Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, has admitted he ‘forgot’ that he was supposed to be running the country in the absence of David Cameron this week.

 

In an interview, the Liberal Democrat leader was asked whether he was in charge while the Prime Minister was away from Britain travelling in the Middle East.

 

Sipping from a mug marked “Deputy Prime Minister,” he said: “Yeah, I suppose I am. I forgot about that.

 

“I’m holding the fort but I’m hoping to take the end of the week off with my kids.

 

“Someone else will have to do it then. It sounds more haphazard than it probably is. People forget there are emails and there is BlackBerry.”

 

It later emerged that within hours of giving the interview, to the Metro newspaper, Mr Clegg did indeed go on holiday to his family chalet in the exclusive Swiss ski resort of Davos.

 

He departed on Tuesday – just a day after Mr Cameron left for his tour of the Middle East.

 

As Labour seized on his remarks, the Deputy Prime Minister hastily returned from his Swiss half term break, where he had been joined by his wife, Miriam, and their three sons.

 

His aides said that he was due to land back in the UK on Thursday night – just as Mr Cameron also touched down – and the two men will attend a meeting of the National Security Council at 8.30am on Friday.

 

Earlier this week, William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, cancelled a planned trip to the United States to take charge of the operation to help Britons leave Libya, raising questions about the lack of senior figures in Westminster during the Parliamentary recess.

 

The Government’s response to the crisis in Libya, and the slow evacuation of Britons stranded there, has been heavily criticised.

 

Mr Clegg has come under attack before over his work rate. Liberal Democrat sources suggested that he was “fragile” and needed more time off than most leading Cabinet ministers.

 

Last month it emerged that officials had been asked not to put papers into his ministerial box after 3pm.

 

Michael Dugher, a Labour MP who worked in Downing Street with Gordon Brown, said that Mr Clegg should not forget the importance of his role as second in command, adding: “He’s clueless.”

 

Mr Clegg’s self-confessed forgetfulness was dismissed by the Prime Minister, however, as a “throwaway remark”.

 

Speaking in Oman, he said: “Just because I leave the country doesn't mean I am not in charge

 

"I'm not absent, that is the way Government works. In the age of the BlackBerry, the telephone, the internet, just because I leave the country doesn't mean I am not in charge."

 

Pressed further in an interview with Sky News, he insisted it was unfair to dwell on a “throwaway line” from Mr Clegg.

 

He went on: "The way things work is, just because I am in the Gulf doing an important tour, important in terms of promoting democracy and our values, important in terms of promoting British trade, obviously I have full connection back to the UK.

 

"I have been holding conference calls with the Defence Secretary and the Foreign Secretary.

 

He told ITV that he and not Mr Clegg was in charge. The Prime Minister said: “I'm always on it. That's the job. I've being doing conference calls. I was on the phone to the crisis centre to thank them for the work they're doing in the idle of the night UK time.

 

“I have full connection with the UK. Just because I leave the country, it doesn't mean things change. Just because the prime minister goes on an important trip to the Gulf, it doesn't mean things change. All the relevant ministers have been in place.”

 

Peter Hain, the shadow Wales secretary, said: “Alarm clock Britain clearly hasn’t reached Nick Clegg. He appears to be asleep at the wheel. When he wakes up, he'll find he’s become a bit of a joke.”

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics...-this-week.html

 

--

 

I'd dismissed the reports a few weeks ago that Clegg asked people not to give him work on Fridays - but now, frankly, it's starting to look like he's not taking his job seriously enough, if he's apparently willing to just suddenly decide he wants to go on holiday 3 days earlier than planned - ESPECIALLY when the Prime Minister is away and when there's a crisis going on abroad.

 

No wonder there's Brits still stuck in Libya days after the French and German governments got all their people out, if this is how shambolic this government is run.

 

 

So what? He has three young children so half-term seems a good time for a short break. Handling Libya is the responsibility of the Foreign Secretary, not the Deputy PM. If he had decided to cancel holiday plans, that would have been reported as Clegg not trusting Cameron and Hague to handle things and signs of a lack of trust within the coalition.

 

There are plenty of good reasons for criticising Clegg. This isn't one of them.

Surely he actually WAS needed in the country over the last few days though? For instance, apparently, BP offered to send a chartered plane to Libya hours before the government finally got back to them... what if that was simply because there wasn't anyone with authority to clear it (with Cameron abroad and with his mind on other matters)?

 

And, frankly, I do think it's legitimate to question why exactly the person we pay to be the second-in-command is allowed to behave in a way most working people aren't... people with normal jobs are allowed to take holidays if they plan in advance, but they aren't allowed to just decide to clear off a few days earlier than planned on a whim. And the fact he's apparently being forced to fly back to the UK now does look rather like an admission of guilt and/or Cameron's orders.

But the idea that politicians need to be on the spot is ridiculous these days. Cameron, Clegg or any other Cabinet Minister can authorise something from wherever they happen to be.

 

Before modern communications, politicians could go on holiday and be blissfully unaware of what was going on back home, or anywhere else for that matter. Somehow, we managed to survive without them.

What's worse is that Cameron had to actually apologise for the lack of speed with which Britons in Libya have been helped... case of too little, too late from Hague.

Sipping from a mug marked “Deputy Prime Minister,” he said: “Yeah, I suppose I am. I forgot about that.

 

--

 

After reading that sentence, I'm convinced that this is actually a piece of satire penned to make Clegg and the Lib Dems look stupid.

 

Then I see that it's published in The Telegraph, so it might as well be.

Edited February 24, 201115 yr by Brett-Butler

What's worse is that Cameron had to actually apologise for the lack of speed with which Britons in Libya have been helped... case of too little, too late from Hague.

What's worse is that Hague claimed that Hague claimed that two planes were cancelled because the operator refused to fly to Libya, a claim denied by an FO official. That's not a good sign.

 

As for Cameron, why isn't he here? Because he's too busy selling arms to the dwindling number of Middle Eastern dictators.

I think I would have to agree with Suedehead here, this IS the responsibility more on Hague and he has resolutely and abjectly fukkin' FAILED the Brits caught up in Libya... And he's given some pretty mealy-mouthed excuses for his failings... I mean, come on, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, etc, all got their act together very quickly, Hague and the bloody Foreign Office on the other hand.... Christ, you'd may as well have had Captain Mannering and Corporal Jones from Dad's Army organising it.... Absolute f**ing TOOLS..... <_<

As for Cameron, why isn't he here? Because he's too busy selling arms to the dwindling number of Middle Eastern dictators.

 

Yep, gotta get those orders in before the jig is finally up innit...? He really is a thoroughly odious turd.... :angry: Not that B-liar was any better though, he was giving the likes of Ghadafi big hugs and pecks on the cheek... Hey, but it was all okay, the Americans liked Ghadafi as soon as he gave up his (more than likely practically non-existent, or at the very least at very early developmental stage) Nukes programme. And then we let the mass-murderer of Pan Am flight 801 go, because he was supposedly at deaths door and we wanted all this cheap Libyan oil instead of getting it off of Chavez, who managed to NOT kill hundreds of British citizens and blow up planes, but, fukk, he's a COMMIE (which is clearly worse than a psychopathic, genocidal, Middle East dictator) so we cant do deals with him, cos America doesn't like it.... <_<

I'm sorry but the Chinese managed to get 150k people out of Libya and we can't manage a couple of thousand despite having multiple very big airlines based here?

 

It's not as if it takes much effort for someone to phone BA and ask for a 747 or two to be sent to rescue our stranded citizens. I'm sure Virgin Atlantic, Easyjet/Ryanair, BMI etc would also have been able to do it.

 

The positive PR they'd have gotten from doing it would mean they wouldn't take long to answer [more of a case of have we got pilots/crew with enough hours left to do it]

 

Hell there are these wonderful companies that exist in the west that allow airlines to borrow planes in the short term [if a section of their fleet is grounded like the A380 after the engine fire above Indonesia.] we could have phoned them

 

There was really no excuse for not getting a plane out there at all.

I get the impression Hague was too ready to accept the word of his officials when they said "Minister, it's difficult". His reply should have been along the lines of "I'm sure it is difficult but do it". He's the one in charge, not the civil servants. It's time he acted like someone in charge.

I get the impression Hague was too ready to accept the word of his officials when they said "Minister, it's difficult". His reply should have been along the lines of "I'm sure it is difficult but do it". He's the one in charge, not the civil servants. It's time he acted like someone in charge.

 

Agreed... I've often thought he was a spineless little twerp (basically I've always thought he was the inspiration for the Viz cartoon strip "Tory Boy"), but it's nice to see it confirmed once again.....

 

Yes, work of this kind is the job of the Foreign Secretary. Really, you will go about quoting pish from the DailyTorygraph, a paper desperate to get the Lib Dems out of the coalition so their beloved Tories can rule free from influence (read: conscience).

 

The matter of Britons 'stuck' in Libya is another one entirely though. Many people are willing to live and work there on comparatively gigantic salaries due to the danger involved, but when any actual danger rears its head we're expected to jump in and save them at a moment's notice. I think people should think a bit harder about the work they accept rather than looking only at the figures involved.

Yes, work of this kind is the job of the Foreign Secretary. Really, you will go about quoting pish from the DailyTorygraph, a paper desperate to get the Lib Dems out of the coalition so their beloved Tories can rule free from influence (read: conscience).

 

This "conscience" being something that has stopped the Tories from doing what exactly....? Cutting benefits? Oh, wait, they did that anyway. Trebling tuition fees? Oh, wait, they did that anyway. Privatising the NHS? Oh, wait, they're doing that anyway. Keeping control orders? Oh, wait, they're doing that anyway.

 

The only reason the Torygraph and Mail are unhappy is because Cameron isn't living up to their crazy hatred of the EU - and, considering Cameron is ultimately a pragmatist, he was always going to disappoint them on that score, Lib Dems or no Lib Dems (like John Major).

 

The matter of Britons 'stuck' in Libya is another one entirely though. Many people are willing to live and work there on comparatively gigantic salaries due to the danger involved, but when any actual danger rears its head we're expected to jump in and save them at a moment's notice. I think people should think a bit harder about the work they accept rather than looking only at the figures involved.

 

Well, that's a different matter... but it's still true that pretty much every other European government managed to get their citizens out quicker than we did.

 

I hear now that Hague delayed rescuing British people because he didn't want to harm business interests with Gaddafi, in the event he clung onto power. There aren't enough :mellow: 's in the world.

That's all very true - any Lib Dem conscience biting at the Tory bulldog is being ignored - but I like to think it is there. It still doesn't change the fact this is a Telegraph article and really not worth posting up here unless you actually believe what is written in there.

 

As for Hague and Gaddafi, yes that would not surprise me one bit. Only now it's clear it's just a matter of when Gaddafi finally gives in has Hague really caught up with the rest of the world.

That's all very true - any Lib Dem conscience biting at the Tory bulldog is being ignored - but I like to think it is there.

 

 

You might want to bear in mind that Clegg was in the Tory party while at Cambridge.... So, once a Tory always a Tory it seems....

You might want to bear in mind that Clegg was in the Tory party while at Cambridge.... So, once a Tory always a Tory it seems....

 

He's a bit of a lost cause that's for sure.

He's a bit of a lost cause that's for sure.

 

He's a bit of a c**t, that's for sure, more like..... :lol: :lol:

 

The matter of Britons 'stuck' in Libya is another one entirely though. Many people are willing to live and work there on comparatively gigantic salaries due to the danger involved, but when any actual danger rears its head we're expected to jump in and save them at a moment's notice. I think people should think a bit harder about the work they accept rather than looking only at the figures involved.

 

To be honest, this is actually a valid point, and this was where the whole concept of "Danger Money" has its origins in the first place, a lot of "ex-pat" workers go out to places like Dubai, Kuwait, UAE, etc, to avoid paying British taxes. There's no getting round the fact that a Westerner working in the Middle East is going to face possible danger and is placing themselves at risk, therefore, the renumeration package is there to offset that risk, people with families should definitely think twice, but companies have a responsibility too to their staff...