In today’s Guardian Nick Clegg has been making the case for calling an early General Election before any steps are taken towards Brexit. He writes:
Who would have thought? The Conservative party, the party of continuity and tradition, is now the cause of the greatest constitutional crisis in modern times. The party of business is now the source of reckless economic turmoil. The natural party of government is now presiding over paralysis in Westminster and Whitehall. The party of the British bulldog spirit is now leading our great country towards rudderless introspection.
He adds:
This cannot go on. Somehow we must navigate the country through the months ahead. The government not only finds itself without leadership, it has no plan, no consensus and no clue about what it wants to do in the future. The only thing it agrees on is that the UK should leave the EU. But how, when and to what end all remain unanswered. It enjoys a mandate to quit, but no mandate as to how this should be done.
The solution?
This debilitating cocktail of hubris, incompetence and dishonesty must be overcome if the country is to move forward. This is what we should do.
First, each Conservative leadership candidate must set out, in detail, what they think our future relationship with Europe should be. Second, the new prime minister, to be announced on 9 September, should immediately publish a white paper setting out a full plan. And third, he or she must then seek a democratic mandate for their plan in an early general election.
…
Importantly, the election must be held before any attempt is made to activate article 50, the legal mechanism triggering the negotiations for EU exit. Starting that clock ticking before people have had an opportunity to cast a judgment on what life would actually look like outside the EU would be deeply undemocratic.
You can read the full article here.
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
The street in Australia named after my great great grandfather
Lib Dems pick Richard Kilpatrick as candidate for the Greater Manchester Mayoral election
Roland
David Raw
David Warren
Peter Chambers
Carl Pierce
13 Comments
Very good article from Clegg for the intelligensia. Perhaps Tim could put it in shorter words for the rest of us to like and share… 😉
I think Nick Clegg might well be absolutely right, here. On the other hand, it might be better to force the existing Parliament to be brave and assert their rights and duties under our representative government.
I do, however feel that Mr Clegg needs to face up to something. If he genuinely wishes option ‘A’ to succeed then he himself would do better to loudly advocate Option ‘B’. Or else remain silent.
@GP Purcell
1. Nobody has a plan yet (except the LibDems).
2. When they have a plan, let’s hold an election so we can all have a say.
3. Until we’ve had an election, let’s not do anything stupid.
4. (Congratulate the new LibDem Prime Minister ).
Er…. I agree with Nick!
Er and so do I
We can’t have an election, we have fixed term parliaments now.
Tony Dawson: “representative government”? Who says? Not the Lib Dems, Greens or UKIP.
Clegg was seriously on the money with what he said and deserves wider debate. It is absolutely disgraceful that the BBC ignore us and someone who was deputy PM. I fear we are getting near the time when we have to put serious pressure on nasty auntie Beeb – anyone for a nationwide campaign to withhold our licence fees? It’s one of the few ways we have left of applying direct pressure.
Mr Clegg would do more good if he either supported the very sensible proposals put forward by Tim Farron, another referendum on the negotiated deal, or by keeping quiet. Publicising his plan simple takes attention away from Tim’s at a time when we have enough difficulty getting our message across.
David Franks.
I have read Nick Clegg’s article in yesterday’s Guardian with some surprise. The tone is just a little alarmist. And the way in which he expresses his opinions (undoubtedly sincere and perhaps even passionate) just a little intemperate, if I may say so gently.
I was particularly surprised to hear him call in the House of Commons the other day for an early General Election. He repeats this call in the Guardian. He is, of course, right to say that the Fixed Term Parliaments Act (of which he was an architect) provides for early elections (Parliament has to vote for it) but may I remind him that I spoke to him on the Nick Ferrari programme on LBC (Call Clegg) about this very subject. I suggested that the Liberal Democrats should leave the Coalition because they were too closely identified with the Conservatives. “One and the same thing” I said. I predicted that the 2015 Election would be “a straight vote between Labour and Conservative”. I anticipated a Lib Dem wipeout.
I have never in my life said “I told you so” and I don’t now.
But I remain puzzled by Mr Clegg’s conversion.
Tim has taken the right decision – to campaign for UK in Europe at a forthcoming general election – but it will be nugatory if parliament has already agreed to invoke Article 50.
I am surprised and highly disappointed that the parliamentary party – and, alas, many other well-meaning but naive politicians – tamely accept the outcome of the referendum. Is this the successor to the brave parliamentary party that alone stood against the array of political and social forces and opposed the Iraq invasion? It looks like a pale shadow of the party of 2003, whose judgement was, of course, proved absolutely correct.
The Leave campaign easily surpassed the level of manipulation that justifies declaring the referendum illegitimate. No referendum ever answers the question posed but this one was in a class of its own.
Has the parliamentary party forgotten so quickly the bravery of Elwyn Watkins exposing successfully in the courts the 2010 general election lies of Phil Woolas in Oldham East & Saddleworth?
Only 37.2% voted for Leave. A change of such magnitude needs to be based on the settled view of a majority of the electorate and this result palpably failed to demonstrate that. George Cunningham, persuaded parliament that it should insert a threshold requirement of 40% of the electorate for the result of the Scottish devolution (not even independence) referendum to be effective. Nigel Farage, on 15 May, stated the same view: that if it was a narrow victory for Remain – and, helpfully, he quoted precisely 52% to 48% – it could not be regarded as definitive and he would demand a second referendum!
The party’s promise should be to thwart the early enactment of the referendum result – ie to vote down any early invoking of Article 50 – and to tackle the clear and understandable causes of disenchantment among the anti-immigration electors and in due course to fight a general election on the declared policy of Remain.
The sight of Marine Le Pen congratulating Farage was chilling. Unless Liberals and their allies face up to the far right across Europe the future is bleak. We have been consistently for a united Europe since the 1955 general election and must maintain that view today. Are our MPs, and others of like mind, really going to troop regularly through the lobbies time after time in favour of legislation they know to be disastrous in its effects?
With apologies, Nick, but you have got the wrong end of the stick here. An election now, while the ‘Leavers’ are still on the front foot, while several Lib Dem MPs do not have clear majorities for remain (at best), while UKIP are likely to take votes from Labour on a large scale, and before the accelerating economic downsides on the Brexit vote have really sunk in ? Your argument Nick, is very helpful to our many opponents. Better to stick with Tim Farron’s much more astute and democratic line and press for a democratic vote on the RESULTS of the negotiations over Brexit, after the EU trade deal and other trade deals are solidified (2 years plus from now). If we do not, key questions over Brexit will hang in the air for decades. What’s more, the Lisbon Treaty provides that the European Parliament and European Council should approve the results of Brexit negotiations. There will be severe political problems if the European Parliament votes on the final detailed reality of Brexit, but not the British public. Liberal Democrats should have a united stance and Tim has shown leadership. One thing Lib Dems should be deeply concerned about is May or Leadsom fast-tracking Brexit via Article 7… whereby the UK requires visas for EU citizens to work in the UK, resulting in the UK being kicked out of the EU. Are prepared for such an eventuality ?
“Better to stick with Tim Farron’s much more astute and democratic line and press for a democratic vote on the RESULTS of the negotiations over Brexit, after the EU trade deal and other trade deals are solidified (2 years plus from now).”
In two years plus from now, the referendum newspapers will be wrapping some very old chips. A Tory steady-the-ship hegemony will all too easily evade any pressure for another vote at that late date.
The Tories, whether originally Remainers or Leavers, have now grasped the point that whilst leaving is economically disastrous for Britain, it does give them great opportunities for “disaster capitalism” and another radical lurch to the Right. Britain could now be led toward an effective one-party state, a pariah nation which has broken free from European restraint and adopted neofeudalism. That’s why the Tories have all embraced Brexit with such a firm resolve.
We need to challenge that now, not just optimistically hope we can do it in two years time. That’s why Nick has got this one right.
David Allen
The Tories, whether originally Remainers or Leavers, have now grasped the point that whilst leaving is economically disastrous for Britain, it does give them great opportunities for “disaster capitalism” and another radical lurch to the Right.
Not “now grasped”, at least not for those who were campaigning to leave from the start. Those who funded and led the Leave campaign knew this from the start and did it for just that reason.
Let us make this absolutely clear. Anyone who voted Leave voted for right-wing economic Conservatism (capital-C, which means the opposite of conservatism with a small-c, though many were tricked into thinking voting for Leave did mean the latter, not least by people like Nick Clegg saying that when he debated with Nigel Farage). If you voted Leave because you disliked the way this country has gone since 1979, you voted for it to be pushed further and harder that way. You voted for extreme Thatcherism.
To get this across we need to keep asking the question “How is Brexit going to deliver all that the people who voted for it thought it was doing to deliver?”. We need to ask them to provide exact and detailed plans. We know they can’t, and their two top figures have resigned from leadership because they know they can’t.
I think this will become more obvious as time goes on, so I am concerned an early general election might mean losing out from letting that happen. I think we should work with the rest of Europe to stop this vindictive idea that they should just push us out. Invoking Article 50 means working out the details of leaving the EU, not actually leaving it, so it should not be taken in the rest of Europe that there is no going back. Rather, if the EU is a good thing, they should see that this will become obvious as attempts are made to work out the details, and it just won’t as those who voted Leave were fooled into thinking it would work.
It is OF COURSE right that once the details are worked out, the British people should have the right to say now they have seen them do they really want them.