Tim Farron has missed Cameron’s “Deal or no deal” performance today as he’s been away in Manchester and Edinburgh, but he’s been keeping an eye on developments. This is what he had to say:
The Prime Minister’s draft deal means the first stage of the campaign to keep Britain at the heart of Europe and global affairs is complete. Now, the Liberal Democrats will play a leading role in working and campaigning to deliver a ‘Remain’ result that will safeguard our economy.
Next Wednesday we will be launching our Liberal Democrat campaign to keep Britain in Europe. Our unity contrasts with the Tories.
Whatever the Prime Minister delivered some of his backbenchers would say it is not enough. The Prime Minister could have built a wall and demanded Europe pay for it, delivered the closure of all borders and the ending of any payment to the EU and still some of his backbenchers would say it is not enough.
They will always say that he should have demanded more. They are an utter farce and Britain deserves better than seeing Tory MPs fighting like rats in a sack.
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13 Comments
OK, I know Europe is in the news with the political chattering classes – but so is this.
It’s on the BBC News web site today and we ought to be doing something about it. Under the Coalition, the party signed up to welfare changes including PIPS replacing DLA. At the least we need a statement of regret and an apology from Tim. This is one of the many things so many of us found hard to stomach in the Coalition years and it’s coming back to haunt us now..
BBC NEWS WEBSITE Nearly 14,000 disabled people have mobility cars taken away.
Despite being an amputee with spina bifida and only able to take a few steps, Christine Mitchell did not score the points she needed to keep her Motability car. She appealed and eventually won, but is extremely critical of the reassessment process. “I explained to the lady in detail that I wasn’t able to walk. She asked me how far I could walk, and there was a filing cabinet that was maybe 3ft away, and I said I could possibly walk that far. “It was so frustrating. I looked at my husband and I was near enough in tears because I couldn’t make her understand. “She hadn’t got a clue what spina bifida was.”
Lol, “The Prime Minister could have built a wall and demanded Europe pay for it” and “some of his backbenchers would say it is not enough.”.
This is true, but we need to ramp up the attacks on Corbyn. I know many regulars think LDV is an attack machine on the Labour Party, but these rumours about an electoral pact with Lib Dems and Labour have been damaging. The public were scared enough of Ed Miliband, never mind Jeremy Corbyn.
By the way, good point by David Raw about 14,000 disabled people getting their mobility cars taken away:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35476904
Does Tim Farron really want to live in a world where all members of a party hold exactly the same views, or at least pretendto? This kind of thing depresses me.
@ Eddie Sammon Thank you kindly for your support on mobility – But – “we need to ramp up the attacks on Corbyn”. ?
Oh no we don’t. People are fed up with negative politics. We need to have a positive set of Liberal Democrat policies to resonate with the public.
I happen to think Corbyn is a pretty decent sort of human being .and … a) the Tory attack dogs are perfectly capable of savaging him without help from us,… and b) attacks by us will confirm that we live in an annex of the Tory Mansion that will be dusted down again for occasional use. It’s called the Coalition in waiting and the sooner it’s a dim and distant memory the better.
David , ie David Raw , I am not at all keen on Corbyn because of his appointments and associations , really do you know there are actually members of the Stalin Society in his coterie , and some of Siamus Milne s views confirm the sympathetic view to that tyrant .
You have it on the disability issue , though I do not think it is an apology that is needed, as these aspects were not originally intended, you must understand , as someone who has been both an adviser in a specialist private capacity under contract to government , and , exactly the reverse , in need ,as a result of a car accident which caused permanent issues and injury , particularly for my wife , I know it is the ones who , after these things with regard to benefit changes, are planned , subsequently make a nightmare out of design and implementation ! You are correct , we need to fight this and can , we did not design it and now not implementing it , we need to say this , a Liberal attitude is about every one being different and their personal circumstances must be considered. We return to why I am not a Corbyn fan particularly , we must be prepared to criticise people in public sector as well as support them . Many protected there , have good jobs they do not do well .Of course there are superb professionals there , yet believe me , some are far from it , and that includes senior devisers of these wretched points based matrix systems !!!
P.S. When saying I was an advisor , I must add I do not mean a spad , ie specialist advisor to government ,not as in ministers !!!, NO, I advised unemployed people , one to one and as a seminar leader , and many of my clients were in my own field of the arts and creative industry , who often were in real difficulty , some with disabilities . I worked on occassion with and for government providers .
Tim Farron should not assume that all Lib Dems are enthusiastic europhiles. Here’s one who, having lived, worked and studied in Europe and who speaks two of the major languages on the continent, would class himself as a euro pragmatist.
Tim, please don’t start knocking Cameron, especially if he actually does believe his own propaganda. What he has wrung out of Europe is no better or no worse than what Harold Wilson claimed he had got back in 1975. If he and the majority of his cabinet come out for the Remain camp, then the chances of our voting to stay in what is a deeply flawed organisation but, sadly, the only show in town for this plucky little island of ours, are greatly enhanced.
What we should be doing is challenging the silk tongued peddlers of euro hate such as Hannan and Farage to tell us exactly what life would be like for us outside the club. Perhaps they have already made plans like their anti Euro colleague, Lord Lawson, who some time ago relocated to France. The hypocrisy of it all!
I certainly have respect for John Marriott’s unenthusiastic but pragmatic conclusion that “remain” has the edge. However I do not think it is fair to say Cameron’s “deal” is no better than Harold Wilson’s “go easy on New Zealand lamb” effort. The current offer shows real recognition from our EU brethren of the special position the UK needs – particularly in having full and untrammelled access to the single market et al while maintaining our separate currency without having to be involved in any euro-bailouts and securing the dominant financial position of the City of London.
@ John Marriott Agree – especially about Maggie’s ‘brilliant’ Chancellor, the climate change denying Nigel Lawson. Long may he collect his pension in France.
@ Lorenzo I wouldn’t take Milne that seriously, and as a Liberal you shouldn’t believe in guilt by association.
The nasty old Spectator loves having a go at him. I can’t really see a Winchester educated son of a former director general of the BBC – who wrote a rather barmy essay on Stalin – storming the barricades in Parliament Square. To be fair to him, he’s a good journalist – which is what he was hired for – and he wrote the best account of how Maggie set the dogs on the miners in the 1980’s. Being a pal of Mandelson doesn’t make him into a red clawed revolutionary..
I’d be more worried about the fluffy Diane Abbott.
I see the Daily Wail front page is screaming “Who will speak for England” – clearly the non dom tax exile Lord Rothermere. Very different front page in the Scottish Daily Mail.
Such a parcel of rogues..
Life in the club for the poorer low skilled has not been very good. Are they expendable, labelled as lazy when we never had a problem before migration? So many were fooled because mass migration suits employers who undermine the pay and conditions we and our parents fought so hard for. How can a low skilled family compete with migrants who willingly live in overcrowded conditions? That seems to be the model planned for all of us. At first it started with the low skilled but now is starting to include those who think themselves middle class. Tell me how staying in will fix this. To me we are all doomed either way so why let other countries help in the way down?
David Raw 3rd Feb ’16 – 11:12pm
Well said David.
Although Eddie is to be thanked for his ongoing interest, he is not a member and his stated Lib Dem voting intentions swing between possible and zero.
I share your thoughts re Corbyn himself and am much heartened by the apparent growth in support for voting reform amongst Labour members.
Broad cross-party pro-PR support may yet be the lasting legacy of the 2015 defeats of the Lib Dems and Labour and, it must be admitted, the under-representation of UKIP at Westminster.