Tag Archives: jane merrick

On Farron’s lurch to the left…

If you read some commentators, you’d think that in less than a week of leadership, Tim Farron had virtually turned us all into revolutionary socialists.

Matt Dahan wrote a story for the Independent which suggested that Nick Clegg would be “shaking his head” in “uncomfortable dismay” at Tim Farron’s bid to “form a Lib/Lab pact” to oppose welfare cuts.

The former deputy prime minister has been left sitting on the backbenches in the House of Commons, where he is forced to choose between toeing the party line or causing what would be a major rebellion in a party of just eight MPs.

It seems Mr Farron is leading the Lib Dems further to the left than Labour, even sending a letter to interim Labour leader Harriet Harman telling her to form a Lib-Lab alliance to fight the Government’s spending cuts.

Except Tim’s stance on the Welfare Reform and Work Bill is entirely consistent with the stance Nick Clegg took in Government. He stopped all this nonsense about taking Housing Benefit off young people and limiting tax credits to two children and further reducing the benefits cap. If Tim had supported them, it would have been a massive story.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , and | 66 Comments

Jane Merrick: “How we can all stop worrying and learn to love the Lib Dems..”

We haven’t seen many nice things written about Liberal Democrats in the last couple of weeks. However, in today’s Independent, Jane Merrick outlines reasons that we can be cheerful.

First she describes what a Liberal Democrat MP overheard on a train from two people talking about the party:

The MP (who was relieved to be unrecognised by his fellow commuters) listened as these two seasoned observers took apart the Lib Dems. One of the men said: “They’re always in trouble, aren’t they?” “Yeah, there was that bloke with the dog,” the other chipped in. “Who was that one who, you know

Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 46 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Stephen Yolland
    Our policy platform is full of well meaning waffle. Our Leader (who is a nice guy) is uninspiring and over-earnest. Plus the electorate are bored with us, and h...
  • Jack
    Ed, the word you are after is 'racist'. 'Mean' is utterly inadequate. Do better. Now....
  • David Le Grice
    @Ynys Mon Man Try telling that to all the hard working candidates and activists in the many target wards where the Greens beat us with a paper candidate!...
  • Ynys Mon Man
    The Lib Dems are highly visible in roughly a third of Lincoln and perhaps 50% of York (both Labour-held at Westminster). Why is this? Because a small core of ac...
  • John McHugo
    @Simon McGrath - "It started with 6 Arab countries invading Israel intent on killing its Jewish population". That is just simply untrue and an outrageous st...