Tag Archives: vote of no confidence

Mark Valladares

1 May 2024 – yesterday’s other press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 2nd May 2024 - 8:30 am
  • Sadiq Khan’s record of failure exposed
  • Fiefdoms of filth: Scottish Lib Dems unveil new sewage league table
  • Lib Dems on verge of historic breakthrough in London
  • “Bringing truth back into politics”- Welsh Lib Dems back anti-deception proposal
  • Rennie speaks in motion of no confidence in Scottish Government

Sadiq Khan’s record of failure exposed

Sadiq Khan has once again failed to deliver on key manifesto promises, says Liberal Democrat London Mayoral candidate Rob Blackie.

On the eve of the elections he listed 2021 manifesto pledges that the London Mayor failed to implement:

  • Deliver a ferry at Hammersmith Bridge
  • End rough sleeping
  • Pilot a new City Hall housing developer to directly build

…

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Posted in London, News, Press releases, Scotland and Wales | Also tagged , , , , , , and | 1 Comment
Caron Lindsay

Parliamentary psychodrama, knife edge votes, dependent on Northern Irish Unionist votes…

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 28th March 2019 - 9:00 pm

Sound familiar.

I’m not describing the current tense parliamentary situation.

Forty years ago tonight, at 10pm, a vote of no confidence in Jim Callaghan’s Labour Government was called.

It was always going to be a knife edge.

This evening, BBC Parliament broadcast a programme, A Parliamentary Coup, describing the events surrounding that vote, the referendum which led to it (the Scottish devolution referendum) and the very human stories behind it.

One particular story brought to mind the dishonourable breaking of Jo Swinson’s pair by Conservative Party Chairman Brandon Lewis. It was an opportunistic breaking of an agreement.

Compare and contrast with a conversation between the Labour and Conservative whips Walter Harrison and Bernard Wetherill, who would later become Commons Speaker.

They had a gentleman’s agreement that they would always pair sick MPs. On this occasion, Wetherill said that he couldn’t offer a pair for the gravely ill Labour MP Doc Broughton, but to honour the agreement, he wouldn’t vote himself. Harrison wouldn’t let him take that career-ending step.

I hope that the programme will appear on iPlayer soon. 

David Steel was the Liberal Leader at that time. You can read his whole speech in which he explained why he would be voting against the Government here.

In doing so he made the case for fixed term Parliaments, which were, of course, introduced the the Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 6 Comments
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Recent Comments

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    Mark is spot on with his assessment, as some one who also had meetings with him as Mayor with Mark on behalf of all the LD Cllrs in GM. I am more circumspect a...
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  • John Kelly
    Very good article Alex. Sorry to see @simonmcgrath downplaying the appalling behaviour of the British during 1936-9. This is well captured in the Award winn...