carmichael for the Lib Dems in a specific Scottish edition on STV or/ and BBC Scotland.
However, we know from previous occasions that Mr Salmond's ego is too big to debate with mere Scottish secretaries or ministers. He refused an offer to take on Mr Murphy at a conference about 10 days ago and famously was mocked by Jeremy Paxman when he refused to engage with David Cairns.
It will be interesting to see how this all resolves itself. But my guess is that it may not be Gordon Brown's reluctance that stops these debates but the SNP's hubris.

Gerri Peev: Cable tangled

The storm clouds have gathered over Bournemouth. Overnight, a whale stranded itself on the beach. Perhaps it was an omen of the disastrous day that lay ahead. First up, Vince Cable was ambushed in a "shadow cabinet" meeting of the Lib Dems over his mansion tax policy. Cable is a clever man who has a good run in the press and with the wider public. There are even some predictions that his mansion tax will go down well with voters. It could even be pitched to those on the right as being preferable to taxing income, which is the product of hard work. But the normally careful Cable was left tangled by not sorting the detail of the policy. He seems too affable a man to have let the stardust go to his head, but colleagues were left raging that he had not consulted them over such a fundamental policy change.

Next up, was the press briefing with Clegg's chief of staff, Danny Alexander, who provided the press with a third statement on what the Lib Dems thought should happen to the Attorney General Baroness Scotland, who has been fined for hiring an illegal immigrant as her cleaner. While Chris Huhne took to the airwaves to say she should be sacked, Clegg said she should stay. Meanwhile Alexander suggested she consider her position. During the briefing, a Blackberry alert came through with the message that Clegg had said she should perhaps consider her position. By the end of the day a statement came through saying that her position "looked untenable".

Then came the onstage swipes at Clegg's leadership from his own frontbenchers: pensions spokesman Steve Webb said the party had had enough despair for a week, while Dr Evan Harris, the spokesman on science, suggested that Clegg had some way to go before becoming a great leader.

And then Clegg was bounced into firming up his opposition to a referendum in a BBC Scotland interview, after The Scotsman's story this morning. Tavish Scott had claimed that perhaps colleagues who suggested the policy would be reversed had ingested too many pina coladas. For the record, this correspondent was not sharing cocktails with her sources at the time of acquiring the story. Perhaps Scott was just worried he was on the rocks?

To cap the day off, journos were given a few extracts from Clegg's speech...There is a killer line in it which voters must listen out for tomorrow. The old addage that any publicity is good publicity is truly being stretched for the Lib Dems this week. It almost stirs sympathy for them.

David Maddox: Politician caught blue-handed

It is amazing what politicians will do to try and appear to be cool and trendy, even though it usually turns them into a walking oxymoron.
There are those who still cringe at the thought of former Tory leader William Hague in a baseball cap at the Notting Hill Carnival. If you find the memory painful don't look at this picture.

But Mr Hague's faux pas has not deterred the current UK Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg who has waded in among the music lovers of Glastonbury, although, wisely, he left his baseball cap at home. Here he is pictured at the festival with his hand painted blue.

Apparently the blue hand was in support of the Talk Yourself Blue in the Face campaign to stop climate change. The leader of the UK's third party joined the likes of Fatboy Slim among others in getting various bodily appendages painted blue.
However, there was some speculation that given Mr Clegg's brown attire, the blue paint might have just been a precaution to make sure he showed up if he got stuck in the famous Glastonbury mud.

David Maddox: Don't tell the candidate

Interesting update from campaign trail on East Dunbartonshire Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson's facebook. Nick Clegg was in Glasgow today to support the European election campaign and a Bishopbriggs council by-election where he met his MP (pictured) and the party's Scottish leader Tavish Scott among others.

Updating from her Twitter at 12.15pm Ms Swinson wrote: "welcoming Nick Clegg to Scotland today for European election campaigning."

But then an hour and 16 minutes later at 1.31pm the Lib Dem council by-election candidate Alistair McPhee posted this somewhat surprised message: "Where are you going campaigning?"

It seems that they did not think it was worth telling their candidate to be present.

David Maddox: Is good breeding the secret to political success?

I often think it's comical!

How Nature always does contrive!

That every boy and every gal

That’s born into the world alive

Is either a little Liberal

Or else a little Conservative!

Times have changed since November 25 1882 when these famous words of Private Willis from Gilbert and Sullivan's Sentry Song (in their operetta Iolanthe) were first sung in the Savoy Theatre in London. And circumstances are even more different in Scotland than they are south of the border with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats now only occupying third and fourth place in people's affections respectively.
On a good day the Tories and Lib Dems may get a third of the political support between them in Scottish polls and, at least in the Lib Dems case, that share seems to be shrinking rapidly.
So as the Lib Dems are failing to persuade people to support their cause, they seem to have hit on a new strategy - put virile youngish men in positions of leadership and get them to produce supporters for the future. The tactic seems to be working.
UK leader Nick Clegg, 42, and his wife Miriam (both pictured left) have just had their third child - a son named Miguel born on February 22. Mr Clegg pointedly avoided last weekend's Scottish party conference, no doubt to spend some quality canvassing time with the youngster.
Scottish leader Tavish "Viking" Scott, 42, and his new wife, BBC journalist Kirsten Campbell, are due to have their first child in July. It will be Mr Scott's fourth.
Scottish deputy leader Michael Moore, 43, and his wife Alison (both pictured left) are due to have a child in June.

No wonder poor Alistair Carmichael, 43, the party's spokesman for Scotland in Westminster, was gently chided by Mr Scott in his conference speech yesterday for not doing his bit for party membership.

Gerri Peev: Clegg wants to spend more time with his family

I know, I know, two Lib Dem posts in a day...please stay with me. Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader, has suggested that the recession may have a silver lining: it will allow/force men to spend more time with their families if they happen to be laid off.

This is a time to shake of entrenched gender stereotypes, says Clegg, who is preparing to take time off for the birth of his next off-spring. The Tories are privately pointing out that if one of their frontbenchers had tried to cast a rosy light on the recession, they would have been slated for it.

But Clegg does make a serious point. Make parental leave interchangeable and give fathers and mothers the choice as to who stays at home and who works.

Of course this can only work if at least one parent still has a job. And as the recession is hitting the female- dominated service and retail sectors the hardest, it is probably women who will be first to be given their p45s.

On that subject, should the Lib Dem leader want to request flexible working after enjoying his stint at home, can one suggest a job share with his deputy, Vince Cable?