"Dear Rob,
This evening we overwhelmingly won an historic vote on the Second Reading of the House of Lords Reform Bill - a Bill that will finish something our party started a century ago.
This is a huge triumph for our party, and a clear mandate to deliver much needed reforms to the House of Lords. "
At the precise moment this popped into my inbox a little piece of me died. Whoever sent this email needs their head examining.
Yesterday was a disaster - we have probably lost the only opportunity we will ever have to get an elected Lords and the party needs to realise this. Everything about the coalition has changed and we need to get our heads around this.
Sending this email was trite, treated the membership with contempt and was actually dishonest. We are not stupid, we now know that Lords reform is further away after yesterday, not closer. It has been the subject to much mockery on the Internet and I'm sure Andrew Neill will have a field day with it on This Week. Can an MP with a straight face say Yesterday was a triumph - no of course not.
Politically it's also daft - we need to appear to be angry not compliant if we are to get our own way. Cameron needs to be scared of us, not his own right wing.
This is the email I would have sent members last night if I had been Nick Clegg:
Dear Rob,
Yesterday was a day when I was proud of my party, all 57 of our MPs voted to end privilege and patronage in our democracy.
However the conduct of both the Labour Party and a significant number of Tory MPs left me ashamed to be a Parliamentarian. They were happy to scupper Lords Reform on the basis either of narrow party political gain or because they do not believe in democracy. While we passed legislation to start the ball rolling on Lords reform, getting the legislation enacted onto the statute book will be much harder now because of the wrecking antics of these MP. It was clear that we could not win the programme motion which would have set a timetable for Lords Reform which is why I agreed to withdraw it.
However this is not the end for Lords Reform, the bill will be brought back for it's second reading in the Autumn and we will fight tooth and nail to win this battle.
But we need your help - over the coming months I am asking you to "spread the word" talk to your family, your friends and your neighbours about why Lords Reform is important. Support Lords Reform online at www.fixparlaiment.org and help the Lib Dems deliver their message on the ground by delivering leaflets and knocking on doors.
We are determined to defeat the forces that protect the establishment and carry out this vital reform.
All the best
etc
I will write in the coming days about what the party should do now but one must be to be honest with their own members!
Well it couldn't be worse than the original email - personnally I'd have gone for "I've decided to drop Lords Reform until 2015"
ReplyDeleteer... instead of this permanent cycling of the 'its all Labours fault'
ReplyDeletehow about....
'Hi everyone - Ive just realised that Labour voted for the proposal and the only reason were being held up is my pig headed refusal to contenance a referendum on a major constituional issue. Therefore I've informed Miliband that I will agree with a referendum - so now its all on his shoulders to march his troops through to support change and then we can argue the case properly with a referendum at the end.'
Except that a referendum itself is just another stalling tactic by the anti-reformers. Agreeing to one is just swapping one effort to kick reform into the long grass for another (one that costs £80million, to boot)
ReplyDeleteJust watch, give them a referendum and they'll try and shift the question onto what % should be elected in a divide and conquer move (100% v 80% splitting the vote and resulting in the status quo of 0% winning by default).
I actually do think Labour deserve a lot of abuse for their stance. I don't think a referendum is neccessary and to be honest I don't think they do either - this is has everything to do with political opportunism and nothing to do with democratic principle.
ReplyDeleteIf Labour believed in a referendum why didn't they give one on Lords Reform during their 13 years in Governmentor for that matter give one on the Lisbon Treaty - a more important constitutuional change.