Lisbon Treaty - How to flush out a rat (Nick Clegg).

There are some that believe that Nick Clegg and Gordon Brown have come to some kind of gentleman's agreement. Did Nick Clegg force his MPs to abstain from the Lisbon Treaty referendum vote to help out Gordon? Could there be a Lib-Lab pact in the offing? I suspect that there could be some truth in such a belief, but I'm not convinced. Yet.....

There is one sure fire way to find out. You see Nick Clegg has promised to whip the Lib Dem Lords to abstain from the same vote if it is re-introduced into the Upper Chamber. The problem for Gordon Brown that is the Lords just might vote in favour of a referendum. From the Telegraph:

There are 202 Conservative peers, and 215 Labour peers. IWAR says that if the 78 Liberal Democrats were all to abstain, there would need to be just 13 more of the 224 crossbenchers in favour than against in order to deny the Government a majority.

So, do you see where this is leading? There is a decent chance that the vote in the Upper Chamber will go against Gordon's wishes. If Nick Clegg is in Brown's pocket then he will go back on his instruction to Lib Dem peers to abstain. If Clegg instructs Lib Dem peers to vote against a referendum then the rat will have been flushed out.

Let's wait and see what happens shall we?