6 Comments

• Madli 4th May '13 - 9:13pm

  I guess the answer of the lib dems is to join the Euro?

  Anyone apologizing for that blunder yet?

• A Social Liberal 5th May '13 - 4:33am

  I think that NIck Clegg is mistaken in his belief that the votes held up in the councils where Lib Dems MPs have seats. Yes, some – like Gloucestershire – did well but on the other hand Bristol where Stephen Williams has his constituency had a net loss of 10 Lib Dem seats meaning that the LIb Dems are no longer the largest party there.

  I may be wrong but I believe that 19 of the Lib Dem MPs who have seats where councils held elections last Thursday saw those councils lose Lib Dem councillors, Northumbria losing 15

• Ian Sanderson (RM3) 5th May '13 - 8:09am

  Madli
  Was it a blunder? Perhaps, like many other aspects of the EU, British participation in the Euro would have improved the institutions that adminster it, and avoided many of the weaknesses that have caused the trouble.
  Also for many years, British businesses and government bodies paid higher interest rates on investment debts than competitors in Euro countries did, which was a weakness of the British economy.

• Paul K 5th May '13 - 5:28pm

  It will never happen, but joining (or even better shadowing) the euro now would give our economy a massive boost: with lower prices, much higher investment, and perhaps as much as a million more jobs. Bad for bankers and money-changers of course, but good for the rest of us.

  One thing we and UKIP have in common is support for PR (and in the past we too have argued for a referendum on Europe albeit we want to stay in and UKIP want to leave). So why don’t we make a short-term electoral pact to deliver (i) STV and (ii) a referendum on Europe? We wouldn’t even need to stand down our candidates since we actually help each other by taking away votes from the Tories through a pincer movement on either side. (Only half-joking.)

• Andrew Webb 8th May '13 - 10:59am

  I recently heard Nick Clegg spouting utter balderdash about the EU and “what people want” on Radio 4’s Today Show. Polls indicate that what voters really want is an In/Out referendum, something Clegg promised to deliver before the last election. The Lib-Dem leaflet calling for a “real referendum” went so far as to have his face on it.

  It read: ‘It’s been over thirty years since the British people last had a vote on Britain’s membership of the European Union. That’s why the Liberal Democrats want a real referendum on Europe. Only a real referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU will let the people decide our country’s future. But Labour don’t want the people to have their say. The Conservatives only support a limited referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Why won’t they give the people a say in a real referendum?”

  Yes, and why won’t you Nick? Nick? Hello? No reply. What a shame.

  If I was Clegg I would hate people thinking I was just another slippery lying politician intent on lining my own pockets on the EU gravy train.

• Martin 8th May '13 - 12:00pm

  Andrew Web: the 2010 manifesto is quite clear:

  The European Union has evolved signifi cantly since the last public vote on membership over thirty years ago. Liberal Democrats therefore remain committed to an in/out referendum the next time a British government signs up for fundamental change in the relationship between the UK and the EU.

  We believe that it is in Britain’s long-term interest to be part of the euro. But Britain should only join when the economic conditions are right, and in the present economic situation, they are not. Britain should join the euro only
  if that decision were supported by the people of Britain in a referendum.

  Clegg’s position is pretty much in line with the 2010 manifesto. Unfortunately for you the ‘balderdash’ is only in your head.