Biteback has recently published David Laws’ Coalition Diaries, 2012-15. They are well worth a read. Unlike his Coalition book published last year, these contemperaneous diaries aren’t nicely organised into different subjects and you tend to get more of a flavour of the frustrations and emotions that were going on at the time.
I am wending my way through the 560 page volume and will drop you the odd snippet while I read.
John Rentoul seems to be doing the same, on Twitter. He posted an account of a meeting between the Tory Chief Whip Sir George Young and Tory Ministers which shows the contempt in which they held the Speaker, John Bercow and their determination to behave like naughty children at Prime Minister’s Questions.
Good story from David Laws's diaries of Cabinet meeting in Nov 2012: George Young reported meeting with Speaker pic.twitter.com/fsVh53oprm
— John Rentoul (@JohnRentoul) September 29, 2017
What I like about diaries is that you get little asides which, at the time they are written, seem fairly ordinary comments but seem quite prescient in hindsight. “Not sure MG is a fan of Boris” written in 2012 becomes more significant when you see what happened between the two of them after the referendum.
What, of course, was even more interesting, was Laws basically supporting Gove’s leadership bid when it did come.
I’m looking forward to more of these little gems.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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10 Comments
Why was a Lib Demmer even considering supporting a Tory when they seem to hate the sight of us!?
In a living language the meaning of words changes over time, so it may be useful to philologists (such as the late Tolkien) to consider the idiolect.
Idiolect is a word that emerged from a crossword, but is not in my printed edition of the Oxford or Chambers or BBC dictionaries. It is therefore a neologism, which neologism is not.
A gay person could be sad for a while, which needs empathy when sympathy might be rejected.
Nowadays “decimate” is understood to mean destruction of a lot more than ten per cent of a population.
How was it possible for a Lib Dem MP to support a Tory MP in a leadership bid when he is not a member of the Tory selectorate?
Caron
Mike Smithson on PoliticalBetting.com has said that the Conservative Party Membership has now dropped below that of the Liberal Democrats. Is that true?
Please tell us more.
Terribly sorry but £20 for an ebook is criminal.
Laws supporting Gove’s “leadership” bid tells me all I want to know about Laws.
Thank you David Raw. I would also say co firms all my previous perceptions
Perhaps Bercow deserves to be held in contempt?
I’m afraid that David Laws and Co are responsible for our present plight, as a party and a country. Tories in all but name and unable to see the damage they did and have created, the midwives of Austerity and Brexit, neither of which serve us well.
It is odd that Laws supported Gove for leader of the Tory party as from Law’s own account in his previous book Gove behaved appallingly during the Coalition, particularly after he employed Dominic Cummings.
Still there was not much of a choice really was there? And now it is even worse.