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Left Foot Forward > Published by Shamik Das, August 19th 2010 at 4:37 pm

Newsnight viewers want Clegg to be Paxo’d

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A OnePoll survey of 3,000 Newsnight viewers out today has revealed that Nick Clegg is the politician they would most like to see grilled by Jeremy Paxman. Seventeen per cent of those polled want the deputy prime minister put under the spotlight, followed by shadow education secretary Ed Balls (8%), home secretary Theresa May (7%) and shadow energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband (6%).

The figure for Clegg rises to 25 per cent for the north east, 23 per cent for the north west and 21 per cent for Scotland. The Liberal Democrat leader is the overwhelming choice among Labour voters (31%), with Tory voters most wanting to see Balls grilled (17%) and Lib Dem voters opting for May (20%).

So what kind of performance can we expect from Clegg? And to which question can we hope to see a ‘Michael Howard’ - maybe if Paxman asks him “at what point did you and your eight-year-old change your mind on the deficit?”

Any more ideas for questions to Clegg?! Enter them in the comments section below and we’ll try and get Paxo to ask them…

  • http://twitter.com/dandrage/status/21587209194 Daniel Drage

    RT @leftfootfwd: OnePoll survey – Newsnight viewers want Clegg to be Paxo'd http://bit.ly/cigpfq

  • http://twitter.com/salardeen/status/21587578425 Seff

    RT @leftfootfwd: Newsnight viewers want Clegg to be Paxo'd http://bit.ly/cigpfq Good one feed him to Paxo

  • http://twitter.com/jaqi/status/21587852311 jaqi

    RT @leftfootfwd: Newsnight viewers want Clegg to be Paxo'd: http://bit.ly/cigpfq

  • http://twitter.com/drkmj/status/21588076088 DrKMJ

    Newsnight viewers want Clegg to be Paxo'd: http://bit.ly/cigpfq via @leftfootfwd

  • http://twitter.com/littlenitty/status/21588753626 Anita Louise Kershaw

    RT @leftfootfwd: OnePoll survey – Newsnight viewers want Clegg to be Paxo'd http://bit.ly/cigpfq

  • http://twitter.com/barnabylane/status/21588928211 Barnaby Lane

    RT @leftfootfwd: Newsnight viewers want Clegg to be Paxo'd http://bit.ly/cigpfq

  • http://twitter.com/shamikdas/status/21588958558 Shamik Das

    RT @leftfootfwd: Newsnight viewers want Clegg to be Paxo'd: http://bit.ly/cigpfq

  • Matt Owen

    Paxo the man

  • http://twitter.com/yorkierosie/status/21589043621 yorkierosie

    RT @leftfootfwd: Newsnight viewers want Clegg to be Paxo'd: http://bit.ly/cigpfq

  • http://twitter.com/oliconner/status/21589055942 Oliver Conner

    Newsnight viewers want Paxman to grill Clegg – http://bit.ly/bHdik6

  • Paul Krishnamurty

    Q for Clegg: “As the leader of a party that has long campaigned on tax avoidance and getting the rich to pay a higher share, how do you justify sharing power with a party funded via tax havens?”

    More generally, Paxo has become lazy, a poor cariacature of his former self. He comes across as confrontational for the sake of it, and wastes time with cheap jibes (Charles Kennedy’s drinking, asking Cameron about ‘pink pussies’). He rarely understands the issues in depth anymore, and is too quick to repeat the programmed line from elsewhere (e.g. Osbourne’s conference speech last year being special).

    We need Eddie Mair to do the big interviews.

  • http://twitter.com/sparklecreek/status/21593056692 sparklecreek

    @nick_clegg @libdems RT @leftfootfwd: Newsnight viewers want Clegg to be Paxo'd: http://bit.ly/cigpfq

  • http://twitter.com/digitalraven/status/21594208899 Stew Wilson

    Unleash the Paxo! RT @leftfootfwd: Newsnight viewers want Clegg to be Paxo'd: http://bit.ly/cigpfq

  • Richard

    I agree with Paul Paxo is past it. A shadow of his former self.
    The election interviews looked like he had given up.

  • http://twitter.com/sms_policywatch/status/21595634402 SMS PolicyWatch

    RT @leftfootfwd: Newsnight viewers want Clegg to be Paxo'd: http://bit.ly/cigpfq

  • Mr. Sensible

    Shamik, I think that question on when he changed his mind on the deficit should be up there.

    How about something like:
    “In the Observer in June, you said that you had changed your mind on the deficit following a conversation with the Governer of the Bank of England. However, in ’5 days that changed Britain’, you told Nick Robbinson that you had in fact done so before the election. Which is it? And if the latter, why did you not tell voters during the campaign?”

    How many others do you want?

    What about:
    “Were the directors of Sheffield Forgemasters willing to dilute their shares in exchange for a government lone, or not? And how is canceling the lone to Forgemasters, which would have been paid back over a period, going to help create jobs and help the economy recover?”

    Paul has a good one too, with the added point that you could put Philip Green in there.

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