Peer pressure

The unsubtle intervention by Lord Carlile QC of Berriew in forcibly stating that Welsh Lib Dems should have gone to court over disqualification of its candidates must be as welcome as a badger in a cattle market in some quarters this morning.

There is known to be little mutual regard or respect between his lordship, a former party leader, and current incumbent Kirsty Williams. However, his undisguised attack over a lack of moral fibre on her part by not putting up more of a fight is all the more damning in the inference that the reason for cutting John Dixon adrift was purely financal.



Lord Carlile told the BBC, ".. I'm very disappointed that my party and his, the Liberal Democrats, appeared not to have the resources to take up the cudgels to fight John Dixon's case all the way."

Asked if his party was broke, and did not have the money to fight the case, Lord Carlile added: "I'm not sure the party's broke, but taking up the case would have involved the potential expenditure of a few tens of thousands of pounds.

"In my view, it would have been right for that money to be spent to save the political career of a fine candidate, who would have made a good assembly member."

Following on from the insights provided by National Left yesterday, whilst the likes of Peter Black would dearly like to move on, there are others in the party who are apparently a lost less inclined to see this inconvenient blemish on their leader’s record airbrushed out for the sake of expediency. This spot of peer pressure represents a far more meaningful postcript than the diversionary twattle offered elsewhere.