How the 'Neither Liberal nor Democrat' party win any seats is beyond me. Utterly devoid of any principles, their stance on the EU epitomises their naked opportunism.Following on from their not very surprising recent about turn on an 'in-or-out' referendum, Lib Dem Foreign Affairs Spokesman Ed Davey said this last night on the Tory amendments to the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill:
"Liberal Democrats support a referendum on Europe, but on Britain's membership of the EU and not on the legalese of any specific treaty. We believe that the British people want to be able to answer the in-out question, and that that is the sort of constitutional issue that is best put in a referendum. As the right hon. Member for Leicester, East (Keith Vaz) said, that is the right way forward."
What an incoherent joke they are and Jon Craig at Sky also reports on further splits in the Lib Dem's position on the EU.
As an aside, there were a couple of other interesting little snippets from last night's debate, from Labour MP Keith Vaz:
The public are concerned, because they only ever get anti-Europe stories from the tabloid press. Everything is blamed on the EU, but the public would feel differently if we had a fair press that respected discussions on Europe.
Yes Keith we're all stupid, and are shamelessly brainwashed by the Sun newspaper. This was the same re-occurring patronising responses I got from MPs and Peers when I wrote to them campaigning for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Vaz continues:
Of course we want to govern ourselves, but the British people ought to have an opportunity to say something about Europe. They have not been allowed to as yet, but people need to be able to position themselves as they wish.'The British ought to have their say', says the man who voted against a referendum on Lisbon.
I often wonder whether I should just cut out the ballot box nonsense and just get one of these.
hattip: OpenEurope
The Lib Dem position on the EU remains the same, they are raving EUphiles almost to a man. The only reason they support an in or out referendum is that they know the 2 main parties wont go near it with a bargepole, therefore it's a Lib Dem vote winner.
ReplyDeleteIf there was an outside chance of Carswell's bill for a referendum going through parliament, just watch them turn their coats and vote against it.
I'm not sure that they're raving EUphiles almost to a man; Lib Dem votes on certain EU issues can't disguise the fact that as a party they're clearly split on the issue.
ReplyDeleteI agree, however, that generally they will always have a 'more EU the better' approach and as you say their 'in or out' option was always a ruse to get out their Lisbon commitment
I dread a hung parliament if it means that the Lib Dems hold the balance of power