nasty taste in the mouth.
The Labour Party have acted quickly to disown Woolas and shut the door on him. At least this is a change from the New Labour days when personal ties seemed to overwhelm any sense of public responsibility. Unfortunately, the affair does leave a question mark about Ed Miliband's judgement in making Woolas part of his team under these circumstances. It wasn't a matter of personal loyalty, Woolas supported his brother.
It also shows remarkable political incompetence to give the moral high ground to the Liberals at the moment. It has been particularly galling to hear Simon Hughes, Liberal Democrats Deputy Leader, pontificating about honesty and standards At least Nick 'O' Teen Clegg didn't lead the moral condemnation.
Section 106 of The Representation of the People Act states that it is an offence to publish "any false statement of fact in relation to the candidate's personal character or conduct" to prevent them being elected. It is a shame that the Act doesn't protect the the voters against political parties dropping manifesto promises in order to get a seat in the cabinet. Given our current situation a Misrepresentation of the People Act would be very timely.
I would argue that what the Lib Dems have done is equally unacceptable. 51% of voters supported Labour and the Liberals in 2010 based on their manifesto promises. That is not a mandate to dismantle our public services. The country did not vote for Conservative policies, yet that is what we are getting thanks to Cable and Spineless' undemocratic u-turns. It's like invasion of the Body Snatchers. What has happened to Vince Cable? Where is the doyen of progressive politics we knew before election?
Given the nature of the cuts being implemented surely the only democratic action would have been to hold another election and let the Lib Dems campaign on their new policies or even under a new name, may I suggest The Conservative Party.
I thought it was just an amusing hook to the blog but there actually was a Misrepresentation of the People Act introduced in Parliament in 2007 - it got the backing of 37 MPs in its second reading. It aimed to make it illegal for MPs to mislead the public.Its cheeky title was revised to the less amusing, 'A Bill to create offences in relation to the publication of false or misleading statements by elected representatives; and for connected purposes.' Must sack my fact checker.
ReplyDeletea bit rich to complain about the libs abusing the electoral system when they have suffered from its biasis & manipulation for the last 90 years by the other two parties
ReplyDeleteYes, I have some sympathy for the Libs and for electoral reform but in this case I really don't think it is a 'bit rich'. There was clear policy space between the Lib and Tory manifestos, particularly on the cuts. The Tories have taken an ideological axe to public services and that is only possible because of Lib Dem support. That is not what most Lib Dem voters were voting for. The parliamentary Lib Dems have sold their supporters down the river on this one.
ReplyDeleteI believe the decisive split that made the Libs unelectable using first past the post was Lloyd George's decision to form a coalition with the Tories. Is history repeating itself?