Nick Clegg « Labour Uncut

Posts Tagged ‘Nick Clegg’

Equal-sizing constituencies is gerrymandering through ignorance, as well as cynicism, says Kevin Meagher

04/08/2010, 09:10:50 AM

In last week’s Guardian, Martin Kettle, accused Labour of ‘playing fast and loose on AV reform’ following the Shadow Cabinet’s decision to oppose the bill paving the way for next year’s referendum on electoral reform. It got me shouting at the cat.

Of course the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill also has bolted on to it measures to reduce the number of MPs and comprehensively redraw parliamentary constituencies, hence Labour’s objection.

But in a passage that sent dear old Puss heading for the cat-flap, Kettle cited the Chartists’ call for equal-sized parliamentary constituencies and asked whether Labour ‘is any longer a party of reform at all’ given that it is ‘no longer willing to go into the Parliamentary lobbies in September to advance the equality of representation for which the Chartists campaigned.’ (more…)

Posted in Uncut | 14 Comments »

Is it time to worry yet Nick?

30/07/2010, 10:51:20 AM

Following on from the Bloxwich-West by-election Labour victory earlier this month, Labour gained another council seat from the Tories in the West Midlands last night.

Lynda Leach won the Bilston North by-election on a massive 13.1% swing from the Tories since May this year.

But it is Nick Clegg who should be the most concerned this morning. The Lib Dem vote collapsed, down over 90% since May. Yes that’s 90%. Simon Hughes must be rubbing his hands together today.

The victory gives Labour their 30th seat of 60 on Wolverhampton Council, and puts overall control within reach.

Result

Lab 1292, Tory 460, BNP 131, UKIP 55, Lib Dem 52

Posted in Home | 1 Comment »

David Cameron is going berserk, says Kevin Meagher

29/07/2010, 12:27:07 PM

Oh dear, and it was all going so well.

Was it a lack of fresh air on the plane? Something he ate? Perhaps it was the heat which has shorted the political circuitry in his brain? Whatever it was, David Cameron seems to be going berserk.

After picking fights with just about every key public sector union and professional group in sight, he is now taking his peculiar brand of call-a-spade-a-shovel diplomacy on to the world stage. With predictably eye-wincing results. (more…)

Posted in Uncut | 4 Comments »

Wednesday News Review

28/07/2010, 07:47:26 AM

Liberal dilemma

Nick Clegg struggles with his new found unpopularity

Having won the leadership from the statist Labour left, Mili the Younger would have no option but to strike a hard bargain with the defenders of spending cuts that may, should the recent economic growth be sustained, have come to look a touch draconian. The studiedly centrist David, a stalwart of the Blairite bunker when a permanent “progressive realignment” with the Lib Dems (“the project”) was all the rage, makes a far more natural and amenable partner. With him as Labour leader, Mr Clegg would be a happy self-auctioneer, confident of repeating May’s trick by using Mili the Elder to force Mr Cameron to pay a steeper price than he would wish. – The Independent

Labour is to vote against legislation paving the way for a referendum on reforming the voting system. The shadow cabinet decided to oppose the Government’s Bill because it also includes provisions for equalising the size of constituencies. The move sets the stage for a major test of the coalition, with Labour MPs lining up alongside rebel Tories in a bid to derail the proposals. The commitment to a referendum on switching to Alternative Vote was a key concession obtained by Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg as part of his deal with David Cameron. – Press Association

(more…)

Posted in Unbound | No Comments »

Clegg’s dream will crash and burn – Kevin Meagher predicts tears for the Yes campaign

15/07/2010, 04:28:39 PM

REFERENDUMS, the great Clement Attlee dismissively observed, are “devices for demagogues and dictators”.

There’s a third ‘D’. Desperate. They are a means of papering over political cracks; which is why a plebiscite is being dumped on the British public next year on whether we should scrap our first-past-the-post electoral system and replace it with the PR-lite Alternative Vote model.

Attlee’s successor-but-one, Harold Wilson, is the only leader to have held a national referendum. In his case on whether we stayed in the European Economic Community back in 1975. In that instance, collective Cabinet responsibility was suspended to allow a divided government to campaign on either side of the issue.

(more…)

Posted in Uncut | 5 Comments »

Khalid Mahmood is not impressed with AV

12/07/2010, 11:41:28 AM

Nick Clegg made his pitiful address to the House of Commons on electoral reform as though it were the greatest package of constitutional reform since the Great Reform Act of 1832. The truth, however, is a little more prosaic. Of the three main changes he announced, two are very much the work of the Conservatives and suit their political prospectus far more than they suit Clegg’s.

Even the planned referendum on the alternative vote (AV) is hardly the stuff of Lib Dem dreams. For those idealistic Liberal Democrats who have battled for decades for the promised land of proportional representation, their leader’s announcement must have come as a bitter blow.

I oppose the alternative vote system. I should say that this is not because I think it will do me much harm come the next election. I was, after all, elected with more than fifty per cent of the vote in Perry Barr. I oppose AV because, for one thing, it compromises one of the very best aspects of our democracy: its simplicity. I have never met a single constituent of mine who cannot understand the physical action of voting: one cross in one box. (more…)

Posted in Uncut | 2 Comments »

Jon Bounds is not impressed by Nick Clegg’s Your Freedom

05/07/2010, 09:36:37 AM

As a principle, asking people what they think is a good thing, but ask them in the wrong way and all you’re doing is storing up resentment. It looks like Nick Clegg’s Your Freedom is piling up the anger.

If you’ve ever been on TV or radio and the producer has developed an interest in your breakfasting habits as you’re sitting down, it’s because just asking people ‘to say something’ doesn’t work — they mumble, go quiet, and generally say nothing of even enough use to check that the sound levels are right.

So it is with consultation. Ask too tight, or loaded, a question and you do nothing but make people angry, but make the question too wide and you’re going to have a hell of a job finding anything useful. (more…)

Posted in Uncut | 3 Comments »