I’m all for Nick Clegg getting a metaphoric bloody nose and people campaigning strongly to prevent him gaining any sort of power, be it in a hung parliament or as, God forbid, Prime Minister. But the concerted assault on Clegg today in some parts of the media are distasteful and some of them downright dishonest. This is not mere robust scrutiny, it is a hatchet job.
Several days ago I published three posts on the Nick Clegg / Lib Dem approaches to the Euro, Energy and Immigration. If you want to undermine a politician who has not broken the law, then you attack their policies and beliefs, as I did. But some in the media have gone too far and is playing the man, not the ball – which is rich when you consider the lies, distortion and inaccuracies of which many media outlets are guilty.
Sure, the media is bored rigid by politicians who have taken the major issues of the table and are stitching up the future of this country in a fundamentally anti democratic way. But instead of attacking that and pushing the policies to the fore in every edition, the media is going after personalities.
The politicians are largely to blame for bringing about this state of affairs, and a number of them have likely initiated this assault for their own ends, but it doesn’t make the media’s behaviour acceptable.
The people of this country deserve honest politics of real substance, grounded in a genuinely democratic framework. We deserve proper scrutiny, not tabloid titlation and inneundo. We are not served by lying politicians or a deceitful and vicious media. And when both behave in this way neither go about their grubby business in my name. If this is the new politics we keep hearing about, they can all shove it.
Autonomous Mind 
Only the Mail’s one goes too far, most of the others focus on Lib Dem policy.
Hi Ross. The Sun goes on sleaze over donations channelled through Clegg’s personal bank account, as does The Express. So does the Telegraph in its own way. There is less on policy, hence my comment.
Nick clegg is only being subjected to a media propaganda storm that has been doled out to many other victims. Look what Neil Hamilton had (and still has )got to put up with, what about the ‘Betsygate scandle’ I could go on.At least he has got the BBC on his side.
And yet the media complain about loosing readers to the blogosphere.
The media only publish what the press releases and wire services give them.
All of the political parties are reliant on PR to get their message out.
But the PR companies are loosing control because people are avoiding the media.
Is there a shortage of looking-glasses in the UK?
Did you actually buy all these ‘newspapers’ (as I believe they call themselves). I haven’t bought one for years.
In terms of the ordinary Brit who is dazzled by personality rather than the issues, Clegg probably won the debate. In terms of policies, he’s a walking disaster zone.