Lib Dems in a flap!

Not Clegg’s finest hour

So the people of South Shields and Jarrow will not now be able to partake in a referendum over the EU Reform Treaty, courtesy of Nick “cluck cluck” Clegg, who ordered his Lib- Dem MPs into a flap by directing them to abstain in the Commons vote this evening. His sham excuse of wanting an “in or out vote” on the EU was nothing more than a smokescreen to hide his intentions of denying us a referendum on a treaty which less reforms than creates a new European super federalist ideal with a treaty so like the constitution rejected by the French and the Dutch that they could have been twins.

Clegg’s capitulation “leadership” resulted in three of his front bench team tendering their resignations and ten of his backbenchers joined David Cameron’s Conservatives to vote in favour of a referendum. Of the three main parties, the Conservatives are the only one to have honoured their promises to the electorate at the last election, Labour and the Lib-Dems both promised us a referendum and both reneged!

This has not been Clegg’s finest hour in his short term as leader!

Other blog reactions

• Well done to the 13 LibDem MPs who voted for a referendum. Glad to know that 20 per cent of LibDem MPs have the courage of their convictions. Shame about the rest – Iain Dale’s Diary
• Last night’s Paxman interview was excruciating, Clegg at one point attacked the Labour Party for “reneging on its commitment to a referendum”. The government uses exactly the same sophistry as the LibDems. So he was condemning himself by those words. – Guido Fawkes
• How long before another leadership contest? Third time lucky for Huhne? – Dizzy Thinks
• Through no fault of my own, my own political party turned me in to a liar. I told fibs on doorsteps, not deliberately, but because I was under the misapprehension that the Liberal Democrats would be true to the manifesto that was published. – (Lib-Dem) Norfolk Blogger
• The guilty men:
• Gold prize for guilt: Brown and the vast majority of the parliamentary Labour Party for breaking their election manifesto promise.
• Silver prize: Nick Clegg for putting his pro-Europeanism before his party’s traditional commitment to democracy. 13 LibDem MPs defied Clegg’s instruction to abstain.
• Bronze prize: The five Tory MPs who said they were voting against the people having a say. – Conservative Home
• The public can see this rank hypocrisy and deceit for what it is, and whilst some Lib Dems may not be able to break their word and will vote with the Conservatives today, the public have seen their party for what its is: dishonest, unreliable, hypocritical and deceitful. – Man in a Shed
• Lord what fools these mortals be! If you kept your word and said what you mean you wouldn’t get into these difficulties, Mr Clegg. Does he really think these contortions are the way to help restore faith in politicians? – John Redwood
• The burning question is of how much damage has been done to the Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems. – The Coffee House
• As the full scale of the Lib Dem revolt becomes clear, it didn’t go unnoticed that Vince Cable (who harbours his own doubts and has appeared on an Open Europe platform) chose not to take his customary seat next to Nick Clegg on the Liberal Democrat front bench, but chose to sit in the row behind… – Red Box
• The Liberal Democrats want to be everything to everyone – to the left of Labour for disillusioned Labour voters, and just enough to pose on the centre-right to attract disillusioned Conservatives. It is easy indeed to promise paradise on earth when you know there is no chance you will ever have to deliver. – Cranmer

Any guesses why the Liberal Democrats chose the colour yellow?