openDemocracyUK

UK Election: Who do Fleet Street think they are?

Anthony Barnett
Anthony Barnett
22 April 2010

This handy summary of the today's newspaper coverage from Conservative Home' reported straightforwardly as: "Fleet Street mounts an operation to burst Clegg's bubble".

  • "Nick Clegg received a series of payments from party donors directly into his private bank account, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. The Liberal Democrat leader was paid regular monthly sums by three senior businessmen during 2006. The same account was used to pay his mortgage, shopping and other personal expenditure, documents seen by this newspaper show... Sir Alistair Graham, the former chairman of the committee of standards in public life, described the arrangement as “irregular”. - Daily Telegraph
  • "Nick Clegg has claimed that the British people have ‘a more insidious cross to bear’ than Germany over the Second World War. In an astonishing attack on our national pride, the Liberal Democrat leader said we suffered from ‘delusions of grandeur’ and a ‘misplaced sense of superiority’ over having defeated the horrors of Nazism." - Daily Mail
  • "Controversial Lib Dem plans to allow illegal immigrants to stay and work in Britain were exposed as madness yesterday as unemployment hit a 16-year high." - Daily Express
  • "On the eve of the leaders' debate which will feature questions on foreign affairs, Mr Clegg was slammed by military top brass as a cynical crowd-pleaser - who is happy to flip-flop on defence." - The Sun
  • "The Liberal Democrats will add up to £14,000 in tax on the cost of buying a new home, it was revealed yesterday. The party, riding high in the opinion polls, wants to get rid of the exemption from VAT on newly built properties." - Metro

It is not that the charges are easy to 'rebut'. They are the outcome of a series of instructions to 'Get Clegg' made with no regard to the truth at all. A Communist regime would be ashamed at their crudity and contempt for the people.

Who do they think they are, these powers in our land?

There is also an excellent warning that this attempt to "burst" the Nick bubble will blow up in their faces, from Iain Dale, Conservative blogging's gift to civilisation. Let's hope he is right.

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