Jeremy Hunt should have been referred to the ministerial commissioner. It is an absolute disgrace that he wasn’t. It is a further disgrace that he has been rewarded with one of the largest ministries, Health. Straw one.
Straw two. David Laws perhaps deserved a few years counting paper clips somewhere in the bowels of Whitehall. But not attending cabinet. That is wrong. But the fact that the party leadership seems to think that Lib Dem bloggers will defend this by repeating the disingenuous line that “the taxpayer didn’t lose it out” is utterly disgraceful.
But the final straw has just come. I saw a tweet from Laura Kuenssberg of ITV saying Lord Ashcroft has been appointed to the Privy Council.
At first I thought this was a joke. One of those all too common Twitter spoofs.
But, then, no, I saw it listed on official paperwork.
Then I thought, hang on, it must be another Lord Ashcroft. There are multiple Lords with the same name. You have to check the “of” bit. There must be another anonymous do-gooding Lord Ashcroft somewhere who has been made a Rt Hon. But no, it is indeed Lord Ashcroft KCMG, Baron Ashcroft of Chichester. Not Belize.
Well that’s it. I’m done. Ashcroft to the PC is the final straw. After all the stuff about his tax. Really the last straw. Good night, Nick Clegg. I no longer support you or this coalition government. I can’t support a Tory government that is starting to mimic spoofery. It’s entered a parallel existence where everything it does is what you would expect in a spoof. But no, it is serious. I will remove Nick Clegg’s picture from this blog as soon as I can be bothered to be that petty.
I now support the removal of Nick Clegg as Lib Dem leader as soon as possible and his replacement with Tim Farron. Yay Tim! I am sorry. Nick Clegg has done a great deal of good work and I admire him. But he has made too many misjudgments and this reshuffle and the honours announcements following it are the final straw. This government is a disgrace.
The problem with Nick Clegg is that he is so good at talking himself out of tight corners, that he has started to become “devil may care” and stopped worrying about putting himself into difficult situations because he either thinks he can talk himself out of them or he has resigned himself to not surviving as LD leader after 2015 anyway.
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September 6, 2012 at 5:51 am
I must say that I am fast coming to the same conclusion for the same reasons you have given, not to mention Chris Grayling appointed as Justice Secretary. I am also seething about the fact that in the reshuffle we have lost the equalities brief and have no representation in the FO or the MOD. Cavalier at best but ‘devil may care’ will also do.
September 6, 2012 at 6:57 am
Well said Paul, I’m sure it must have taken a lot of careful thought for you to reach this point. The Cabinet appointments are beyond belief but as I’m attempting to discuss at my blog I think our current democratic system is seriously broken. I see Andreas Whittam Smith has some interesting thoughts on that topic http://goo.gl/nkBUU
September 6, 2012 at 8:06 am
The one thing you haven’t mentioned is that it is the Prime Minister who makes the appointments to Cabinet. Nick only had responsibility for the Lib Dems. Yes David Laws is back, but did you expect anything else? It has been mooted for ages that he’s be back. Do you think Clegg had much of a say in a lot of the PM’s appointments? I doubt it. Why crucify Clegg for decisions of a weak Prime Minister?
September 6, 2012 at 8:41 am
I’m glad you’ve seen the light – only two days ago you were still giving out the “beggers can’t be choosers” line…
You don’t mention that Ashcroft has actually been given a formal advisory job within Government – something on veteran affairs…the truth is he never went away.
In many respects the tories are far worse now than they were in the 1980s. It is not our role in the political system to try and detoxify and prop up the tories and help deliver thoroughly illiberal policies on their behalf – Paddy was always right; our place belongs as pathfinders in the progressive mainstream anti-tory majority in the country (I won’t get into the lef-right debate here except to say it exists just like the north and south pole do).
There has to be a bottom line of principle for what we do in politics – and yes, whilst we are an altrustic bunch, it would help if just occasionally there something in it for us (ie electoral reform) – but all we’ve been doing for the last two years is delivering truly awful social and economic policies with buger all to show for it, either for the benefit of the country, or our own political fortunes.
September 6, 2012 at 9:12 am
Fair points Tracy. I am not crucifying Nick Clegg. I am withdrawing my support from him. I made clear my opposition to David L coming back. It is the attending cabinet piece I am angry about, plus also the fact that there was an apparent presumption that Lib Dem bloggers should “defend” David Laws. This disingenuous ‘taxpayer was better off’ (as a result of his expenses debacle) defence is intensely distatsteful – unconscionable – to me.
The government as a whole is responsible for the Laws, Hunt and Ashcroft promitions and it is the government as a whole I have withdrawn my support for.
I didn’t think I needed to mention tuition fees, NHS “reform” and House of Lords reform abandonment.
The three straws alluded to above come after a long line of misjudgments by Nick Clegg. I sympathise with his position. He has done well. But I want Tim to replace him as leader as soon as possible. We have gone too far astray from Liberal Democrat values.
September 6, 2012 at 9:40 am
I’m not that concerned at David Laws in cabinet, even though I agree with him on very few things at all. He was not motivated by greed but by legitimate concern for his and his partner’s privacy.
However Jeremy Hunt is a different matter; his behaviour, whatever the facts, has given the appearance that this government is corrupt, that he was a willing tool of the Murdochs and would do whatever it took to get the BSkyB bid through. Were it not for the phone hacking scandal he would probably have succeeded, too.
Ashcroft’s appointment is the simplest and worst of these ethical ills, he would never be in government without his donations in cash and kind. I find it difficult to describe this any other way than buying office.
September 6, 2012 at 9:56 am
It is awful that whilst making up a small part of a coalition we don’t get all the ministerial positions we want. Perhaps we should go into bed with Labour and have the positions filled by Harman, Balls, etc.?
September 6, 2012 at 10:12 am
Straw 1: Owen Patterson to environment; straw 2: Jeremy Hunt.
September 6, 2012 at 10:12 am
I voted Lib Dem and always have, partly because I believed you when you said that governments of more than one party are a good option and have proved workable and successful in Continental Europe and other places. However, it seems that you, and other Lib Dems, were deceiving yourselves and us. It seems that you are too arrogant to be able to compromise, or even to understand that the whole nature of this type of government, which you have advocated for so long, is that it is two separate parties with different opinions. The whole point is that you have to accept people and policies that you don’t agree with in order to contribute ones that you do agree with. You only won 20% of the votes in the country so your desires will always have to be subordinate.
I have to say it is attitudes like yours, and, in fact, the underlying tension which seems to increasingly pervade the whole coalition, which has made me realise that the other parties were right all along: hung parliaments are not ideal and, therefore, PR is a mistake. We are all much more comfortable with strong, decisive, one-party rule, it seems. And, it is people like yourself who have, perhaps unknowingly, proved the point convincingly.
September 6, 2012 at 10:59 am
The David Laws supporters line re: ‘he was only protecting his privacy’ is so weak as to be laughable. He had a very easy way of protecting his privacy. As a very wealthy man he could simply have decided not to fraudulently claims tens of thousands of pounds in expenses. The fact he has been pulled back into Cabinet rather than prosecuted is a sad indication of the diminished the morals of UK politics.
September 6, 2012 at 11:54 am
Hey Paul, Way to go dude!
That Belize geez is such a “Jeremy Hunt” he’s like soooo “Atos” he’s unbelievable.
Mutcho Respecto
September 6, 2012 at 12:18 pm
It’s good to have you back on board!
Maybe you should spend some time considering Nick’s replacement though, rather than defaulting to Farron. The “Healing On The Streets” nonsense demonstrated that he can make quick, poorly thought-out decisions too – and that’s essentially what you’re accusing Clegg of.
September 6, 2012 at 1:09 pm
Ouch – more strongly put than I would express myself. And that’s saying something
September 6, 2012 at 1:14 pm
Hello I would like to clear up any confusion in the way my last post could, incorrectly be interpreted.
When I compared Lord Ashcroft to Jeremy Hunt I was unaware of the rhyming slang expression. I merely wanted to point out that they both held similar strong beliefs about free market economics and had both been promoted for their sterling hard work. The same with the term Atos, unaware of the slang usage to describe a selfish dont’ give a shit, profit at any costs company or individual, I simply wanted to express my hope that he would ,as Atos has done, be trying to target the limited government funds to those individuals who truly deserve it.
I hope this has cleared up any confusion.
September 6, 2012 at 4:42 pm
the powers of the PRIME Minister are extensive, and so do not include having to check with your deputy whether you can or should promote or re-shuffle anyone. Making a pronouncement like this on the basis of your own misunderstood interpretation of things, ie blaming Nick for something that Cam did, is so silly it is well placed on a blog called ‘burblings’.
September 6, 2012 at 5:17 pm
That’s an interesting point Peter. I cannot support the government any more and I cannot support the Deputy Prime Minister. It’s a conscience thing. Unfortunately, we’re in coalition so we take some responsibility for everything the government does. Nick Clegg is supporting David Cameron as DPM, so to an extent he is endorsing everything the government is doing.
September 12, 2012 at 2:41 pm
I supported the coalition and have continued to do so in spite of the difficulties. We have achieved some good things in government, but the reshuffle is a sign that Cameron is moving away from us. This means we can no longer expect to achieve much for the nation which is in line with our principles. Our role in government is therefore about to decline, shifting the balance towards our longer term priority of fighting to convince the nation of our basic principles.
The latest comments from Nick Clegg in favour of Tory attitudes on planning matters (in spite of LGA proving it to be false), is another example of how we are being misled.