Reply #5: Sounds like the conservative press is going after him on immigration, the EU, gay marriage, etc. [View All]

[pampango]

We know that the leader of the Lib Dems is only a QUARTER English, is married to a "foreigner" and speaks several languages. ... We have learned all this from a largely Tory-supporting press as the Lib Dem surge at the polls continues to suggest that David Cameron may have his work cut out on 6 May.

Yet it is the Daily Mail that is most evidently relishing the chance to go for fresh blood, with a huge spread headlined "Clegg: the wheels begin to fall off", followed next day by the headline "Clegg in Nazi slur on Britain". The Express pitched in with "Clegg's crazy immigration policy".

Having gnawed the flesh from the prime ministerial bones over the last three years, the Mail's attack dogs have some proper meat to hunt down. This must be causing Team Cameron hearts to flutter after unsuccessfully courting Paul Dacre for months.

They have tried to explain that taking a stand on issues that might gladden the heart of the Mail editor in chief – anti-European Union, anti-immigration, anti-gay marriage, anti-justaboutanythingabitliberal – will not play well with those must-have floating voters. Nor will damning another Mail bugbear, the BBC. So the Mail has continued to play hard to get. Now it can continue to paint Clegg as an evil Eurocrat so that when the time comes its support for the Tories can seem like a benign attempt to stop Brussels taking over our bananas.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/22/nick-clegg-eu-daily-mail