The Clegg Coup
Jasper Gerard

Book Reviews

• "Fascinating."
  The Daily Telegraph.
• "Explosive...The book all Westminster is talking about."
  The Daily Mail.
• "Just finished reading Jasper Gerard’s The Clegg Coup. Insightful, frank, fair-minded. And brilliantly well-written.  "
  Stephen Tall, editor of Liberal Democrat Voice.
• "A masterful account of coalition government."
  Hywel Williams, Times Literary Supplement
• "In his new study of coalition Government, Clegg’s Coup, Jasper Gerard – a friend of the Deputy Prime Minister - argues that the Liberal Democrats needs to exchange what he says one minister calls “fluffy bunny voters”, the idealists who prefer ideological purity to power, with realists (wily foxes?) who are willing to make the compromises required by Government. The “coup” he describes is Mr Clegg’s attempt to turn his party from “some pressure group of perpetual and immature opposition” to a “centrist, liberal party of coalition” of the sort seen on the Continent. There are, he believes grounds for optimism for the Lib Dems in an age that is about “the inspiration and invention of the individual not the march of the masses."
  Rachel Sylvester, The Times
• "Jasper Gerard is not only a journalist with a national profile and a highly engaging style, but he is also a passionate liberal and Liberal Democrat, and he has written a book which is readable, sympathetic, well sourced, thoughtful and never, ever, dull. It is clear that a quite a few senior Lib Dems have co-operated with the author to help him to tell his tale, and party and political insiders will enjoy trying to match up many an anonymous quotation with the list of those who have assisted the author, which appears at the beginning of this volume. Jasper Gerard is an entertaining author, and his account races along in a way that is often amusing and always accessible, even when he is dealing with the intricacies of the Orange Book or deficit reduction strategy.Since leaving the Westminster world, Jasper Gerard has sharpened his pen in the world of journalism, and his party sympathies are counter-balanced by his determination to tell the story of Nick Clegg’s rise with honesty and discrimination. This is the best inside account yet available of the rise of Nick Clegg and his brand of liberalism, and it gives a comprehensive account of how and why the Liberal Democrats formed the first real Coalition Government in Britain for over half a century. The book ends with a series of thoughtful chapters about the challenges now faced by Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems, both in Government and as the Party seeks to win back voters in the General Election of 2015. This reminds us that the story of the “Clegg Coup” has a lot further to run. Jasper Gerard will need to pick up his pen again soon to write a second volume"
  David Laws, former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Liberal Democrat News
• "Jasper Gerard shows far more knowledge of the party’s internal workings than nearly all other writers. The book is a great read for its stylish commentary which shows both inside knowledge and understanding of the Liberal Democrats."
  Mark Pack, co-editor Liberal Democrat Voice