Thursday, June 03, 2010

What does Nick Clegg do?

I know that over the past few years I have bemoaned the fact that the Government spends far too much time building pointless websites that no one can be arsed to visit, so I caveat this post with the fact that I'm not asking for an all-signing all-dancing web presence, but Nick Clegg seems to have bugger all presence on any Government website, which leads me to the conclusion that he really is just a non-entity.

Yesterday, at Prime Ministers Question he had his first experience of not being able to ask any questions as the leader of the third party. He just sat behind Cameron looking like someone who had suddenly realised that power had actually come at the price of his silence during the great weekly Parliamentary battle; and it also seems that the Government's digital face is keeping him quiet too.

He barely gets a mention on the Downing Street website, doesn't have a profile or biography of any kind (unlike the rest of the Cabinet who have their own departments). He has no formal website that I can see (not even a handful of pages hanging off the Cabinet Office) detailing what exactly his role as "Deputy Prime Minister, Lord President of the Council (with special responsibility for political and constitutional reform)" is actually about.

Call me cynical if you must, but it doesn't half look like he's being kept on a leash to avoid the "Number Two" of the Government doing a number two on the pavement for the rest of the Cabinet to slip up on.

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