At last the press have started giving some scrutiny to Nick Clegg's background.
Writing in the Daily Mail today Peter Oborne says:
Clegg claimed that 'all my life' he had opposed the rotten nature of the Westminster system.
However, this was an audacious fib. In fact, he has a background as a Westminster lobbyist with the firm GJW, where he worked as an account executive for 18 months. (Something he has omitted from his curriculum vitae on the Lib Dem website).
Also, after his spell with GJW, he worked for the Brussels office of the European Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan.
In truth, Clegg is a prime specimen of the British political class who has reinvented himself as a rebel and an outsider. Nor is his party more decent and honest than other political parties, as Clegg
suggests.On the contrary, many Lib Dem MPs have been shameless beneficiaries from the expenses scandal. What's more, the party has yet to repay £2.5 million it received from its largest donor, a notorious fraudster called Michael Brown.
An article in The Sun about Nick Clegg has "five facts about his past." Of Clegg's expenses it says he "claimed £83,824 from 2005-09, was rapped by sleaze watchdog Sir Thomas Legg and ordered to repay £910 for gardening costs. He billed the taxpayer for the kitchen sink, part of a £2,600 kitchen refit in 2006. He also claimed £2.49 for a cake tin and £1.50 for paper napkins."
While of the lobbying job The Sun adds:
THE Lib Dem leader was accused yesterday of trying to cover up his work for a controversial lobby firm, despite calling for more openness in politics.
In 1992-93 he worked for GJW, who helped Colonel Gaddafi resist efforts to send the Lockerbie bomber to the UK for trial - but left it off his CV.
Also good piece in the Daily Mail by Andrew Pierce on the Dolphin Square Four.
