Tuesday 3 June 2008

Nick Clegg has more faces than Big Ben (Lisbon Treaty).

I've pointed out several times what a complete and utter two faced ARSE Nick Clegg really is: HERE, HERE and HERE. Well it seems that William Hague has written to Cleggie asking where he actually stands on the subject of a referendum for the Lisbon Treaty. I'll be stuffed if I know.

William writes:

"Tomorrow the Lords will begin the key votes on the Lisbon Treaty, including the crucial vote on a referendum. In the Commons you ordered your MPs to abstain on the vote. You even ordered those frontbenchers who insisted on keeping their manifesto promises to resign.

You said you wanted a referendum on the EU – in or out. On 25th February you led your MPs in storming out of the Chamber because Mr. Speaker had not selected a Liberal Democrat amendment for that referendum.

In the Guardian on 25th February you wrote: 'We want a referendum on Europe with substance. This generation deserves its chance to say where we stand on Europe - in or out.'

Yet in the House of Lords, when an amendment was tabled to provide for the very In-Out referendum that you had presented as the key Liberal Democrat objective, your peers abstained. Had those 76 peers voted for the amendment you would have won the vote. Why were they told to abstain?

Now the Lords will soon vote on a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. The Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the Lords has indicated that Lib Dem peers will be whipped to oppose it.

Do you support this? If not, have you lost control over your party in the Lords or will you publicly tell Lib Dem peers to vote the same way as Lib Dem MPs were told to? If you do, does that not expose your real position as being determined to force this Treaty through without the British people having the say they were promised in any way at all?

The Liberal Democrat position on Europe now looks to be a mixture of chaos and hypocrisy. Before you became leader you and Vince Cable proposed a motion at your 2005 party conference that 'any proposals which involve significant change in the relationship between the Union, the member states and its citizens should be approved in Britain through a referendum'. I agree with the thrust of that. So why won't you honour your promises?

The people who voted Lib Dem at the last election on the basis of your promises have a right to know your true position. I look forward to hearing from you what it actually is.

P.S. Owing to the public interest in this matter I am releasing this letter to the media."
Like William Hague, I will be waiting with bated breath for Clegg's reply. No doubt it will be worded in such a way that no one actually knows what he's talking about (himself included). What an embarrassment this man has turned out to be for the Lib Dems. The latest poll from ComRes shows the voter's opinion of his leadership.

3 comments:

John M Ward said...

Well, Big Ben doesn't have any faces as such, actually...

Clegg appears to be trying to manufacture a situation to get the result he wants (ratification without a referendum) without it looking -- at least to the person in the street -- as if he and his party were being anything other than open, on the side of the public and all the rest of it.

Their style remains as it has been for years, as I recently witnessed yet again in my own locality during our recent by-election.

In that event, as is usual here, they came third :-)

Daily Referendum said...

John,

I know it's the clock tower that has the faces:) But "Nick Clegg has more faces than the clock tower which houses Big Ben" doesn't sound the same.

John M Ward said...

Well, as it's you -- all right, I'll let you off this time :-)