So it says here, and on the radio earlier today. Apparently it's going to save public money: Mr Cameron said: "I think the House of Commons could do the job that it does with 10% fewer MPs without any trouble at all." Does any of this sound familiar? Well, perhaps not. We did word it better: There are too many national politicians, and they cost too much, so we'll shrink parliament by 150 MPs. But you know, it's on page *twelve* of the Make It Happen document the Lib Dems launched three months ago, so I expect it's taken dopey call-me-Dave this long to read that far, you can't expect him to rephrase it eloquently as well.
I wonder how long it will take the tories to cotton onto the fact that using public money to underwrite loans that the banks see as too risky to take on is NOT such a good idea? Probably when they catch the news and see that we don't like it. On a side note, I'm not sure who it was from the Lib Dems that was quoted in that last link there but they're right - a stunt is precisely what this is. But then, haven't New Labour always been a selection of cunning stunts?
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
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5 comments:
You have a masterly grasp of spoonerisms Steph.
Indeed.
I am getting pretty tired of our party being dismissed as irrelevant by the Tories or Labour and our policies treated similarly only to find that they have been lifted wholesale a few weeks later, but often in a watered down form like here.
The truth is that we are often leading on policies (look at Vince Cable over the last few months) and our influence is disproportionate to our (unfair) parliamentary size - i.e. we punch above our weight.
I blogged about this sort of issue myself here a few months back.
To be fair, the Tories have had policy on reducing the number of MPs since 2004.
I seem to remember from the days of my youth that the old Liberal Party's plans for devolution (this was before there was even a Welsh Office!) included a cut in the number of Westminster MPs. Our LibDem spokesfolk are rather quiet on the subject these days; I don't know why.
Speaking of spoonerisms... In Ye Olden Days I worked in the Lib Dem Whips Office for a while. On a slow day in mid-summer recess, myself & my colleagues (who'll remain nameless cos several of them are now elected representatives) decided it would be fun to all answer the office phones 'nipple lemon prats'. (Say it quickly). People on the other end of the line would pause for a second & go 'sorry?' and then we'd switch to the more normal greeting of 'Liberal Democrats. How can I help you?'. They'd be convinced they'd just misheard the first time. Maybe you had to be there but it amused us for a day.
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