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In the referendum on electoral reform voter turn-out was less than half (60% didn't vote) and of those who bothered to vote, only 32% said they wanted to change the system.
Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat leader, compromised everything (e.g. the tripling of tuition fees, the scrapping of EMA, NHS reform etc) in order to secure a vote on electoral reform, but then failed to win the vote!
And the irony of it all is ... Nick Clegg, by reneging on all of his promises and putting aside his moral compass (choosing power over principle), is the actual person who set doubt/alarm bells off in people's heads (e.g. about coalitions) and sounded the death nell for electoral reform.
Many will not have bothered to listen to the arguments, and simply wanted to deliver a protest vote against him (nb which is why the Yes campaigners tried desperately to stop him getting involved in their campaign)!
This would also explain why the Liberal Democrats suffered a rout in the Local Elections, whilst their coalition partners actually gained seats (nb even though their partners are the main party responsible for introducing the cuts)!
Nick Clegg is deliberately keeping his head down, but did say "When you have such a overwhelmingly clear answer you just have to accept it and move on. This is a bitter blow for all those people who believe in the need for political reform, but the answer is clear and the wider job of the government, and the Liberal Democrats in government will continue, to repair the economy, to restore prosperity and jobs and a sense of optimism in the country. That is the job we started and we will see it though. We will dust ourselves off and move on."
And the issue with this? ... well for many it was not a case of rejecting electoral reform at all, but the best way of voters showing they reject him (given it was Nick Clegg's key demand in coalition)! ... and to try to maintain power ... he's predictably saying the public rejected electoral reform (i.e. not him) ... and he will continue in power doing what he's been doing!
IMHO if the Liberal Democrats could get rid of him they almost certainly would (nb calls are there already from the grass-roots), but because of the massive damage that he's done to his party, they are now in such a state they could actually potentially implode. Looks like they are just going to try and hang on and hope for the best ... for now.
Meanwhile, Nick Clegg will still no doubt be contemplating his lifeboat (a safe Tory seat in the next election), particularly as the Conservative vote went up! But he will sit between two stools ... wanting to please an increasingly rebellious party (by showing he's prepared to stand up for people), and wanting to please Cameron and the Conservative party (to ensure he has a free passage to one of their safe seats)!
Trust, honour, respect ... Here I do think the electorate have given their verdict on Nick Clegg. However, apathy ruled the day and ignorance helped to deliver a protest vote but not electoral reform (nb by voting for electoral reform, but not voting for the Liberal Democrats in the local elections, voters could still have delivered a protest vote!) ... so Poweromics will continue unabated.
Whilst Ignoromics prevails, Poweromics will flourish ...
