In his speech to the Liberal Democrats’ conference yesterday, Nick Clegg declared his ambition of becoming Prime Minister. This has provoked a certain amount of hilarity in certain parts of the blogosphere, in which I, for one, do not intend to join. There can be no higher ambition for any politician, Lib Dem or otherwise, than to become the leader of his country’s government; and a politician without ambition is of no use to his electorate. So I won’t criticise Nick Clegg for that.
However, Clegg’s speech was unlikely to advance his hoped-for progress toward the door of No 10. Strangely, it directed much of its fire on the Conservatives, apparently oblivious of the fact that it is Labour who are in government; Gordon Brown was mentioned only four times.
Clegg, in short, failed to focus on the right target: the discredited Labour party, whose disaffected voters the Lib Dems, as a party of the centre left, should be actively and determinedly courting. By attacking the Tories instead, Clegg succeeded only in making himself look weak, defensive and lacking in confidence.
And, regrettably, the speech was altogether a rather lacklustre affair. Where was the passion? Where was the energy? Where was the raw anger at what Labour have done to this country? Where was the hunger to make things better? If the Lib Dems consider themselves to be a progressive party, where was Clegg’s vision of progress?
If Nick Clegg really is ambitious for himself, his party and his country, he needs to do much better than this.
For fifty minutes yesterday afternoon, he had his big chance, centre stage, to explain to the nation precisely how he proposes to realise his wholly laudable ambition.
Sadly for him, he blew it.
Peter Mandelson has given an interview to the 
On Saturday, Nick Clegg told the 
