Comments on: Wild election rumour no.94: Zac Goldsmith defection

By: Machiavelli's Understudy

Machiavelli's Understudy — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 18:57:54 +0000

How did I miss this one?

Anyway, please- take him. He’s awful. It might dent our pride a little, but it’ll be worth it in the long run. He definitely isn’t a Conservative. He isn’t a Liberal. He’s not a liberal Conservative. I think he might just be a Liberal Democrat, though…

By: peter

peter — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 13:13:40 +0000

I thought we had Lucan (aka Thurso) already?

By: Melian

Melian — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 12:36:38 +0000

Angus Huck, the Benn political family (already in five generations, I think) is a good example of why you shouldn’t judge one’s political views by his father’s or uncle’s views.

By: Chris Paul

Chris Paul — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:33:14 +0000

God you lot are an easy wind up aren’t you? The UK Daily Mischief you say?

By: Angus Huck

Angus Huck — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 09:27:17 +0000

I know not if Zac Goldsmith is reasonably describable as a “liberal”. But one thing is for certain: his father, Sir “Jams” Goldsmith”, was not.

OK, a man cannot be blamed for what his father was or did, even if he lives off his father’s fortune.

But the father in this case was a self-proclaimed “green”, and it is from him, and his uncle, Teddy Goldsmith, that Zac derives his greenery.

Sir Jams was a kind of aspirant Roman Emperor who believed the world should be ruled by an aristocratic elite, with the common folk (much slimmed down by disease and famine) reduced to the status of serfs.

Goldsmith Senior’s views were very much informed by the late Lord Lucan (admirer of Hitler), the late John Aspinall (eugenicist), and his brother, Teddy, whose magazine, “The Ecologist”, Sir Jams bankrolled.

But how “aristocratic” was Goldsmith? He was the grandson of a Frankfurt Jew on his father’s side, while his mother was the daughter of an Auvergne hill farmer and worked as a croupier in a Cannes casino. (I, too, am the descendant of hill farmers. Does that make me an aristocrat?)

And what of Aspinall? Descended from Lancashire mill-owners? And Lucan? The first Earl of Lucan was a soldier in Cromwell’s army given land and a title for being beastly to the Irish.

The common folk are just as good as any of these eco-fascists. None of them in the Lib Dems, pelase.

By: Geoffrey Payne

Geoffrey Payne — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 08:52:43 +0000

As for the other personalities, I believe Bercow supported the war in Iraq and hasn’t admitted even in hindsight that he was wrong to do so, so I would rather he join New Labour.
As for Goldsmith, I am against rejecting his defection to the Lib Dems on the grounds of his class, after all Nick Clegg went to public school, so using that as an argument is silly, and wrong in principle in any case. I am concerned that he is hostile to the EU and that he joined the Tories in the first place. However I strongly agree with him that global warming is the most important issue facing the world today, and we need someone with his expertise and sense of urgency to help us develop our policies where he won’t he hampered by the Tory obsession with free markets, which torpedoed their green agenda.

By: Geoffrey Payne

Geoffrey Payne — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 08:44:47 +0000

I would like to say to Mark Mills that Brian Sedgemoor IS a liberal and a much valued member of Hackney Liberal Democrats. During the 1980s it was the Labour Left AND the Liberals who were defending civil liberties from an onslaught from Thatcher’s Tories. Brian had the courage of his convictions unlike most of his colleagues in what is now New Labour who have dumped civil liberties in favour of authoritarianism.

By: Sid

Sid — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 08:40:07 +0000

I tend to agree, Sid. His proposals did not go down well amongst the Tories did they?

By: Sid

Sid — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 01:16:27 +0000

I hope not. A very rich man telling the lower orders how to cut down on energy and so on will endear us to no-one.

By: welshproudliberal

welshproudliberal — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 17:55:27 +0000

As David Laws said to George Osborne. “Thank you very much but I am not a Conservative, I am a Liberal”

Dream on Cy Pomegranite.

By: Cy Pomeroy

Cy Pomeroy — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 16:34:22 +0000

Dream on, why would he want to join the Lib-Dems, political oblivion for him that way, and forget Bercow too, if he was gonna jump ship he would have done so by now. Keep your eyes on some of your right wing MP’s, much more likely to defect to the Tories than Tories coming over to Lib-Dems.

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 16:12:35 +0000

However, IF Goldsmith would defect to Lib Dems, it would be interesting to see him stand in Finchley and Golders Green.

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 16:02:17 +0000

Couldn’t Labour have Goldsmith and Lib Dems Bercow?

By: Mark Mills

Mark Mills — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 09:10:52 +0000

He is not a liberal (but then again neither was sedgemoor). I would normally be against someone like him joining us but his defection would be such an embarrasment for Cameron, such a boost for Richmond Lib Dems and such a potential financial boost for us that I would welcome him with open arms.

By: Tim Leunig

Tim Leunig — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 20:39:00 +0000

I would be delighted to see him in our party. We don’t know much about his views on civil liberties, international affairs etc (except Europe), but clearly on the environment – his first issue – we are closer than any other party with parliamentary representation. Let us not be too precious, if he want to join us, let us welcome him with open arms (and I am sure Susan Kramer can find some “Vote Kramer” leaflets for him to deliver around here!)

By: Nick Barlow

Nick Barlow — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 17:41:31 +0000

I could see him leaving the Tories, especially after the battering his commission report has received from various sections of that party, but I'd think he'd be more likely to go to the Greens rather than us. I don't think he's a liberal yet, but I'm not convinced he's an entirely lost cause. There's an interview with him here that might be of some interest, anyway.

By: Richard Harris

Richard Harris — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 17:08:52 +0000

I hope not; he’ no liberal. The Tories are welcome to keep him. We need to be a bit more selective about who we allow into our ranks. We should not be a repository for extremists, rejects, malcontents and nutters from other parties.

By: MatGB

MatGB — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 17:08:26 +0000

I (mostly) agree with Tristan–there are liberal Greens, but Goldsmith is no liberal.

By: ARd

ARd — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 16:54:55 +0000

If the GE will be this year, as speculated, could Zac Goldsmith really become a Lib Dem candidate, even if he defected now? I think I read somewhere, that a person must be a member of the Lib Dem party for at least a year before he can be put before a local party for selection? Just curious.

By: Tristan Mills

Tristan Mills — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 16:47:16 +0000

I hope not.

He’s no liberal. He’s a paternalistic green feudalist. Being a green does not make you a liberal (look at the Green Party for a start).

‘Green credentials’ mean nothing, would we want someone like George Galloway if he had ‘green credetials’? I hope not.