Nick Clegg deserves to be given a knighthood – the Liberal Democrats did a great job as part of the Coalition

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'How I envy the certainties of those who vilify Nick Clegg, whose world is clearly binary: us and them, goodies and baddies, left and right.'

Why all this bile aimed at Nick Clegg because it’s suggested he may receive a knighthood? Is it just that he had the courage to risk unpopularity by working alongside the Tories rather than cosying up to Labour?

I suspect that a lot of the people who have written in on this would have been more than happy to see him prop up a minority Labour administration and especially pleased if he had abandoned some of the manifesto commitments that they disagreed with.

Paul McDermott
Lichfield

How I envy the certainties of those who vilify Nick Clegg, whose world is clearly binary: us and them, goodies and baddies, left and right, and woe betide anyone who steps into the murky realities of uncomfortable compromises.

A reading of David Laws’s book Coalition provides revealing insights as to the effectiveness of the Liberal Democrats’s participation in government, despite being constrained and often subverted by the dominant party.

Although the coalition government pursued many regrettable policies, on the whole it provided stability at a time of potential chaos in the meltdown following the financial crash. In coalition, the Liberal Democrats had some notable achievements, such as lifting low earners out of tax, providing the pupil premium for disadvantaged children, and the introduction of gay marriage. The coalition remained – in the words of one commentator – “surprisingly functional” throughout its life.

Those days now seem halcyon when compared with the dysfunctional state of the current government. It’s to Nick Clegg’s credit that, in full awareness of the risk to his party and to his own reputation, he took the statesman-like decision to go into coalition with the Tories where he did actually achieve some important changes and restrained the worst Conservative instincts – rather than standing on the moral high-ground and sniping from the fringes.

Richard Charnley
North Yorkshire

Someone who ended Labour’s abhorrent policy of locking up innocent children for immigration purposes is clearly worthy of a knighthood.

That so many Labour-Momentum types (who supposedly identify with socialist values) disagree is surprising.

Their outrage is instructive in so many ways.

Nicholas Pentney
Paignton

I cannot understand all the vitriolic comments about Nick Clegg. As a multilingual, experienced European he is a sad loss to the Government in the present climate.

Does nobody realise that in a general election all candidates make promises on the assumption that they will be in majority power? And, as Theresa May has found out, quite a few have to be reneged upon anyway once the accounts have been scrutinised!

The Liberal Democrats went into a coalition where they were the minority party, so a lot of the give and take was very one sided – but I don’t hear anyone commending them for successfully opposing some of the Tory Party policies. Incidentally, is David Cameron up for a knighthood?

Gillian Cook
Market Harborough

No Momentum

Reading Rosa Gilbert’s piece about the Italian “grassroots” movement Potere al Popolo was fairly surprising to me, as an Italian citizen working in the UK and with quite a taste for politics.

Despite understanding why it could be of interest for The Independent’s readers, who are probably still baffled – as I am – by Momentum’s momentum, I am afraid that they would be severely misled if they didn’t take the article with a pinch of salt.

Since I was a young high schooler, I have lost track of the number of left and hard-left movements and parties that have sprung up in the attempt to be the best, the toughest, and the most in touch with the real people leftists, usually – as in this case, judging by the Italian media’s coverage – being completely overlooked by the public and ultimately forgotten.

Matteo C
Loughborough