Party President Tim Farron has been talking to the Huffington Post about everything from the local election results, the presentation errors in the Budget, his leadership ambitions, potential coalition deal breakers and exit strategies.
He is adamant that Lords Reform will be delivered within this Parliament:
“The coalition agreement is not something that you can pick and choose from,” he says. “If people believe that Lords reform is something that can be dispensed with, for instance, or that it’s tolerable for the Tory whips to not deliver a majority or a diluted Bill, it does bring into a question of trust, and whether other things might be delivered.”
Would there be a quid pro quo, with Lib Dems vetoing a key Tory policy if Lords reform founders? “I wouldn’t want to single out particular items that we wouldn’t then deliver,” he says.
You can read the interview in full here.
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10 Comments
A bit of a strange heading because it was only a small part of the interview and really didn’t say too much on the subject.
Good interview though.
Liked the bit where Nick relays the similar situation when Ming was in charge!
Not surprised. Unlike Clegg and some who post here, Farron fully understands that they campaigned and were elected as an anti Iran war, pro- civil liberties party. Now they want to wage a senseless war, whilst assaulting our rights ,rights that their manifesto said they were sworn to protect. “We’re different” Clegg said, “a party you can trust” Clegg said.
Daniel, I’m not so sure I liked the use of the word “handbagged” about that encounter, but it was very funny.
And, yes, the headline was maybe a little sensationalist. Must do better next time…
Andy, of the four things on the front of the manifesto, cleaning up politics, a fair start for every child, fair taxes and a greener future. All of these things, our major priorities, are being put into action.
The party has broken the heart of too many with it’s support for the NHS changes, a car crash which will happen time and time again before the next election.
This is only my own opinion, but I think that this issue is on a par with the lies about the need to go to war, in Iraq and it was not even in the coalition agreement.
It will be seen as a joint policy with the Tories and collective responsibility will be seen by the electorate, I think.
Nothing , but nothing, no constitutional tinkering, no fine words about social mobility,[ while hacking away at EMAs and making university fees beyond what working class kids will want to have round their neck, even if paid later,] no snippets of independence on worker’s rights,[ though these have already been weakened by the coalition ] will ever make up for that betrayal on our NHS.
Caron, Newsnight some time ago went through the, ‘75% of our manifesto implemented’ claim and systematically broke it down, exposing it as nothing more than a smoke and mirrors exercise in half truths and best gloss reinterpretations . Take lifting the tax threshold, taking those on low incomes out of tax. The reality ; wiped out by changes to tax credits and rising living costs . Or breaking up banks (casino /retail wings)… by 2019 (what’s to stop another govt reversing this?). Trident : news this week they’re pressing ahead with ‘like for like’. For the most part the rest is relatively uncontentious , would the Tories have done it anyway becomes a hotly debated issue. We even had the absurd sight of Lib Dem ministers ,albeit indirectly defending the 50p cut , using the hugely distorted( £17bn early payment) figures, based on the the first and only year of 50p , to claim the rich would pay 5x more on a hugely misleading £100m raised by 50p in that one -off ‘distorted’ first year.
The real differentiation issues : Take AV vote reform, the ‘Alpha and Omega’ issue for any third party in a two party FPTP system (laughingly listed as an achievement in the ‘75% list’ )wasn’t just lost, it was brutally lost with the Tory ‘no’ camp outspending the ‘yes’ to the tune of £3.4m . Lords reform is going nowhere . Civil liberties are under attack, from secret courts to the snoopers’ charter and to top it all off, the prospect of another Blairesque war looms.
Jeremy Browne was typical of the problem on TV today. He had a chance to distance himself from Conservative policy, which is dressed up as government policy. There is no obligation on the LibDems to support the Tory spin, in fact it gives them a chance to prove there is a difference. Jeremy Browne is not answerable to the Prime Minister, he is in the Lib Dem part of a coalition – or perhaps I am wrong.
In other coalitions in other countries we dont see this cosying up – it is counter-productive and will only end in tears.
“What’s happened – he says – is that while it looks like there are many Lib Dems who lost their seats, there are fewer council seats overall than in the past – because so many have turned into unitary authorities. ”
Tim needs to stop reading his breifing notes and check his facts.
We now have under 3000 councillors – for the first time since 1987.
That constitutes 13% of the total GB councillors. Our lowest figure since….. 1987.
(source House of Commons library paper on 2012 local elections)
How is a fair start for every child being put into action? There aren’t even enough midwives!
@Caron Lindsay :
“of the four things on the front of the manifesto, cleaning up politics, a fair start for every child, fair taxes and a greener future. All of these things, our major priorities, are being put into action.”
I fear those rose coloured specs are being heavily shared-around. 🙁
Most people would say that politics has been far from cleaned up. Murdoch, Leveson etc suggest the opposite and the lingering Huhne case and David Laws’ ‘mistake’ do not put Lib Dems in the ‘squeaqy clean’ position in most peoples’ eyes. No one has a clue as to if, how and when the pupil premium will make any difference to the children they are meant to help. They can, however, see the immediate effects of Tax Credit cuts and cuts to disability benefits. Disabled people do have children, you know!
Our fairer taxes are great but regularly polluted by Tory insistence over overtrumping them with unfairer taxes. We will believe ‘a greener future’ when we see it. The government propaganda/information on this is poor.