LONDON: The Liberal Democrat junior coalition partners started their annual conference yesterday with their leader Nick Clegg under growing pressure amid deep dissatisfaction among his party members.
The Lib Dems gathered in Brighton on the coast of southeast England after a week in which Clegg, the deputy prime minister, made a rare apology for breaking his party’s pre-election promise to block university fee increases.
Support for the centrist party fell sharply after its U-turn on the tuition fees issue in 2010 which sparked huge student protests.
His apology has been lampooned, being set to music in what has become a YouTube hit. Clegg insisted the apology had been the right thing to do. “Of course people are going to sneer, mock and say it is not good enough,” he told The Independent ahead of the conference. “I just genuinely thought what we did was wrong and I should apologise for it.”
The apology comes as a new ratings poll by Ipsos Mori shows voter satisfaction with Clegg has fallen to its lowest level ever, dropping from 31 percent to 23 percent. Clegg dismissed suggestions that his unpopularity made it more likely that the uneasy coalition with Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives would fall apart before the 2015 election.
“It is a tough time economically for the country and it has been a challenging time for the Liberal Democrats politically,” he said. “But I don’t want anyone to be in any doubt: the Liberal Democrats are going to hold our nerve and see this through.” AFP
