Nobody will be too surprised to learn that Sir Nick Clegg, tech multi-millionaire, found himself standing alone at a party in Madrid last weekend.
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himself → learn → Madrid
Peering over his spectacles, glass in hand, he seemed in a reflective mood.
It was a sun-smacked autumn afternoon and several hundred people had gathered in a botanic garden near the city centre for the launch of his Spanish wife Miriam Gonzalez Durantez's new political party.
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people → peer → party
Perhaps watching Lady Clegg addressing her supporters stirred in him distant memories of when he was the man of the hour and represented the future.
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he → watch → future
That was when Britain was seduced – fleetingly, as it proved – by 'Cleggmania', a word that entered the Collins English Dictionary.
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that → seduce → Dictionary
The former Lib Dem leader and one-time deputy prime minister is now knocking 60 and not nearly so fresh-faced or popular.
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leader → knock → 60
Few have forgotten his epic betrayal of students, when he U-turned on Lib Dem policy to oppose and abolish tuition fees.
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he → forget → fees
Neither have the other failed initiatives and fallout from his role in the Tory-led coalition government formed after the 2010 election slipped our collective memory.
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initiatives → fail → memory
In a matter of months, he went from being the saviour of our politics to seeing his effigy burnt on the streets.
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effigy → go → streets
Yet as one who attended the Madrid party noted yesterday: 'These days Nick seems content, happy with his lot.'
Happy with all the money he has trousered, certainly.
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he → attend → money
Since his political career crashed in humiliating fashion a decade ago, when Cleggmania proved an illusion and he took his party down with him – it lost 49 seats in the 2015 election – he has done rather well for himself.
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he → crash → himself
Power couple: Sir Nick with his Spanish-born wife Miriam Gonzalez Durantez at a book launch event in London back in 2015
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pictured with Clegg in 2019.
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Zuckerberg → bear → 2019
The former deputy prime minister joined Meta in 2018
And any day now things will get rosier still – for he stands to make as much as £30million from the imminent Wall Street flotation of Nscale, a UK-based artificial intelligence company.
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he → join → Nscale
Not bad, given that he joined its board only seven months ago.
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he → give → board
The windfall comes on top of the £100million he is estimated to have made during his controversial Silicon Valley sojourn working alongside Mark Zuckerberg at Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook which also operates Instagram and WhatsApp.
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which → come → Instagram
'I actually find the messianic California new-world-touchy-feely culture a little grating,' he said.
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he → find → ?
'Nor am I sure that companies such as Facebook really pay all the tax they could.'
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they → pay → tax
But this was before a huge salary, bonuses and shares were dangled before him and he was crowned 'Master of the Metaverse'.
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he → dangle → Metaverse
In the eyes of many, he sold his soul to Big Tech when he uprooted his family – the couple have three sons – from their home in Putney, south-west London, and moved into a £7million faux Queen Anne house in Atherton, a Silicon Valley town known as 'the most expensive postcode in America'.
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couple → sell → America
And for all that he haughtily disdained touchy-feely California, he soon found himself doing just that – getting touchy-feely.
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himself → disdain → that
He admitted being forced to join Zuckerberg's daily mixed martial arts training sessions, a strange kind of bonding ritual, and getting stuck in something called a 'Domination Mount'.
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He → admit → something
Clegg explained that his deputy 'straddled me and we grappled awkwardly in a way that was, let's just say, a little too close for comfort'.
Until last year, Clegg was Meta's president of global affairs, and travelled the world as Zuckerberg's political shield, fending off criticism that, among other things, the company was aware its algorithms were fuelling hate and worsening teenagers' mental health.
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algorithms → explain → health
To his critics, he was little more than a highly paid fig leaf, hired to put a friendly liberal face on the tech giant's ruinous greed.
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he → pay → greed
Clegg was asked to address concerns that his employer had not done enough to regulate posts on its platforms.
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employer → ask → platforms
The father of Molly Russell, a 14-year-old from Harrow, north-west London, who died by suicide in 2017 after viewing images of self-harm on Instagram, said he had 'no doubt' that it 'helped kill' his daughter.
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it → die → daughter
Similar graphic images still present on the platform two years after her death prompted Clegg to promise that Meta would do 'whatever it takes' to be safe for young people.
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it → prompt → people
Such cases doubtless caused the ex-politician deep unease, but he was well rewarded for his work.
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he → cause → work
Regulatory filings in the US also show he has sold Meta shares worth £29million since May 2022 and retains options with a potential value of £42.4million.
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he → show → 42.4million
Nick and Miriam Clegg pictured with Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2018
During his years in government, he had decried moneyed elites and called banker bonuses 'gratuitously offensive'.
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he → picture → bonuses
In a 2013 interview he tried, none too subtly, to project an image as a regular guy, claiming that his favourite television programme was Channel 4's Come Dine With Me and that he ferried his kids around in a second-hand 'slightly battered' Ford Galaxy people carrier.
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he → try → carrier
How times – and principles – change.
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times → change → ?
Having sold their Californian home for £10.3million when he left Meta, the Cleggs are back in London, living in another Queen Anne-style home, which they bought from Oscar-winning actor Colin Firth for £8.2million.
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they → sell → 8.2million
Now Clegg is looking for a new role.
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Clegg → look → role
He could simply count his money, but he has told former colleagues he still feels 'energetic'.
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he → count → colleagues
One told the Daily Mail that the Cleggs were casting themselves as 'a kind of European power couple', adding: 'I know it's a bit odd, and bear in mind this is a loose concept, not a carefully judged strategy, but think the Clintons, only on a much, much less grand scale.'
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this → tell → scale
After Bill Clinton left office in 2001, his wife Hillary twice ran for President.
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wife → leave → President
Such comparisons might seem wildly fanciful but there is no denying that 58-year-old Lady Clegg, a high-powered lawyer, harbours serious political ambitions.
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Clegg → seem → ambitions
Her new liberal centrist party, Democracia 21, will contest Spain's general election on November 29.
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party → contest → November
Vowing to clean up politics and give voters an alternative to the dominant socialist and conservative parties, she says Democracia 21 will offer a modern, transparent kind of politics that 'doesn't feed on fear, insults or nostalgia'.
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that → vow → fear
Not too dissimilar, then, to the stuff her husband was peddling when he was starting out.
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he → peddle → stuff
Her manifesto accuses the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' party and the Right-wing People's Party of squandering decades of government.
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manifesto → accuse → government
…and 49 more, not listed.
The Aporia
