'Oh, so that's who Richard Morris is..." Lord Hattersley on The Daily Politics

'An influential activist' - The Guardian

'Iain Dale, without the self loathing' - Matthew Fox in The New Statesman

'
You are a tinker...' - Tim Farron

Sunday 17 June 2012

Why we can't keep saying 'Hunt should have referred himself...'...

There seems a bit of a trend at the moment for 'un named but senior' Lib Dems to keep telling the press off-the-record that they really did want Jeremy Hunt investigated by the Standards Commissioner. The latest piece appears in The Observer, where it seems Nick personally told Jeremy Hunt he should refer himself.

The trouble is - we had a chance to make our position on this completely clear. There was a vote in the House of Commons which allowed our MPs to tell the world what they thought. I believe they should have taken that opportunity and voted for the Labour motion, or put forward an amendment that they could support.

But they didn't. They chose to abstain.

This is the worst of both worlds annoying both Labour and of course winding up our Conservative 'partners'. One Lib Dem councillor told me on Twitter that any suggestion we should support Labours motion demonstrated I didn't understand how Parliament works. The latest news suggests I understand rather too well...

But in many ways this is irrelevant. The real point is, if Nick or anyone else in the party wanted Hunt referred, they had the opportunity to say so on Wednesday. They turned that chance down.

It's no good moaning about it now. It just reminds people once again of another bad judgement call..






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