Opposition
On paper, I would support LibDem policy more than the Conservative equivalent. However, it is clear that only one party is currently behaving like an opposition - the other is more like a badly-run pressure group.
The LibDem walk-out over the EU referendum was about as effective as paper-chain handcuffs. It was so obviously contrived that the rest of the House was united in ridicule. The LibDems have not been gagged - they tried to slip in an amendment that was irrelevant to the matter of debate, and it was rightly ruled out of order. End of story. Ed Davey will win himself and his party no favours by behaving like a child who dropped his lolly-pop on the ground and then ran around blaming everyone else because it got dirty. The LibDem U-turn on a manifesto pledge cannot be masked by a foolish call for an “in or out” referendum. The LibDems made their bed - they decided the policy that they are now breaking - and so they must live with the consequences. They cannot possibly pretend that Mr Speaker is out to get them just because they are refusing to play by the rules. In this, they are just one step behind the infantile anti-3rd runway protestors who broke the law to hang banners from the Palace of Westminster.
The Tories, on the other hand, should have a good day tomorrow. They are spending £500,000 on advertising on Facebook, Bebo and other such websites to sign people up as “Friends” - note, not party members. Several national papers will carry the ads tomorrow. This is an unprecedented amount of money to spend between elections. Each of ten adverts give a pithy policy proposal, have people-shaped holes filled with clouds, and feature the line “you can get it if you really want”. Good, wholesome, positive campaigning.
It concerns me that the LibDems are acting so feebly, like a chaotic single-issue pressure group without the single issue. Clegg should be leading the opposition to ID cards, but we are left with the ever-present company of Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty. We were getting close to a three-party system. It’s a shame to see that go to waste.
I disagree with much of this piece. However, lacking time, I’ll stick with this:
“However, it is clear that only one party is currently behaving like an opposition”
The Conservatives are not behaving like an opposition. They are not making a consistent attempt to hold the government to scrutiny. They are holding it to scrutiny over certain issues that are politically embarrassing to the Labour party, and being very quiet over others which are not. Have you heard much beyond a short statement on the breaking of an effective promise - and MPs’ votes - to Manchester on supercasios, to take a very recent example? No, as Manchester isn’t somewhere the Tories are campaigning hard to win - they couldn’t win it - and because they disapproved of the supercasino in the first place. They would thus not really embarrass Labour - and so aren’t making much of a fuss over this. They are acting as a political party pushing and agenda - because they are one.
[i]In this, they are just one step behind the infantile anti-3rd runway protestors who broke the law to hang banners from the Palace of Westminster.[/i]
Exactly how different is that to breaking the terms of your protest permit and canvassing on the wrong side of the street too close to Commons?