Nick Clegg apparently supports the idea of recall elections for discredited MPs.
At first I thought this as some kind of joke, given the discredit his actions have heaped on a number of Lib Dems who followed the party's three line whip on abstaining yesterday, but apparently he is actually serious.
I wonder if the Liberal Democrats could introduce it also for discredited party leaders ?
13 comments:
Absolutely - I vote for a recall - Yesterday was a farce - The Grand Old Duke of York is alive and well and leading the LiberalDemocrat Party to oblivion - just look at the cartoons - We are a laughing stock and rightly so
Discusted of Newcastle
Nick Clegg is not "discredited". He's made one controversial decision which hasn't helped the party at all, and which was handled very badly indeed. But if politicians became "discredited" by screwing up once, there'd be nobody with any credibility left in the Commons.
You're completely entitled to disagree with Clegg's line on the Lisbon treaty, and to be honest I'd tend to agree with you. But calling for the party leader's head is going way too far, and is really unproductive. Let him live and learn; this'll all be over in a fortnight, and he'll do very well for us at the GE.
Jonny, eveyone is entitle to make a henuine mistake if they could not see it coming, but this was so clear and bovious to see. it had been signposted for months.
If you driver takes you a long a road which has the sign "Bridge out", but keep on drivin gpast dozens of other signs telling you that there is no bridge and you will fall in the river, do you accept that it was a one of innocent mistake or something much mroe serious than that ?
This was not a mistake, he knew it would happen, he could see it coming, but still he went ahead.
Nich, you say that, and it's all very well with the benefit of hindsight, but I would argue that Nick Clegg backed himself into a corner several weeks ago, and then couldn't find a way out. There must have come a point where making a u-turn would have been more damaging than just sticking with the current line and hoping for the best. Could anyone have seen that event horizon coming? Which day was the latest day on which Clegg could have subtly changed course? I just don't think it's anything like as easy or as obvious as you seem to reckon. Give Clegg a chance to recover; he'll get things back on track very quickly.
My only surprise is that so many people are surprised.
He spent the entire leadership election without saying anything clear or specific and relying on his charm and good looks.
That's simply not enough to run a serious political party.
We already have the ability to recall our leader. Search Rob Fenwicks blog for "Recall Ming"
Good idea!
Yawn...if you've got something else to say, let the rest of us know.
Leadership is about sometimes enduring short term pain to make long term gains, and 6 months from now I think you will gather that you're currently...well...wrong. Possibly sooner.
Nick Clegg is raising our pain threshold a bit, and it badly needs to be done.
The only time I saw Clegg in the leadership race was during the calamity Clegg incident. How the hell Huhne lost I've no idea. During that period Huhne was the one taking the lead with the media. Would Huhne have called for an abstention? we'll never know, but I would like to think two people could not make the same balls up.
Is Clegg going for a Lib/Lab pact? time will tell.
Gavin S, I have lots of other things to say (if you took the time to read my other stories yesterday). If you cannot read them, that is your fault, not mine.
But Nick said during the leadership campaign, before he was elected, that he would not support a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and argue for a "yes/no" referendum. So you can hardly call for him to be deposed for doing something which he said he would do during the leadership election.
Paul,
He didn't say he would whip his party into abstaining either. Nor did he mention sacking those who opposed him on that stupid policy.
He didn't sack them - they resigned. Nick Clegg was quite clear about his policy on the EU Reform Treaty in the leadership campaign. You wouldn't expect someone to discuss detailed Commons tactics months in advance before they have even got the job.
Ryan is right - there is already a mechanism within the Liberal Democrat constitution to recall leaders. See article 10.2 of the Constitution which allows for a new leadership election on various grounds including a vote of no confidence by the parliamentary party in the House of Commons or the receipt by the President of the party of a "requisition submitted by at least 75 local Parties following the decision of a quorate general meeting".
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