Today’s historic victory for the Gurkhas and an historic defeat for Gordon Brown has already been chronicled by our own Alix Mortimer. Here is the Channel 4 News report:
Nick Clegg’s superb performance at today’s PMQ already won him rave reviews, as our Alex Foster noted.
Other mentions in dispatches for the role Nick Clegg played in forcing this issue:
“Credit in particular to Nick Clegg” – The Telegraph’s Benedict Brogan
“the Liberal Democrats can feel justifiably pleased that their long game has truly paid off” – BBC’s Gary O’Donoghue
“It was a rare triumph for the Lib Dems and a good day for parliament” – The Guardian’s Sir Michael White
“Big win for Nick Clegg” – Politics.co.uk’s Alex Stevenson
UPDATE: And more –
“the outcome is a real coup for Nick Clegg – and should boost his standing as a leader” – The Times’s Peter Riddell
“The Liberal Democrats, so used to losing, had won big” – The Times’s Anne Treneman
8 Comments
Great work from Nick and our MPs. But I was disappointed at the way Channel 4 News covered this story, deliberately missing out Nick Clegg from its headline pictures and intead zooming in on David Cameron with Joanna Lumley. Couldn’t they have spared us, just this once?
I thought it was rather heartening to see the opposition leaders together, speaking as one voice against this abysmal Labour Government.
Let’s have more of it to rid this country of the Corrupt Labour Party for good.
It was interesting how David Cameron jockyed for the limelight. At one point in the above clip he actually interrupts Nick Clegg’s answer to a journalist!
OK, fair enough, a good day for Nick Clegg. Have to disagree with Silent Hunter though. It is NOT heartening to hear Clegg and Cameron speaking as one voice!
The success of the Liberal Democrats depends on the extent to which we take the political initiative. Today we have done this with flying colours. Well done to all concerned.
Here’s Mr Woolas’ statement to the Commons, more or less admitting defeat (but still bandying about unbelievable claims that letting Gurkhas settle in the UK would cost “billions”): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8025892.stm
Channel 4 News’ excellent FactCheck has exposed the government’s exaggerations.
Number of Gurkhas likely to settle under their rules: http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/domestic_politics/factcheck+browns+gurkha+boast/3116362
The “100,000 or more” that Phil Woolas was worried about is inflated: http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/domestic_politics/factcheck+100000+more+gurkhas/3112842
What have we done as a country to deserve these ministers?
I think this is a good example of Nick Clegg taking the right course of action, anc Cameron (PR-Meister that he is) jumping on a bandwagon!