One waits ages for an irrelevant soundbite from a politician, and then two come almost at once. Nick Clegg – bank chairman's son, ex-Westminster school and Cambridge, and born into wealth and privilege – recently bemoaned the fact that there aren't any black managers in the English Premier League, as if it were some municipal council not trying hard enough to reach its targets for employing ethnic minorities. Per head of population, black people are very well represented in the EPL, which is a testament to their quality because only the best players are good enough. In the hard headed world of business it would be financial suicide for any team not to employ the very best players (or managers) it could afford, regardless of colour, and throw away a competitive edge!

Nick Clegg is craftily trying to jump on the bandwagon that is attacking Sepp Blatter for suggesting that racism on the pitch can be settled with a firm handshake at the end of a match. But getting back on topic, we of the English Radicals would ask Clegg a similar question: why do so many ex-public schoolboys and Oxbridge graduates dominate English and British politics – where are the opportunities for working class people, of whatever colour, to be involved in the political decision making process?

Time was in this country when an MP had to do a kind of political “apprenticeship” - those on the Tory wing were either ex-businessmen, or ex-Services, people who had been in the real world and had dealings with all classes. Those on the Labour wing were usually ex-trade union working class people who had shown leadership and were not afraid of dealing with the upper classes.

What do we have now? A Parliament stuffed full of academics with no real world experience. We have supposedly opposing Labour and Tory cabinets that are actually mirrors of each other, even to the point that both party leaders – Cameron and Miliband – studied Philosophy, Politics & Economics (PPE) at Oxford. It has become a “Priesthood” of professional politicians, increasingly drawn from a small gene pool who have passed through the most exclusive universities in the land, and parachuted into safe seats ahead of local party activists more deserving of the chance.

Let's also look at Nick Clegg's other announcement this week, that of earmarking £1 Billion to help the young unemployed back into work. Now, a billion pounds is a lot of money – but with over one million NEETs to cater for, this would work out at less than £1000 each. How is that going to help? It is simply using taxpayers money to massage unemployment statistics, by offering short term help with the wage bill to employers – it will not address the real, long term problem of labour over-supply. Why not simply limit the number EU workers coming to these shores? Because you can't can you, Mr Clegg, your real bosses in Brussels won't allow it.

Nick Clegg's problem is that he is struggling to justify his existence – his role as deputy PM is like himself, largely titular, and although he studied social anthropology, is no man of the people - his smugness and self-satisfied air are bad enough, but perhaps more crucially he saddled his party with the toxic legacy of getting into bed with the Tories, and has poisoned his and their chances of a decent showing in any forthcoming election. Politically, he is a “dead man walking”.

Apparently he has even launched a “secret” drive to re-brand his party. The man appointed to oversee this t - - d polishing exercise is millionaire accountant and Lib-Dem party donor Nick Sherlock who will be taking a senior role in Clegg's office as “Director of Government Relations” and is expected to receive a six figure salary – presumably funded by the taxpayer! We'll be paying for the privilege of someone to advise Nick Clegg on how to save his party! And whaddya know – Sherlock, who has also stood unsuccessfully for parliament twice, "just happens" to be yet another PPE graduate from Oxford!

Where will Nick go if forced out of British politics? Until recently, he probably assumed he had a nice EU Commissioners job for the taking, but that option is probably slipping away now, along with the EU itself in its present form at least. Any future EU will be a different beast after the looming financial train crash, if indeed it survives at all. Perhaps by then, when Nick Clegg is just an unpleasant memory, voters will realise that it is better to elect straight talking people who will tell you what you need to know, rather than the people like Clegg and Cameron who will only tell you what you want to hear. We will never get the change we need while these people control the levers of power – so please, stop voting for them!




























 


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