Liberal Vision

Nick Clegg Was A Bad Leader

I feel that someone should just say it. Despite showing a great deal of dignity in the End, here are my brief impressions of where Clegg went badly, badly wrong:

1. Clegg did not reform the party structure.

The party machine is a useless maze of committees and associations. In order to free himself from this labrinth of dysfunction, Clegg’s office appeared to separate themselves from the main party. This put distance between him and the members and he became more and more out-of-touch. A good leader would have reformed the party structure not treat it as an inconvenience to be managed.

2. Clegg did not get rid of Rennard sooner.

To his credit Rennard is gone. But how much better would it have been had Rennard been gone sooner? Lord Rennard clearly did not have the party’s best intrests at heart and any meaningful reform was impossible whilst Rennard was still sat upon his throne. Nick Clegg only got rid of Rennard when he had to. The damage was already done.

3. Clegg surrounded himself with amateurs.

Angela has already comprehensively addressed this one.

4. Clegg sold the LibDems too cheaply.

The price for the LibDems going into Coalition should have been PR by STV. Not a referendum, but a constitutional agreement that all future elections were to be contested this way. Without this Clegg wrote the LibDems suicide note. Pehaps the lure of power was too tempting. That should have been the ultimate LibDem red line.