Tag Archives: a fortunate life

Blast from the past: Paddy Ashdown on principled opposition

As I’ve watched the shameful shenanigans in the House of Commons this week over Lords reform, one event from our not so recent past kept popping into my head. Those of us of a certain age can remember the eventful passage of the Maastricht Bill through Parliament in 1992/93.  Even though they agreed with the principles of the Maastricht Treaty, Labour teamed up with Tory Eurosceptics to try to undermine the Government.

The Liberal Democrats, enthusiastic about closer European partnership, played no such games. I would be lying if I said I had taken this entirely calmly at the time. After …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 19 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • Steve Comer
    I agree with your sentiments Jack, but does the Party in Wales and it's MS? What little coverage of the Lib Dem campaign in Wales that I heard on news media ...
  • Daniel Walker
    @Peter Martin "Incidentally, the above point about the duty of a national government to adopt policies to ensure a measure of fiscal equalisation in a single...
  • Pawel Urbanski
    Where I grew up in Poland, school lessons finished at 3, but there was optional supervised care until 5 or 6, often just run in the library, for the parents who...
  • Peter Martin
    @ Chloe, "Who picks up the tab for the net fiscal deficit of the Scottish & Welsh governments " You're absolutely right that it should be t...
  • Tony Vickers
    @Tom Reeve you sort of get it but lets be specific how we'd pay for raising the income tax threshold. We would tax the annual rental value of land. Its been our...