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23 September 2010

Clegg fails to charm UN audience

Diplomats choose to talk over Clegg’s speech.

By George Eaton

Nick Clegg’s speech to Lib Dem party conference may not have been received rapturously, but at least he had an attentive audience. That wasn’t the case with his UN address, as a rather unflattering account of the speech in the White House “pool report” revealed:

Suffice it to say, the audience in the UN General Assembly hall was far more hushed and attentive to Obama than it was to the preceding speaker, British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who gave his remarks amid a quiet din of side conversations and diplomats coming and going.

You can imagine it now, “Who is this guy?”, “What does he do again?”, “Where’s David Cameron?”.

Given the past successes of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez, perhaps the government should send Comrade Cable next time.

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