Conference Diary: Sour note from Sugar
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Your support makes all the difference.Nick Clegg picked a daft example yesterday as he defended a proposal to end universal benefits for pensioners. "[Labour] appear to be saying that at a time when people's housing benefit is being cut, we should protect Alan Sugar's free bus pass," Mr Clegg told BBC Radio 4's World at One. The idea that people as rich as Lord Sugar travel in buses brought forth a prompt rebuttal from the man himself. "The twit Nick Clegg moaning about me having a bus pass. Idiot. I haven't got one," he tweeted. A few minutes later, he added: "Even if I did have a bus pass, I've personally paid tens of millions of pounds in tax, my companies hundreds of millions, in the past 45 years. What has Clegg done?"
They're playing our song
The spoof autotunes version of Nick Clegg's "I'm sorry" monologue leapt from 143 to 65 in the charts yesterday – and they say people do not listen to politicians any more. One of the people who claim to have enjoyed it is his wife, Miriam. "I have watched it – it's genius," she told the London Evening Standard.
Plebs on top
The Liberal Democrat Image stall was selling "I'm a Pleb" badges, after Vince Cable used that expression in his conference speech. The badges went on sale for 25p at around 3pm on Monday, and a day later about 400 had been shifted. Craig Card, who runs the stall, sees it as a competition between Cable and Nick Clegg, who features on "I'm Sorry" badges that have been on sale since the conference opened, of which they have also sold around 400. "My gut feeling tells me that Plebs outsold the I'm Sorrys," he says.
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