politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Chris Huhne discusses the prospects for a Labour-Lib Dem coalition in 2015.
Now that he is free from being a Member of Parliament, and not constrained by having to toe the party line, Chris Huhne has been offering his thoughts on a variety of subjects.
"It was, in my view, unwise of Nick Clegg to make Gordon Brown’s leadership a public issue. It is no business of one party to question the elected leader of another"
Strange thing to say. Gordon Brown was completely unsuited to be leader of our country, on a number of levels and exhibiting degrees of incompetence and lack of character completely off the scale, even when compared with other people I disagree with, such as Tony Blair.
Surely in these circumstances you would expect other party leaders to speak out?
Also, where Labour had clearly "lost" the election (even if no-one else had clearly won), you would expect prospective opposition parties to demand changes before they would consider cooperating with them.
And er... surely it is the DNA of the LibDems to be liberal and democratic and prepared to cooperate with anyone who will help them achieve their aims, not to be anti- anyone or anything in particular?
As a Party member, but only as that, I'm doutful whether a reduced (or even much reduced as some on here seem to hope) Liberal Democrat presence after the next General Election would find being in Government desirable.
Winning 57 seats having started from 62 was in many respects a slap in the face for Nick Clegg though I suspect there were many other factors at work in 2010 - an overarching desire to get rid of Labour with the Conservatives seen as the most effctive method.
To go down to 30 seats (or less) and still claim a mandate for having a presence in Government and at the Cabinet table seems very hard to argue. That's not to say that the Party cannot and should not support measures put in place by the next Government which it feels able to support while robustly opposing those with which it does not but that function can perhaps more effectively occur outside Government.
The Party needs time to redefine its programme and re-articulate some of the core beliefs which many members, I suspect, feel have been compromised in the Coalition years. That's not to say the Conservatives haven't also had to support legislation with which they weren't comfortable either.
For what little it's worth, I suspect the next Parliament will either have one party with a majority or as close to a majority as makes no difference
Why should we take notice of a former jail bird. The Lib-Dems are just a bunch of power mad orange Tories, who have used their votes allow the Tories to rip the NHS and the Welfare State to bits. Clegg sold out the students to get their votes to support the Tories. Most of the progressive votes have gone back to Labour, and Labour will not need Liberal votes to govern. In 2015 the Lib-Dems will be lucky if they get ten seats. Their almost total disappearance will be well deserved, as will the Tory defeat.
I hope for a Labour majority, However, if I'm involved and the occasion and need arises, having Clegg as a Lab-Lib DPM is fine with me. I've never shared or particularly encountered the supposed personal animus towards him. His party decided on a coalition on IMO unwise terms and has suffered electorally as a result, but that's not especially about Clegg. If they want to reconsider next time with new Parliamentary arithmetic, fair enough.
The same applies in reverse, of course. Suggestions that the LibDems would find it difficult to work with Miliband are for the birds.
Anyone feeling festive in November is deeply suspect. Christmas has peaked too soon in 2013.
And don't get me on the sudden invasion of Black Friday into the British calendar.
Misery guts. Might as well enjoy it for as long as possible! (in the pub I mean, avoiding shops at all costs. In fact as a general rule the more Christmas adverts I see for a brand / shop, the more I avoid them)
Why should we take notice of a former jail bird. The Lib-Dems are just a bunch of power mad orange Tories, who have used their votes allow the Tories to rip the NHS and the Welfare State to bits. Clegg sold out the students to get their votes to support the Tories. Most of the progressive votes have gone back to Labour, and Labour will not need Liberal votes to govern. In 2015 the Lib-Dems will be lucky if they get ten seats. Their almost total disappearance will be well deserved, as will the Tory defeat.
The same applies in reverse, of course. Suggestions that the LibDems would find it difficult to work with Miliband are for the birds.
Up to a point. If they think his word can't be trusted - and there's certainly plenty of evidence for that - that, rather than whether they personally like him or not, is potentially a significant issue.
FWIW, as an ordinary Labour party member, I have no doubt that Miliband would offer a coalition to the Lib Dems if he finds himself the leader of the largest party but without a majority. I'd say the Lib Dems would probably accept as long as they got some pretty big concessions - maybe PR without a referendum and an agreed reform of the HoL. These would not be particularly difficult for Miliband to offer IMO.
Anyone feeling festive in November is deeply suspect. Christmas has peaked too soon in 2013.
And don't get me on the sudden invasion of Black Friday into the British calendar.
Misery guts. Might as well enjoy it for as long as possible! (in the pub I mean, avoiding shops at all costs. In fact as a general rule the more Christmas adverts I see for a brand / shop, the more I avoid them)
I try to avoid shopping in December. Apart from food of course. And even then you have to avert your gaze from the shelves of Christmas crackers and Heston's Powdered Dog Turd Dusted Christmas Pudding or whatever this year's version is.
@ShippersUnbound: Chris Huhne writes that Nick Clegg 'is certainly safer as leader than he looked a year ago'. Now that you've been to jail, that is correct.
I hope for a Labour majority, However, if I'm involved and the occasion and need arises, having Clegg as a Lab-Lib DPM is fine with me. I've never shared or particularly encountered the supposed personal animus towards him. His party decided on a coalition on IMO unwise terms and has suffered electorally as a result, but that's not especially about Clegg. If they want to reconsider next time with new Parliamentary arithmetic, fair enough.
The same applies in reverse, of course. Suggestions that the LibDems would find it difficult to work with Miliband are for the birds.
Well, the Parliamentary arithmetic didn't provide for too many options in 2010 and had the LDs walked away from Cameron's offer, they would have been pilloried ad infinitum for not having any political courage or the ability to take tough decisions.
As soon as Cameron made the offer on the Friday afternoon, some kind of deal was always going to happen and it was merely a question of how much the LDs could get from the Conservatives in the negotiations.
Do I think Labour and the LDs COULD do a deal ? Yes, of course. Do I think the LDs SHOULD go into a Coalition-type deal with Labour ? No, because there are options other than the 2010 arrangement with the Conservatives which might be more viable to both sides.
If the numbers require a coalition, there will be another coalition. In a hung Parliament, unless Labour have got north of 315 MPs (and perhaps even then), we shall see another coalition.
In other words, Nick Clegg has good chances of being deputy Prime Minister until 2020.
How come lefty criminals are back in the media after five minutes? You would never see Archer or Aitken getting any media time to discuss anything other than their crimes.
FWIW, as an ordinary Labour party member, I have no doubt that Miliband would offer a coalition to the Lib Dems if he finds himself the leader of the largest party but without a majority. I'd say the Lib Dems would probably accept as long as they got some pretty big concessions - maybe PR without a referendum and an agreed reform of the HoL. These would not be particularly difficult for Miliband to offer IMO.
Seriously? Labour get into government on barely over 30% of the vote at the moment. No way they'd get rid of that unless they had to.
All the parties pander to the NIMBYs since they are the most likely to vote. It's why Labour did nothing when in power themselves.
It's easy for Clegg to promise this since he knows he will have to drop it in any future coalition.
Clegg is not liked by Labour. Labour spent a lot of money but didn't improve anything fundamentally for the UK e.g: health and education, all spin and no action. Labour know how to get elected but are frightened of serious policy reform, it affects their membership too much.
Putting aside my distate for Huhne it seems fairly obvious that if Ed needs the Lib dems to get a majority and Dave can't get a majority with the Lib Dems that is what will happen. It is what politicans do and what they should do really.
I suspect that Nick will find Ed a lot more slippery and difficult to deal with than Dave but that is the nature of the beast and there is nothing Nick can or should do about it. The position with Brown was a little different. Firstly, he was the worst PM ever. Secondly, he had clearly lost an election and keeping him PM would have been to defy the British people. The latter might apply to Cameron as well.
' maybe PR without a referendum and an agreed reform of the HoL'
Why would Labour agree to PR when the current system works so well for them?
You really believe they would offer it without a referendum after insisting on one for the recent attempt at HoL reform?
AV without a referendum was offered to the Lib Dems in 2010 according to Adonis's book. If that's the case Labour would find it very difficult not to offer something similar in 2015.
Mr. Nick, beg to differ. AV has been explicitly rejected by the voters, and the precedent for a referendum has been set. A coalition government enforcing a change to the voting system would be gerrymandering par excellence, and would look like it too.
F1: not a tip, but if you happen to have money to burn I still think Rosberg's odds are just plain wrong. He has a very slightly better points per race finish than Hamilton (from memory 10.6875 to 10.5), but is 16/1 with Ladbrokes rather than 4/1.
If Mercedes have the best car next year it'll be fascinating to see how the Hamilton-Rosberg relationship is managed. They get along very well, but fighting for a title can change that sort of thing.
Does it make you feel better to post such absolute drivel ? It certainly does not add anything to the sum of intelligence posted on this board .
Mark, I'm afraid he's just a sad, angry individual who just does it to provoke. Ignore him.
As a fellow LD, I'd be more interested in your take on Chris Huhne's article. I worry about the degree to which the Party has compromised its liberal instaincts in Government and some of Nick's recent language on immigration has troubled me.
There has to be a recognition that immigration is a matter of real concern in the electorate and the economic conditions of the past five years has exacerbated that tension. I see it up close and personal in lowland East London.
The big problem for me is the provision of infrastructure (health, transport, education etc) to support increasing and diverse urban and suburban populations. London desperately needs more housing to be built but simply building hourses and flats without providing the supporting public infrastructure will be disastrous.
I continue to get Denis Macshane's tweets, read the thoughts of Neil Hamilton in his new UKIP incarnation with mild interest and occasionally read a book by Jeffrey Archer (that's the one I'm embarrassed about). I don't see why we shouldn't be interested in Huhne as well - he's served his time and he wasn't convicted for lack of political insight.
FWIW, as an ordinary Labour party member, I have no doubt that Miliband would offer a coalition to the Lib Dems if he finds himself the leader of the largest party but without a majority. I'd say the Lib Dems would probably accept as long as they got some pretty big concessions - maybe PR without a referendum and an agreed reform of the HoL. These would not be particularly difficult for Miliband to offer IMO.
Given that the electorate overwhelmingly rejected the offer of electoral reform when consulted (albeit with an inferior, non-PR variant), why do you think it appropriate that it should be imposed on them?
Surely, given that they have expressed so clear a view on the topic, they should at least be consulted in future?
Looking forward to LDs trying to sell green agenda - higher gas & electricity bills, higher taxes on petrol & diesel, higher parking charges, limits on where you can park a car, how you can use a car, how fast you can drive a car 20s Plenty, Residents' Parking Zones, Workplace Charging, Congestion Charges etc. Going green is regressive not progressive. I would be surprised if going green wins votes for the LDs.
How come lefty criminals are back in the media after five minutes? You would never see Archer or Aitken getting any media time to discuss anything other than their crimes.
Because they are contrite and self-aware enough to realise how bad it looks?
How come lefty criminals are back in the media after five minutes? You would never see Archer or Aitken getting any media time to discuss anything other than their crimes.
Because they are contrite and self-aware enough to realise how bad it looks?
Hardly , Archer has appeared on Marr's Sunday AM and there were steps for Aitken to restand in Thanet South before Muchael Howard vetoed it .
It's looking likely that when the general polling situation at the end of 2013 is compared to that of 12 months earlier it will reveal something like this:
M Senior .. you are exactly the type of LD I am tallking about.. I await your pearls of wisdom. Why should anyone listen to Huhne..Liar ,ex con ,philanderer. What have the LD's actually done to improve the life of anyone in the UK. They are a total waste of time and have been ever since the party was created by four well past it Politico's ..It is the party for inadequates .
"Explaining his decision not to give Du a whole life order, Mr Justice Flaux cited a European Court of Human Rights ruling that such tariffs breach a prisoner's human rights."
M Senior you are exac tly the type of LD I am tallking about..been I await your pearls of wisdom. Why should anyone listen to Huhne..Liar ,ex con ,philanderer. What have the LD's actually done to improve the life of anyone in the UK. They are a total waste of time and have been ever since the party was created by four well past it Politico's ..It is the party for inadequates .
I suggest you double your regular dose of Prozac .
FWIW, as an ordinary Labour party member, I have no doubt that Miliband would offer a coalition to the Lib Dems if he finds himself the leader of the largest party but without a majority. I'd say the Lib Dems would probably accept as long as they got some pretty big concessions - maybe PR without a referendum and an agreed reform of the HoL. These would not be particularly difficult for Miliband to offer IMO.
Given that the electorate overwhelmingly rejected the offer of electoral reform when consulted (albeit with an inferior, non-PR variant), why do you think it appropriate that it should be imposed on them?
Surely, given that they have expressed so clear a view on the topic, they should at least be consulted in future?
No - we have a representative democracy in this country - MPs are elected to take decisions and they should not shirk this responsibility. Referendums are an undesirable device which very rarely resolve the questions they are supposed to decide.
M Senior You have just confirmed my opinion of LD's. I have no idea what Prozac is..you obviously do.. LD's think Huhne is a spokesman for them..an ex con ,liar philanderer..yeh, they got that right.
OT: Reading a US legal blog written by a Cornell Law School Professor and associates about a self defence case in Florida. I really liked the sentence:
I am basing this analysis on the facts as presented by the Daily Mail, a UK-based news organization that seems more guided by reality and good journalistic judgment, and less biased by racial and political considerations, than is typical of the US media.
I'm not sure what that says about the Mail vs the US media.
Tbh I reckon there are a lot of voters out there - out here - who don't have a great deal of confidence in any of the parties, so majority v coalition is by the by.
The ultimate PB thread would be: Are Dan Hodges' predictions of a disaster for Ed Miliband because of the EU question over a Scottish independence bid given a shot in the arm by Falkirkgate a disaster for the Rev Paul Flowers?
The ultimate PB thread would be: Are Dan Hodges' predictions of a disaster for Ed Miliband because of the EU question over a Scottish independence bid given a shot in the arm by Falkirkgate a disaster for the Rev Paul Flowers?
Errr....I am writing a thread, about whether The Flowers Farago has the potential to be bad news for Labour.
When I see the desparate attention seeking of weird specimens like Huhne , I always want to ask them " What is wrong with you ? We don't need you and we don't want you . " In the name of God , just piss off , Huhne.
The ultimate PB thread would be: Are Dan Hodges' predictions of a disaster for Ed Miliband because of the EU question over a Scottish independence bid given a shot in the arm by Falkirkgate a disaster for the Rev Paul Flowers?
Errr....I am writing a thread, about whether The Flowers Farago has the potential to be bad news for Labour.
Now now.....nothing is ever bad news for Labour....selection rigging, soft loans as pensioners go without their divvie....all Tory smears, every last one.....
Josias Jessop is an idiot who cannot understand the difference between 'edit comment' and 'Post comment', despite the buttons being in very different places.
When I see the desparate attention seeking of weird specimens like Huhne , I always want to ask them " What is wrong with you ? We don't need you and we don't want you . " In the name of God , just piss off , Huhne.
M Senior.. Sorry old boy, I dont want to dumb down to LD level..keep taking the pills, they seem to suit you..be careful you stick to the prescription level tho..
The ultimate PB thread would be: Are Dan Hodges' predictions of a disaster for Ed Miliband because of the EU question over a Scottish independence bid given a shot in the arm by Falkirkgate a disaster for the Rev Paul Flowers?
Errr....I am writing a thread, about whether The Flowers Farago has the potential to be bad news for Labour.
FWIW, as an ordinary Labour party member, I have no doubt that Miliband would offer a coalition to the Lib Dems if he finds himself the leader of the largest party but without a majority. I'd say the Lib Dems would probably accept as long as they got some pretty big concessions - maybe PR without a referendum and an agreed reform of the HoL. These would not be particularly difficult for Miliband to offer IMO.
Given that the electorate overwhelmingly rejected the offer of electoral reform when consulted (albeit with an inferior, non-PR variant), why do you think it appropriate that it should be imposed on them?
Surely, given that they have expressed so clear a view on the topic, they should at least be consulted in future?
No - we have a representative democracy in this country - MPs are elected to take decisions and they should not shirk this responsibility. Referendums are an undesirable device which very rarely resolve the questions they are supposed to decide.
The power of the Executive was always constrained by the need to ask the people's representatives for the view. You are suggesting that the Executive changes the rules - using their power of patronage to cow the people's representatives - to favour their narrow sectional interests.
We no longer have a representative democracy: we have an elective dictatorship.
(More philosphically, delegated power does not comprise the right to change the nature of that power)
What have the LD's actually done to improve the life of anyone in the UK.
Well, it's hard to disagree with the £10k income tax threshold.
And they are by far the most liberal party when it comes to civil liberties (although David Davis has probably been a rather more effective advocate). They seem to have lose their guts when it came to terrorist legislation.
The ultimate PB thread would be: Are Dan Hodges' predictions of a disaster for Ed Miliband because of the EU question over a Scottish independence bid given a shot in the arm by Falkirkgate a disaster for the Rev Paul Flowers?
Errr....I am writing a thread, about whether The Flowers Farago has the potential to be bad news for Labour.
@TSE - checking out the Apple store in Australia, they are offering a AUD$75 gift card on the iPad Air - Target in the US are also offering Target gift cards - so maybe not such great deals this year.....
@TSE - checking out the Apple store in Australia, they are offering a AUD$75 gift card on the iPad Air - Target in the US are also offering Target gift cards - so maybe not such great deals this year.....
Bah, I bought my iPad Air a few weeks ago, was after a new iPad mini tomorrow.
A lot will depend on the campaign I think, at some point the LDs will have to choose what the focus of their campaign will be as it's guaranteed to get very nasty between Labour and the Tories.
Option a) Focus on Labour's supposed shortcomings alongside the Tories and hope that people vote 'coalition' and anti-Labour in enough numbers to make up for the inevitable deserters in Lab-Lib marginals.
Option b) Focus on their achievements as being what they've stopped the Tories doing and have got them to do against their will and the horrible things the Tories will do without them in the next 5 years without them hoping that it stems the flow in Lib-Tory marginals and the odd Lab one too.
They will of course do a bit of both, but there will have to be an overriding message. Part of why people got so angry after the last election was the sense that they'd campaigned on a fluffier version of Labour's prospectus with a dose of 'aren'tcha just fed up of Gordon?' then happily ditched it for power.
Option a) means they'll struggle to form a Lab coalition, it's not too much of a problem though because if Lab win enough seats to be the largest party it will likely form a majority as if Ed comes through both other parties trying to batter him he'll probably be compelling enough to win over the DKs and Lab-Lib waverers. It also poses the risk of getting tied to Dave's 'austerity forever' notion, which touches Tory erogenous zones but no one else's.
Option b) They'll have no problem forming a coalition with Lab, but it poses the risk of a savaging from both sides as traitors who'll say absolutely anything they think is popular.
What Clegg will struggle to do without looking like an idiot is float above everything like he did last time. I just don't think the nuanced message will cut through the inevitable sound and fury.
Opposition parties called the Scottish Government “a shower of rank amateurs” after Mr Salmond rejected a warning by Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish Prime Minister, that Scotland would have to reapply from scratch for membership.
Mr Salmond brandished a sheet of paper at First Minister’s Questions that he said was a letter from the European Commission showing that Scotland could negotiate its terms of entry while remaining within the EU.
But he did not read out the next sentence, which said this could only be done with the backing of all member states. Mr Rajoy stated on Wednesday that his government’s stance was that a separate Scotland would be “left outside the EU”.
It later emerged the correspondence Mr Salmond was holding up had not been sent to the Scottish Government and had instead been lifted from a nationalist website.
Former LibDem leader Paddy Ashdown said he believed there was no way back into politics for Huhne – although he could return to public life.
Asked about a comeback, Lord Ashdown said he believed in redemption but added: "You never say never in politics but if I ever said never about anything I'd say it about this.
"I don't say he can't return to public life. He can in some form, no doubt after a decent period in which I think an important part of that will be silence and reflection."
Lord Ashdown added: "I think it is simply impossible to see this tragic spectacle worked out in public and ... not feel a degree of regret, sadness and pain about somebody else's misery."
Huhne accepted his political career was now over and added: "We will have to see what the future holds but I will hope for the best."
@TSE - checking out the Apple store in Australia, they are offering a AUD$75 gift card on the iPad Air - Target in the US are also offering Target gift cards - so maybe not such great deals this year.....
Bah, I bought my iPad Air a few weeks ago, was after a new iPad mini tomorrow.
I spend a bit of time every so often in the Apple shop messing about with the latest devices in lieu of actually forking out every time a new model is released. If I didn't do that I probably wouldn't be able to resist buying them as soon as they became available, which isn't really necessary. The iPad 2 I have is still perfectly adequate.
It later emerged the correspondence Mr Salmond was holding up had not been sent to the Scottish Government and had instead been lifted from a nationalist website.
Eck's entire manifesto is the fantasy of anonymous bloggers
Surprise surprise. As forecast by many of the less screwy on here. The entire idea it would be kicked out was always risible. No needs to find some new tunes. The whatabouteey has all the debating elegance of a PB Tory on a wet Monday in Falkirk.
A lot will depend on the campaign I think, at some point the LDs will have to choose what the focus of their campaign will be as it's guaranteed to get very nasty between Labour and the Tories.
Option a) Focus on Labour's supposed shortcomings alongside the Tories and hope that people vote 'coalition' and anti-Labour in enough numbers to make up for the inevitable deserters in Lab-Lib marginals.
Option b) Focus on their achievements as being what they've stopped the Tories doing and have got them to do against their will and the horrible things the Tories will do without them in the next 5 years without them hoping that it stems the flow in Lib-Tory marginals and the odd Lab one too.
They will of course do a bit of both, but there will have to be an overriding message. Part of why people got so angry after the last election was the sense that they'd campaigned on a fluffier version of Labour's prospectus with a dose of 'aren'tcha just fed up of Gordon?' then happily ditched it for power.
Option a) means they'll struggle to form a Lab coalition, it's not too much of a problem though because if Lab win enough seats to be the largest party it will likely form a majority as if Ed comes through both other parties trying to batter him he'll probably be compelling enough to win over the DKs and Lab-Lib waverers. It also poses the risk of getting tied to Dave's 'austerity forever' notion, which touches Tory erogenous zones but no one else's.
Option b) They'll have no problem forming a coalition with Lab, but it poses the risk of a savaging from both sides as traitors who'll say absolutely anything they think is popular.
What Clegg will struggle to do without looking like an idiot is float above everything like he did last time. I just don't think the nuanced message will cut through the inevitable sound and fury.
What's stopping the Liberals cutting and running in the Autumn if they decide they have nothing left to lose? Might as well chance it on the off chance they get some sort of dividend for pulling the plug on the Coalition.
Comments
So now we have to act on those Spaniards, Italians, Portugese and Greeks who are coming over and.................
However, our expats are having a lovely time basking in the sun
Gawd. Did you have to? I was feeling quite cheery and festive, then you go and put this thought out there.
Strange thing to say. Gordon Brown was completely unsuited to be leader of our country, on a number of levels and exhibiting degrees of incompetence and lack of character completely off the scale, even when compared with other people I disagree with, such as Tony Blair.
Surely in these circumstances you would expect other party leaders to speak out?
Also, where Labour had clearly "lost" the election (even if no-one else had clearly won), you would expect prospective opposition parties to demand changes before they would consider cooperating with them.
And er... surely it is the DNA of the LibDems to be liberal and democratic and prepared to cooperate with anyone who will help them achieve their aims, not to be anti- anyone or anything in particular?
And don't get me on the sudden invasion of Black Friday into the British calendar.
@DailyPostNews reports 'Hundreds of new homes to be built on Merseyside after developer signs £200m North West deal' http://t.co/NGi9QMCHwI
As a Party member, but only as that, I'm doutful whether a reduced (or even much reduced as some on here seem to hope) Liberal Democrat presence after the next General Election would find being in Government desirable.
Winning 57 seats having started from 62 was in many respects a slap in the face for Nick Clegg though I suspect there were many other factors at work in 2010 - an overarching desire to get rid of Labour with the Conservatives seen as the most effctive method.
To go down to 30 seats (or less) and still claim a mandate for having a presence in Government and at the Cabinet table seems very hard to argue. That's not to say that the Party cannot and should not support measures put in place by the next Government which it feels able to support while robustly opposing those with which it does not but that function can perhaps more effectively occur outside Government.
The Party needs time to redefine its programme and re-articulate some of the core beliefs which many members, I suspect, feel have been compromised in the Coalition years. That's not to say the Conservatives haven't also had to support legislation with which they weren't comfortable either.
For what little it's worth, I suspect the next Parliament will either have one party with a majority or as close to a majority as makes no difference
Second point, totally disagree. Apple does some excellent deals on Black Friday.
For us Apple Whores it is awesome.
The same applies in reverse, of course. Suggestions that the LibDems would find it difficult to work with Miliband are for the birds.
Because they are overcharging the rest of the year...?
Something beyond my work phone, a Galaxy S4
As soon as Cameron made the offer on the Friday afternoon, some kind of deal was always going to happen and it was merely a question of how much the LDs could get from the Conservatives in the negotiations.
Do I think Labour and the LDs COULD do a deal ? Yes, of course. Do I think the LDs SHOULD go into a Coalition-type deal with Labour ? No, because there are options other than the 2010 arrangement with the Conservatives which might be more viable to both sides.
It's easy for Clegg to promise this since he knows he will have to drop it in any future coalition.
In other words, Nick Clegg has good chances of being deputy Prime Minister until 2020.
' maybe PR without a referendum and an agreed reform of the HoL'
Why would Labour agree to PR when the current system works so well for them?
You really believe they would offer it without a referendum after insisting on one for the recent attempt at HoL reform?
On the Christmas spirit....I'm still chuckling at the Harvey Nics ad.....
http://www.harveynichols.com/sorry
I suspect that Nick will find Ed a lot more slippery and difficult to deal with than Dave but that is the nature of the beast and there is nothing Nick can or should do about it. The position with Brown was a little different. Firstly, he was the worst PM ever. Secondly, he had clearly lost an election and keeping him PM would have been to defy the British people. The latter might apply to Cameron as well.
He still retains an agile political mind.
His analyses remain worth looking at.
Plus some of us, including OGH, hold betting slips with Chris Huhne as next Lib Dem Leader.
Liverpool is still a bit too 'White British' relative to the rest of the UK.
Why not:
* Jim Devine
* Elliot Morley
* David Chaytor
* Eric Illsley
* Margaret Moran
* Dennis McShane
* Phil Woolas
They're all Labour after all!
If Mercedes have the best car next year it'll be fascinating to see how the Hamilton-Rosberg relationship is managed. They get along very well, but fighting for a title can change that sort of thing.
As a fellow LD, I'd be more interested in your take on Chris Huhne's article. I worry about the degree to which the Party has compromised its liberal instaincts in Government and some of Nick's recent language on immigration has troubled me.
There has to be a recognition that immigration is a matter of real concern in the electorate and the economic conditions of the past five years has exacerbated that tension. I see it up close and personal in lowland East London.
The big problem for me is the provision of infrastructure (health, transport, education etc) to support increasing and diverse urban and suburban populations. London desperately needs more housing to be built but simply building hourses and flats without providing the supporting public infrastructure will be disastrous.
Surely, given that they have expressed so clear a view on the topic, they should at least be consulted in future?
http://www.harveynichols.com/womens-1/e-boutiques/sorry-i-spent-it-on-myself/for-them.html
The gravel is a bit pricey, mind....
http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/heineken-cup/2013/1128/489759-heineken-cup/
Lab -4%
Con +1%
LD +1%
UKIP +2%
Its ashame there is no betting market on it making it, I could virtually guarantee it if I was to back it to be a dud !
You can never trust the bloody French.
Why should anyone listen to Huhne..Liar ,ex con ,philanderer.
What have the LD's actually done to improve the life of anyone in the UK.
They are a total waste of time and have been ever since the party was created by four well past it Politico's ..It is the party for inadequates .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-25133851
"Explaining his decision not to give Du a whole life order, Mr Justice Flaux cited a European Court of Human Rights ruling that such tariffs breach a prisoner's human rights."
I have no idea what Prozac is..you obviously do..
LD's think Huhne is a spokesman for them..an ex con ,liar philanderer..yeh, they got that right.
I am basing this analysis on the facts as presented by the Daily Mail, a UK-based news organization that seems more guided by reality and good journalistic judgment, and less biased by racial and political considerations, than is typical of the US media.
I'm not sure what that says about the Mail vs the US media.
It's a bonus Dan Hodges column
http://www.totalpolitics.com/opinion/427922/is-ed-miliband-lost.thtml
Is Dan Hodges right.......
http://labour-uncut.co.uk/2013/11/27/the-real-reason-why-the-co-op-saga-is-bad-news-for-labour/
Nasty to immigrants = not giving them free money
"Peaches Geldof could be probed"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25145096
*shudders*
Discuss.
We no longer have a representative democracy: we have an elective dictatorship.
(More philosphically, delegated power does not comprise the right to change the nature of that power)
As I understood it, the case was entirely related to a false accusation of paedophillia. Appalling, but not to do with immigration.
And they are by far the most liberal party when it comes to civil liberties (although David Davis has probably been a rather more effective advocate). They seem to have lose their guts when it came to terrorist legislation.
Option a) Focus on Labour's supposed shortcomings alongside the Tories and hope that people vote 'coalition' and anti-Labour in enough numbers to make up for the inevitable deserters in Lab-Lib marginals.
Option b) Focus on their achievements as being what they've stopped the Tories doing and have got them to do against their will and the horrible things the Tories will do without them in the next 5 years without them hoping that it stems the flow in Lib-Tory marginals and the odd Lab one too.
They will of course do a bit of both, but there will have to be an overriding message. Part of why people got so angry after the last election was the sense that they'd campaigned on a fluffier version of Labour's prospectus with a dose of 'aren'tcha just fed up of Gordon?' then happily ditched it for power.
Option a) means they'll struggle to form a Lab coalition, it's not too much of a problem though because if Lab win enough seats to be the largest party it will likely form a majority as if Ed comes through both other parties trying to batter him he'll probably be compelling enough to win over the DKs and Lab-Lib waverers. It also poses the risk of getting tied to Dave's 'austerity forever' notion, which touches Tory erogenous zones but no one else's.
Option b) They'll have no problem forming a coalition with Lab, but it poses the risk of a savaging from both sides as traitors who'll say absolutely anything they think is popular.
What Clegg will struggle to do without looking like an idiot is float above everything like he did last time. I just don't think the nuanced message will cut through the inevitable sound and fury.
Mr Salmond brandished a sheet of paper at First Minister’s Questions that he said was a letter from the European Commission showing that Scotland could negotiate its terms of entry while remaining within the EU.
But he did not read out the next sentence, which said this could only be done with the backing of all member states. Mr Rajoy stated on Wednesday that his government’s stance was that a separate Scotland would be “left outside the EU”.
It later emerged the correspondence Mr Salmond was holding up had not been sent to the Scottish Government and had instead been lifted from a nationalist website.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10482112/Alex-Salmond-rejects-Spanish-PMs-Europe-warning.html
Former EU judge boosts Alex Salmond's case by saying ejecting Scotland from union would cause unacceptable damage
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/nov/28/independent-scotland-eu-judicial-expert-alex-salmond?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter