The Liberal Democrat President, Ros Scott, has emailed out the following message to party members:
It has not been a good few weeks to be a be a politician. Liberal Democrat parliamentarians have made mistakes and errors of judgement. I would like to apologise to you – the members of our party that tirelessly contribute so much to our cause – for those mistakes. At the meeting of the Federal Executive on Monday we will discuss the issues of expenses and the party’s reaction to it. I can guarantee it will be a full and frank exchange of views.
However these weeks have also made me proud to be a Liberal Democrat. For years our party has been the only party committed to reforming the way we do politics. Nick Clegg has taken a strong and firm stand on expenses; indeed for months he has been trying to force David Cameron and Gordon Brown to work with us to clean up the system.
Nick has argued that no MP should profit from property speculation funded by the taxpayer and taking a lead in pushing for radical reform of the current broken system. And earlier this week he kicked off our European election campaign by taking the fight to those who want to take Britain away from co-operating with our European allies on vital issues like tackling climate change, managing globalisation and confronting cross-border crime and terrorism.
Also let us not forget that only a fortnight ago the Liberal Democrats (with a little help from Joanna Lumley!) defeated the government on the issue of rights for Gurkhas. Elected Liberal Democrats in Westminster, like so many Liberal Democrats in town halls across the country, can and are having a real positive impact on people’s lives.
We have only three more weeks of campaigning before the vital European and local election. Recent national polls show us breathing down Labour’s neck to take second place in both. With your help we can push Labour into third and help finish off this tired, corrupt and pathetic government.
Our party is the party of change. Our country and our political system needs us to succeed now more than ever. With your help we can.
Best Wishes,
Ros Scott, Liberal Democrat President
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14 Comments
Ros Who, oh her who we heard a lot from a few months back and has been anonymous since.
Still at least we did not vote for Lembit who I wanted – my bad, I cast my vote for him.
Let us also be fair, the Tories helped with Jo Lumley and Nick. Parties working together, nothing wrong with that and will help in those key marginals,
Nick has been excellent, so have Cameron for that matter. Brown has been a joke and Chris Huhne showed Frank Spencer like skill last night on C4.
Will she publish her expenses ?
Yea but why does DC walk on water. Cameron’s party is the number one offender and he claimed I think £10,000 pounds on refurbishing his mansion, poor old Ming gets slagged off for spending £8,500 on his rented flat after 20years living in squalor.
I love Martin Kinsella’s take on the Gurkhas, Peter Carroll (PPC for Maidstone) has been working for them for years, Joanna come latelies shouldn’t get all the praise.
Ros,
Thanks for the message, which I received by email as well. A few words though. I don’t think it’s enough for us to rely on MPs to police themselves and Nick’s approach, however worthy, is just that.
We have just selected County Council Candidates for the County Council elections. They are required to understand and undertake to comply with group standing orders, which set standards and levels of compliance and behaviour for them, should they be elected. These are set by local parties in accordance with guidelines and advice received from ALDC.
As Party President, I have no complaint about your remarks, but I feel you now have to go a lot further. As the elected representative of the party membership you are our standard bearer in the councils of the wise (or not so wise, as we have seen recently).
You must support Nick as leader, but you must also now take charge. The Federal Executive is not the body to do this through. Conference is. Motions should be presented to Conference approving a new and stringent code of practice for LD MPs and Peers which all selected candidates as well as existing MPs, MEPs, Peers and AMs must adhere to.
If we want to restore the full confidence of the public and the membership in our party, it’s conference under your guidance as our President that must take charge in this matter.
Roger,
Good for Peter Carroll, however his efforts have hardly been rewarded have they.
My point is that our party led this and worked with the Tories. It was good to see us working with others and leading.
You will also find Labour are the number one offenders, The Tories are second and we are miles behind the both of them.
Can someone please refer me to the response/denial of the News of the World story on Lord Rennard allegedly claiming £40k for the wrong address?
Thanks
You’re not the only one asking, Jim. His response so far is here:
https://www.libdemvoice.org/lib-dem-mp-expenses-where-next-14476.html
Aspects of this response could be better:
http://rainbowherbicide.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/whitewash-or-not-you-decide/
Agent Orange,
Perhaps this might be of interest… http://liberalbureaucracy.blogspot.com/2009/05/ah-that-might-be-my-fault-then-sort-of.html
Mark fair point. I think Ros needs to understand that many of us who voted for her believe she really is different from the party establishment, despite her widespread endorsement by many of them.
If anyone can change the little boys club culture of this party, the unprofessionalism, the cover-ups, the failure to apply our external principles to our internal standards, she can.
This inquiry could be her moment, or it could be the moment she blends seamlessly into the disappointing shambles left unmolested by her many predecessors.
I for one really hope it is the former, so lets see a real inquiry with some real independence and some real teeth please…
http://rainbowherbicide.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/tory-dorries-does-a-rennard/
Thank you for your comments, supportive or otherwise. As Party President, my job
is to consider the views of our membership so, rather than get into individual correspondence, I will be reading the more than 200 (as at 1 a.m.) responses I have received since the e-mail to members was issued. I am also out and about, supporting our campaigners in the South West. As well as playing my part in sorting out the current mess, the crucial elections in less than two weeks time are my key priority.
Any decisions we make not only have to reflect feeling within the Party, but
address the anger felt by the public, those who aren’t engaged in politics and
those who are. At the same time, I have a duty to ensure that any member of the
Party accused of improper behaviour is dealt with in accordance with natural
justice, based on the principles that we as Liberal Democrats hold dear.
When the Federal Executive meets on Monday, I will attempt to ensure that each of its members has the opportunity to express their views and to move quickly upon whatever collective decision it reaches. I will also continue to report on progress, as I have regularly during my term of office to date.
Your support for the Party is greatly appreciated. Without the efforts of our
professional staff, candidates and activists, and the support of those who give and raise money for our campaigning, we would be unable to function as a political movement. It is essential that we restore trust in
our politics and make you proud to be a Liberal Democrat, and I will do my
utmost to make it happen.
Agent Orange, your have a point. Ros Scott did portray herself one way, and she appears to be no different. Look at her post at 10.14, she has been anonymous for weeks even allowing her other half, Valladares, to blog about what she is doing (tell us yourself Ros, don’t get your lackey to do it), it is full of cliches and the usual bland b*ll*x you get from senior politicos.
Who shall we have next, Frank Spencer ?
Martin,
As Ros’s ‘other half’, I blog about the things I’m up to. The fact that I spend a lot of time with my wife, and am supportive of what she does, hardly makes me a lackey. And, given that I’ve been blogging for more than three years, it’s hardly surprising that I talk about the things I do when I’m with her. I also blog about plenty of things that have nothing to do with her.
You have the luxury of being to make comments without any consequences other than possibly (and I emphasise possibly) being considered an idiot. That hardly applies to senior figures in the Party, whose every comment is parsed for inference, especially at the moment. And Ros does blog regularly, talking about the things she does. You might like to read some of her blog entries, if that isn’t too much trouble.
Oh, and by the way Mr Kinsella, my name is Mark. It’s a minor courtesy, I know, but indicative of civilised discourse… You are capable of that, aren’t you?
“even allowing her other half, Valladares, to blog about what she is doing”
Unneccesarily abusive this. It would be relatively easy for Mark to write posts on Ros’s behalf and no-one would ever no.
Instead he posts on his own behalf. Were he a woman (stick with it!) people would be up in arms if it were suggested she was only a mouthpiece for her husbands views.
I was amazed when I received the President’s e-mail. It refers to MPs having made mistakes with their expenses. The only mistake they made was in thinking that they would not be found out. The public want honesty in political statements
As for her boast about defeating the government over the Gurkhas, she reveals the truth. It was an opportunistic move (as stated in the Independent editorial) to defeat the government not to help the Gurkhas. The Gurkhas were not fighting for Britain – they did it to make money. The Gurkhas should have returned to Nepal to help solve the problems there. Like our UK troops, they knew what to expect when they “signed on”, and it did not include settlement in the UK. Our troops are not getting the care they expected and none of the three parties achieve anything for the troops. They just make political statements. At least the Conservative party were honest in stating that they would not agree the recognition by the MOD of the British Armed Forces Federation (BAFF). The Liberal Democrats will not give an answer on this subject. When BAFF wrote to all MPs on the subject of recognition, not one Liberal Democrat replied. The late Lib Dem peer Lord Tim Garden, a founder member of BAFF, must be turning in his grave. He was a marvellous individual and a real leader. We do not seem to have real leaders these days.
So although some “middle class” votes will have been gained, the respect of the armed forces for the Liberal Democrats will have been diminished.
I have recently signed a No 10 petition showing the anger of the troops and veterans that the bodies of the two soldiers shot in Ireland were shipped back in secret as freight apparently for political reasons, unlike the respect given to troops killed elsewhere.