Newsflash: Lib Dems walk out of House of Commons (updated)
Written by The Voice on 26th February 2008 – 4:51 pmThe Liberal Democrats’ Shadow Foreign Secretary, Edward Davey, has been thrown out of the House of Commons by Deputy Speaker Michael Lord. The rest of the Parliamentary Party have walked out in protest during the debate on the Lisbon Treaty.
The party’s amendment calling for a in/out referendum was blocked by the parliamentary authorities. Ed Davey had angrily protested, describing the decision as “an outrage”.
Updates: BBC News - Sky News - Lynne Featherstone MP - Nick Clegg and Ed Davey
Posted in News
26th February 2008 at 5:03 pm
Quite right too. LDs have 1/10 MPs, took nearly a quarter of the national vote last time around and yet their single amendment ‘isn’t chosen’ ? The walk-out shows passion and helps to underline the new edginess we’ve started to show.
More!
26th February 2008 at 5:08 pm
Hmmm… is it outrageous for me to suggest this “outrage” is somewhat manufactured, designed to get in the newspapers while letting them off the hook to vote on the Lisbon referendum amendment?
I can see strong arguments for ruling the amendment out of order. The bill is about the ratification of the Lisbon treaty. To shoehorn an in/out amendment always was a long shot.
If they are really outraged then the obvious course of action must now surely be to support the Tory amendment? To do anything less smacks of capitulation.
26th February 2008 at 5:16 pm
I’d of thought it a quite reasonable amendment as if we left the EU, the Treaty would be redundant.
26th February 2008 at 5:19 pm
Useful Idiot
26th February 2008 at 5:25 pm
James, I would be delighted to learn that the party has discovered such an aptitude for media-savvy.
I personally would rather we had supported a referendum on the Lisbon treaty from day one - but at least this shows that our Parliamentarians are willing to stick to a principle, even if it’s a principle I don’t agree with…
26th February 2008 at 5:29 pm
I’m sure it has been convenient! Like Joe though, I’d be delighted if we have learned to manipulate the media agenda!
26th February 2008 at 5:29 pm
I really don’t mean to be such a stick-in-the-mud, but does it really require “principles” to walk out of a door with a group of other people?
It’s great symbolism and has clearly worked in terms of seizing the media’s attention (at least for the next half hour), but don’t try kidding me it is anything more than that.
26th February 2008 at 5:41 pm
Hmm…you’re talking sense as usual james…
26th February 2008 at 5:45 pm
Surely time to call the speaker an arse!
Is it only me but didn’t the Speaker, Brown and Cameron vote recently to oppose making MP’s expenses public? Why isn’t the speakers recent indiscretion being related to that?
I’ not so sure that his actions today are not unrelated to the stance Simon Hughes took back then.
26th February 2008 at 5:45 pm
That Ed Davey? Cor blimey eh? Wherever there’s trouble…:@O
26th February 2008 at 6:07 pm
No it doesn’t require principles to walk out, but it is a bonus to have them.
Like many people I am getting fed up that after 35 years of a third party getting around 20-25% of the vote, we are not given proper recognition.
26th February 2008 at 6:17 pm
James is of course quite right and we should all be terribly, terribly sensible.
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! GO ED! GO ED!
26th February 2008 at 6:17 pm
Well throwing a fit and getting chucked out isn’t going to get us the right recognition is it?
26th February 2008 at 6:19 pm
Why not? It could be, and will be, played either way.
26th February 2008 at 6:21 pm
You go girl!
26th February 2008 at 6:27 pm
Speaking as a Tory, I think today’s rather childish gesture by the LD’s is entirely in tune with a campaign that seems to be about trying to create an issue where there is not one i.e. should we be in or out of the EU, whilst conveniently ignoring the commitment to hold a referendum on a real issue i.e. the Lisbon Treaty. Honestly, how can you guys call yourselves Liberal DEMOCRATS after backtracking on a manifesto commitment to bring EU democracy closer to the voters. Shame on you for this spinning.
26th February 2008 at 6:30 pm
I’m very amused by the iwantareferendum.com ads all over this article.
26th February 2008 at 6:39 pm
It’s like when they all ganged up on Kennedy - sit on the benches and do your sodding job even on bad days…just like the rest of us have to!
26th February 2008 at 6:43 pm
Oh and I’m disappointed with your immature attitude Alix - if you do support the position the Lib Dem MPs have taken express it in a more mature way than squealing ‘go ed go ed’.
It’s really not becoming. And it’s much more serious than that.
26th February 2008 at 7:01 pm
It’s not sensible to go on playing the parliamentary game in a defunct system. To my mind this relates entirely to the proportionality - or rather, lack of it - given to the national third party under the UK’s ‘democratic’ system. We should be much angrier about this and, if that means withdrawing from the system when it is blatantly being manipulated, so be it.
Think about it - the third party has withdrawn from the system because it is broken.
In continuing to participate meekly we give a hint of legitimacy to the system. We would do better to remember our under-represented millions more often.
And let the Tories scoff, they just wish that they’d thought of this first!
26th February 2008 at 7:22 pm
in any event, a good subject for a LDV poll ? :o)
26th February 2008 at 7:25 pm
I’m glad we’ve stood up for ourselves (literally)… Much better than yesterday’s cosying-up to the Speaker. It’s ludicrous – as it was with the Tories trying to push an amendment about their referendum the other week – that a major party can’t get a major issue tabled for debate: this is a democracy, not a gentlemen’s club. Most people outside Parliament think the rules are stupid and designed for politicians to ignore what real people are thinking. We should do this sort of thing more often rather than politely propping the system up.
26th February 2008 at 7:33 pm
this will be a bell weather as to whether radical actions (distinct from radical policies) are received in the media as a sucess or are written up as ‘petty lib dems’. we know how the anti-european press will couch it (if they even bother) but how the guardian and indy report it will be more interesting. it’s so tough to act decisively and ‘radically’ without also being caricatured as amateurish.
26th February 2008 at 7:35 pm
There does come a point where sitting down wearing serious expressions as a charade of a debate is conducted by the other parties is no longer an acceptable course of action. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to push the parliamentary process to breaking point when that process is delivering patently unsatisfactory results.
To me, it seems both principled and media-savvy to do so, and I’m surprised to see any hand-wringing over such an obviously correct course of action. Ed Davey should be fully supported for the literal and metaphorical stand taken.
26th February 2008 at 7:40 pm
According to the Daily Mirror’s political editor on 5Live Drive, the Lib Dems were victims of a “Tory/Labour stitch-up” over the amendment & he was very positive about the Lib Dems.
We need more of this…..much more.
26th February 2008 at 7:42 pm
There’s already a mildly cynical but generally balanced Michael White piece in the Grauny which I have commented on:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/02/lib_dem_ejected.html
Clue: I wasn’t the one who said “Clegg is a numpty.”
GO ED! GO ED!
26th February 2008 at 7:47 pm
Absolutely agree this was the right thing to do.
How extraordinary to see a Tory above suggesting that whether we are in or out of the European Union is a non-issue. How many conservative MPs would sign up for that?!
26th February 2008 at 7:58 pm
It’s absolutely the right thing to do, politically at least, so long as we now subsequently raise the stakes and threaten to vote for the Tory amendment UNLESS we are allowed a vote on holding an in/out referendum.
Otherwise it is a bit of an empty gesture and will be seen as such.
I certainly agree that it is laughable to hear a Tory claim that EU membership is a non-issue though. Not in his party it isn’t as he knows better than I.
26th February 2008 at 8:23 pm
Janes you are absolutely spot on. We should be doing more of this. Challenging the cosy status quo, upsetting the stupid and arcane rules
26th February 2008 at 8:23 pm
oops sorry that should be JAMES
26th February 2008 at 8:29 pm
Wow James changed his tune - all in the space of me cooking superquick fresh pasta and eating it..cripes politics is too darned fast for me
26th February 2008 at 8:31 pm
New poll (and new article) now posted here.
26th February 2008 at 8:37 pm
It’s about time we stood up to the arcane practices in Parliament in any case. After all we are (or should be) a party who wants to change the system not inherit it.
26th February 2008 at 9:02 pm
Very much applaud this new ’spikier’ approach. If it was a pre-prepared stunt, it was a very good one.
For far too long we’ve been content with being terribly sensible. It’s about time we made a bit more noise, challenged the conventions and found different ways to get our point across.
Well done Ed!
26th February 2008 at 9:11 pm
Ok, so table an amendment that you know won’t be in order and then act outraged when it is not selected. It was so obviously contrived.
I’m afraid it came across as a toys out pram hissy fit to me adn Clegg would have been better to drop the policy when he took over.
As a media grabbing stunt, shall have to wait until the morning.
26th February 2008 at 9:14 pm
I still don’t understand why the fact that the walk-out was probably “contrived” (or “planned” as you may prefer) is a bad thing. It’s about making a point. Point was made. Well done!
26th February 2008 at 9:22 pm
Well you might want to ask some constituents for their views on why their MP wasn’t working in the House of Commons this afternoon. Or you may want to ask yourself why you’re a member of a party that has MPs so manipulative and contrived…
These aren’t necessarily my pov I’m just in a very questionning mood tonight and it’s coincided with this story!!!
26th February 2008 at 10:20 pm
Jo:
Not sure how you can argue that moving from
…to
…represents a change of tune. Indeed, I’m surprised people aren’t moaning about my monotonousness!
26th February 2008 at 10:29 pm
As usual we’ve suffered from bad timing again though. Talk about bad luck to see the hostage video coming out now…
26th February 2008 at 10:31 pm
Yes the story about Ed and the lemon slice may come out now…
26th February 2008 at 10:36 pm
Gosh, who was that?
Yes, sorry James :@P
26th February 2008 at 11:29 pm
not a squeak on news at 10 or even newsnight … guess they’ll have to do it again.
Just a thought though, much as the Tories are huffing and puffing and being all prissy, what would have been the consequences had they walked out in protest too?
27th February 2008 at 12:11 am
Coverage on channel 4 though, not that either situation on both channels is a surprise there.
I for one think it’s a very great move, orchestrated or not, and it’s sure to rile some of the public in to support in the short term. The question, as Graham too puts it, is if Clegg has the chutzpah to raise the ante.
27th February 2008 at 8:03 am
We’re all losing sight of the very stark fact that Ed lost it in the commons to such an extent that he was thrown out. Yes the other MPs walked to hide it but the fact remains that one of our MPs was excluded from debate. That happens so rarely that surely questions about Ed must be raised?
27th February 2008 at 8:33 am
The whole ‘in or out’ referendum seems highly contrived and an attempt to divert from not supporting a referendum on the constitutreaty. To most lay observers, reliant upon the views of others, the treaty is highly similar to the constitution. The constitution would have been subject to a referendum. So why not the treaty?
And mock outrage by the LDs over an amendment that was never going to happen is frankly disappointing. If the treaty isn’t substantively the same thing as the constitution say so and don’t hide behind a bogus “real issue is this…” argument.
27th February 2008 at 9:13 am
Jo wrote:
“We’re all losing sight of the very stark fact that Ed lost it in the commons to such an extent that he was thrown out. Yes the other MPs walked to hide it but the fact remains that one of our MPs was excluded from debate. That happens so rarely that surely questions about Ed must be raised?”
It was clearly a put-up job. The fact that the Lib Dem benches were packed, while the others were virtually empty, makes that obvious.
The problem is that the whole “in-out referendum” policy is such a transparent ploy to avoid the issue of the Lisbon treaty, on which the Parliamentary party is so obviously divided, that it would be difficult to sympathise, even had Davey’s protest been spontaneous.
According to this article by Neil O’Brien, we have now gone back on Clegg’s “on-the-hoof” position that we would vote against a referendum on the Lisbon treaty:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/neil_obrien/2008/02/
coming_or_going.html
That at least was a clear position. Now it’s difficult to disagree with O’Brien’s comment, “What a mess”.
Chris Phillips