Sunday, 22 January 2012

Paddy walks the talk

Discredited claims by Lib Dem ministers of being a mitigating influence on tory excesses in government were finally and effectively buried by the mealy-mouthed justification from Nick Clegg as to why he backs Ian Duncan Smith’s proposed cap on benefits.

It must have been very hard for rank and file Liberal Democrats to watch their leader refusing to reconsider an exemption for child benefit and rejecting suggestions that even the Department of Work & Pensions admits the changes will result in hardship for thousands of families.

Few activists will feel able to argue the same case on the doorstep with even fewer convinced that expedient talk about “transitional arrangements” is halfway credible.

The bad news for Clegg is that Paddy Ashdown is among the doubters.

4 Comments:

Anonymous said...

And yet Labour are proposing not to vote against the cap. How will they justify that on the doorstep?

Shambo said...

Precisely.

Shambo said...

From BBC

Labour has said it will not vote against the cap but it has put down an amendment proposing that those at risk of losing their homes should be exempt.

Shadow employment minister Stephen Timms told the BBC: "We think that the cap is a good idea, we think the principle is right. But we are very worried about the way the government is going to introduce it, which we think is going to lead to a large number of people losing their homes and having to be rehoused by their local council, ending up costing more."

Bollocks!! This is about principle not mechanics. New Labour lives on.

kp said...

'The bad news for Clegg is that Paddy Ashdown is among the doubters' ...

Surely this is the good news, when has Lord Ashdown ever been right about anything? Not even the 'former' Yugoslavia. A Man for all seasons, but no real man.