BRITAIN’S DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER Nick Clegg has admitted that there is a significant “nervousness” within his Liberal Democrat party about the progress it was making in implementing its agenda as part of the coalition with the Conservatives.
Clegg has come under fire from members of his own party who argue that Clegg has been too concerned with maintaining a united front with David Cameron’s party than acting on the Lib Dems’ election manifesto.
In a meeting in Croydon, a traditionally Conservative-leaning area, Clegg said: “Is there nervousness? Of course there is.”
Clegg insisted that this was a sign that his party was in rude health, however, saying he loved the “open debates” held at the party’s conferences.
“There are people who are going to be there saying: ‘Mr Clegg, we think you got this wrong or that wrong.’ That is what debate is about. I am the leader of a political party, not a sect.”
The deputy PM – standing in for David Cameron, whose wife gave birth this week while the family were on holiday – conceded, however, that the coming party conference would be, in the words of one senior Lib Dem MP, “sticky” for him.
Upholding that “debate and people expressing their views is not a bad thing”, however, Clegg said that the Liberal Democrats were “a very democratic party as, if you want to come to our conference, you will see.”
In a development that Clegg may find comfort in, however, a new academic study has proved the old maxim that two heads are better than one.
British and Danish scientists behind new research on problem-solving found that joint decisions are more accurate and generally better than those made alone.
The joint problem-solving only works, however, when both partners are equally competent and freely discuss their disagreements, the research authors said.
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