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Posts Tagged ‘Nick Clegg’

Reforming the Lords is always a “biggie” for the Left simply because they are called “Lords” but the reality is that today they are just the “Village Elders” in a very peculiar and British way. Broadly speaking and in an advisory capacity with no real powers, they do a good job as a revising chamber.

There have been calls for over 100 years to abolish or radically to reform the Lords but all attempts have come to nought largely. In fact the most radical thing to have happened apart from reducing their powers to delaying legislation only, was the Blair Government banishing most of the hereditary Peers from sitting in the House of Lords. As things currently stand there is no case for reform of the Lords, it would be a retrograde step in terms of governance.

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Although I am sure that something will spark me off again, sooner rather than later, I find our current political scene amazingly flat, totally boring and not worth too much effort to write about. I even feel sorry for the Media struggling to create drama out of very little, Greg’s Pasties and so on, how boring, boring boring.

We have the Local Elections which should see a fairly big swing to Labour. This will not be due to the ‘charms’ of Ed Miliband but rather that the public normally likes to vote against the incumbent party in Government when it comes to the mid term Local Elections. Of course the “buggeration factor” will be what happens to the LibDem vote…

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John Rentoul wrote a mildly interesting article in the Independent on Sunday concerning Nick Clegg and basically suggesting that he is tarred by being in the Coalition. Whilst certainly that seems to be correct, according to the pollsters, the LibDems have lost a lot of support since joining the Coalition Government, it is likely not the whole story.

I don’t think that it is quite as simple as that…”They sold out over tuition fees…” and such like phrases, it is more to do with the historical nature of their support I suspect. However, whilst I was thinking about Nick Clegg, it led me to ponder the nature of political life “At the Top” and how fleeting it all is…

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I was quite struck by a couple of pieces in The Telegraph by Benedict Brogan. In the first of which he was giving his “take” on the tactics being employed by David Cameron to remain in power after the 2015 General Election.http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/benedictbrogan/100134556/why-wont-ministers-speak-up-for-david-cameron/

Whilst I found his article interesting and in a sense, “timely”, I am not too sure that I agree with it all in the sense that whilst for now, that may be an ‘intelligent guess’, reality means that as it is as all such things, a moving target or a “World in Motion…”, and how the game plays out over the next 3 years, may well be very different…

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Oh Lord, here we go again, yet another numb nuts politician trying to make a name for themselves by “Reforming the House of Lords”, this time its Nick Clegg. One day it might occur to the inhabitants of the House of Commons that just as a Liberal Government tried and failed prior to the outbreak of WWI, so too has every attempt since and for good reasons, the Lords works as it is.

This doesn’t mean that the Lords hasn’t been changed over time, it has and in many ways as is right and proper, like all living things, institutions need to continually evolve to survive and adapt to changing circumstances. The problem with the brainless reformers from the Commons is they want “radical change” so that they can say; “I did this…I bent this to My will !” How idiotic can you get ?

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There is a proposal by a UKIP Peer Lord Pearson of Rannoch to set up a House of Lords Committee to examine the value of the UK belonging to the European Union. It is envisaged that the membership of this committee would be made up of seven people, two “For”, two “Against”, two of no strong view on the matter and, an independent chairman.

The idea would be by diligent examination of the issues, it must be possible to arrive at a firm view, backed with facts that says that it is either “In” or “Against” the UK’s interests to be a member of the European Union. This is a fine ambition I might suggest but there are quite a number of obvious problems with the whole idea…

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For all the fuss over the EU, we really must concentrate on more important things like Christmas because the farce over last Friday, is emerging into a Pantomime in it’s own right. There was a LibDem MEP called Sharon Bowles who is chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, declaring that she wished she could change her nationality to Irish to show support for the Euro – daft cow !

What made it all the funnier was she both looked and sounded like Julie Walters playing her role as “Mrs Overall” in the mock soap “Acorn Antiques”, I almost wet my pants watching the woman being interviewed, it was hilarious…if also slightly sad too.

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I really do find John Rentoul who writes for The Independent, a great read even when I disagree with him and today, fell about laughing with the opening paragraph of his article:

“If we are isolated and we are in the right, then that’s the correct position.” The Prime Minister was emphatic. Just because he had used Britain’s veto, he said, did not mean that he, or the British, were anti-European.” It was apparently what Tony Blair said after using a British Veto in Helsinki back in December 1999.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-rentoul/john-rentoul-any-pm-would-have-done-as-cameron-did-6275402.html#disqus_thread

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The ever interesting journalist John Rentoul wrote an article in The Independent on Sunday comparing Clegg with Cameron and in particular, how Cameron understands the necessity of the “impossible promise” that chimes with the public sentiment whereas Clegg doesn’t. As ever, an interesting article that takes an amusing sideways view at the Coalition and well worth a read: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-rentoul/john-rentoul-coalition-doesnt-work-for-clegg-2345088.html

Perhaps what lies behind this is the view that this “Coalition” may well prove to be a one off that will not last beyond this Parliament but it has been an interesting “experiment” none the less that for me has thrown up some surprises.

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In its own way, it is quite amusing that the ‘junior leader’ of the Coalition Government is attracting far more column inches in the Press than David Cameron himself but, one suspects that following the Local Election and Referendum results, journalists hope they smell ‘blood in the water’. I feel that providing Clegg and his Party keep their wits about them, they will come through fine.

One of the key things he must avoid is the “Do Something” approach and in a interesting article today in the Independent Mary Ann Sieghart focuses in on Clegg’s desire to “Reform the Lords” which she strongly advises him against doing, a view I certainly agree with. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/mary-ann-sieghart/mary-ann-sieghart-if-it-aint-broken-nick-dont-try-to-fix-it-2284679.html

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