If you follow Have I Got News For You then you will have noticed that jokes featuring Ed Davey have featured for several weeks now. So perhaps it is no surprise that he will be appearing as a guest panellist this week. Expect some gentle (and maybe robust) ribbing from the two regulars and Stephen Mangan who will be in the chair. You can watch the episode tomorrow at 9pm on BBC1 or on iPlayer.
And the panel for this evening’s edition of BBC Question Time will include Christine Jardine, bringing her usual common sense to the programme that can be so irritating. She shares the table with fellow MPs Wes Streeting and Tom Tugendhat, plus writer Emma Dabiri and Piers Morgan.
* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.
Follow @LibDemVoice on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
An alarming decline in Welsh nature
Weekly Road Report - West End Ward #dundeewestend
Remembering Don Cupitt and his television series The Sea of Faith
How to improve the regulation of political polling - The Week in Polls
Why the government are getting it wrong on local government reorganisation
John Mc
Simon R
David Evans
David Raw
11 Comments
Looking forward to Christine Jardine standing up for Liberal values against Wes Streeting on QT.
@John Grout
What is “QT” please?
Question Time
I’m not sure what Christine Jardine can say against Wes Streeting or any other pro Starmer Labour MP at the moment.
There may seem to be some obvious differences such as on the Winter Fuel Payment; but, we all know that Streeting, too, would be in favour of keeping it if anyone else had removed it.
Which of them would the LIb Dems refuse admission to in the, admittedly somewhat unlikely, event they wanted to quit Labour?
“Which of them would the LIb Dems refuse admission to in the, admittedly somewhat unlikely, event they wanted to quit Labour?”
The ones that think a classes’ interest (or the state’s interest) trumps an individual’s interest I would hope. I don’t see queues of Labour MPs or members lining up to join us. Perhaps the two parties are not as similar as you imply.
We can add:
failure to move faster on green transition,
failure to put Thames Water into non-profit entities
failure to move faster to single market/customs union damaging business ,
VAT on private school fees,
agricultural property relief,
Increase of employers contribution to National Insurance damaging small businesses
Maintaining winter fuel allowance and bringing payment into tax net
Tristan,
I notice, you’re not actually naming names.
The points you mention are largely policies on which Labour MPs have changed their opinions from what they were when in opposition and now they are in government. The exceptions, perhaps, being the ones about VAT on private school fees and agricultural property tax relief.
Lib Dems themselves are divided on these.
Tim Montgomerie reckons if Reform keep marching then the Cons will split, half of their MP cohort going over to Farage with the other half linking up with us!
@Peter. It would be rather silly of Tristan, or anyone, to ‘name names’ of ‘unacceptable’ Labour MPs, given there’s currently no indication any of them wish to switch to us. It would be like some fantasy football game – and just as pointless – working through each of 411 people to determine who would/wouldn’t fit the team.
“Tim Montgomerie reckons if Reform keep marching then the Cons will split….”
He could be right.
What is less discussed is what is happening on the left. The Independent Alliance has the same number of MPs as Reform. If you count in suspended MPs like Zarah Sultana, Rebecca Long Bailey and others who Keir Starmer is clearly looking to be rid of, they have more than double.
At present the vote is split approximately as a quarter each for Labour, Reform, and the Tories. The Lib Dems and others account for the remainder.
Add in a new party of the left and, even if it picks up only 10% of the votes, the current Labour Party looks to be toast. It could go well follow many other European Social Democratic parties into oblivion.
A fundamental political realignment, similar to what we have seen happen in France, looks to be a likely outcome.
Ed received quite a bit of stick on HIGNFY though took it all on the chin and remained smiling and engaged throughout. He was obviously the most agreeable of the participants and certainly impressed me. We need more of this sort of publicity.
Peter Harris. For me, that would be Rachel Parris although Ed did well.