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.

Tom Peterkin: Hung Parliament

An interesting poll in today's Guardian suggests that Labour is rapidly catching up with the Conservatives. Although the figures indicate that Gordon Brown has yet to overhaul David Cameron, the ICM poll will no doubt fuel more feverish speculation of a General Election early next year.
According to the survey, the gap between Labour and the Tories has narrowed from 15 points to five. Will Brown bottle it like last time? Will his economic policies look quite as clever a few months from now? Will he be tempted to go to the country before the worst of the recession kicks in? Can Dave be trusted with the economy?
One likely outcome is a hung parliament. Given his reputation as a ladies' man, one presumes that Nick (Cleggover) Clegg is no stranger to fervent wooing. Ardent advances of a political nature can be expected by the Lib Dem leader in the weeks ahead. Just how welcome those from Brown and Cameron prove to be remains to be seen.