So what are the Lib Dems for?

Lets go to Nick Clegg's website and find out

Then Click on that button there on the left hand side, yes the one that says 'What we stand for', and Coalition Agreements,

Yup, absolutely nothing. Stands to reason, when you think about it.

Anybody still 'Agree with Nick'?


HT Mathew Barrett @MBarrettCH

How does one cease to be eligible for a pension?

I only ask because of this odd exchange in the House of Lords. Lord Pearson has been highlighting for a while how former EU officials and Commissioners are in reciept of an EU pension that has as part of its conditions a rule about not annoying the EU, or indeed harming its interests (though the way they are going that should disqualify almost everyone working in the Berlyamont now).

Any how he asked about our dear Deputy PM, for of course not only was Mr Clegg a fornmer MEP, (whose pension is not covered by the rule) but he was also a member of Leon Brittan's cabinet, and was thus an official (whose pensions are covered by the rule).

So he asked in November the following

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Nick Clegg, receives a pension from the European Commission; and, if so, what is the annual amount of that pension, and whether the terms of that pension constrain his actions.

OK simple enough. To which Lord MCnally answered,

The Deputy Prime Minister does not receive a pension from the European Commission.

Well of course he doesn't thinks Lord P. He is still wet behind the ears, the guy won't hit pensionable age for decades. Lord P tried again, and the story gets, dare I say, odder,

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord McNally on 15 November (WA 140), whether the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Nick Clegg, is eligible to receive a pension from the European Commission; if so, when that pension will become payable; what will be its annual amount; and whether the terms of that pension constrain his actions.

Stop wriggling dammit and answer the question.
The answer came back

Lord Wallace of Saltaire (Whip, House of Lords; Liberal Democrat)

The Deputy Prime Minister is no longer eligible to receive a pension from the European Commission.

Eh? No longer. So he was, and now he isn't? And when did he decide to forego that pension, and why?

Behr with a sore head

In the Staggers yesterday, cheif leader writer of the Observer and lead political writer at the Staggers, Rapheal Behr writes a sort of political obitury of Nick Clegg. He describes him in glowing referential tones, almost a tragic hagiography, and entirely out of keeping with the New Statesman's cultural heritage,

Cleggism, by contrast, channels the cosmopolitan, polyglot, liberal borderlessness that the European elite see as the marker of civilisation. The Liberal Democrat leader once wanted to represent a new kind of politics but he looks more like an ambassador from some ancien régime, a lonely tribune from the 20th-century European Union: patrician, collegiate, moderate, boring, benign, seeking consensus, with more than a whiff of elitism -

These mostly positive traits are contrasted with the panto-villany of Farage and UKIP,

Many Tories are focusing instead on the threat posed by Ukip in the European Parliament elections in 2014. Cameron's handling of the euro crisis, insufficiently bellicose for grass-roots activists, has provoked a rash of defections to Nigel Farage's anti-EU shires junta. In the 2009 European election, Ukip came second. It could top the poll next time. That doesn't translate into a big general election challenge, because the party's voters dwell mostly in safe Tory seats, but it is another force pulling politics away from EU engagement.

The Lib Dems, proud of their own conversion from protest vehicle to mature party of government, thoroughly despise Ukip and find the thought of equivalence sickening. One normally even-tempered minister recently described Farage's wrecking delegation in the European Parliament to me as "unpatriotic, Neanderthal wankers". The feeling is mutual.

Farage has had enough television and radio exposure to test whether he can win mass affection as a national figure. He can't. That doesn't mean Farageism lacks resonance. The creed is about more than the EU. It expresses a deep neurosis about borders and identity and the corruption of nationhood by a faceless other. The cultural potency of that force is on show in the hysterical response to the scandal around Theresa May's bungled experiment with relaxed passport controls.

It's remarkable, and one can almost smell the fear.Of course Mr Behr is a teeniest bit skewed in his vision of UKIP. this 'Shires-Junta' as he describes it is polling 9% in London and in the Euros back in 2009 it won cities like Hull, and towns like Hartlepool, not the most bucolic of places. My guess, and a charitable one at that is it is ignorance rather than malfeasance on the part of Behr, but you never know.

The glorious dysfunctionality of the article is that he claims that Farage is unable to win affection as a national figure, but admits that it is Farage rather than his pin up Clegg who is winning the arguement. For if Clegg is

"wholly at odds with the spirit of the times",

as he says, and he is counterpointing him with Farage then by default I would guess that it is Farage who is with the zeitgeist.

Nobody meets nobody

Now here's a thing

Nobody wants to meet Nick

Nick Clegg did Oldham today, and then some. He arrived at the Oldham Training Centre today en force. Lees Road was blocked for his very important Deputy Prime Minstership.

He was accompanied by,

7 Police cars 

3 Cars of security detail

1 Car full of close personal staff,

and of course 

The Deputy Prime Ministerial Limo.

One of the UKIP by-election team turned up to see if they could go into the meeting. One of the phalanx of policemen politely turned them away,

"It's a public meeting, but only those invited can go. There again there are only 15 people in there who accepted the invitations".

It transpires that the Lib Dems had invited everybody involved in the training centre to attend, but only 15 people bothered to turn up. But he was surrounded by twice as many security staff.

Nobody wants  to be seen with Nick any more.

Nick Clegg channels Prescott

I am full of adoration for Islamic Relief because the call is one that so uniquely captured the spirit with which you all acted in great urgency and compassion in so many places around the world of this country

Or maybe this has been retranslated?

Anyhow interesting that he feels that Islamd is uniquely compassionate when it comes to giving money to the flood relief in Pakistan, given the figures.

Good to see that the Lib Dems are joining us

Nick Clegg is making a speech to Privacy International tonight. And as is the tradition of Liberal Democrats everywhere, to be all things to all people into that audience he will say the right thing,

He will highlight the growth of CCTV cameras, the retention of innocent people's DNA and ID cards as evidence of "endless snooping" by government.

I am delighted, but hold on,

If they win power, the Lib Dems have pledged to introduce legislation to safeguard basic liberties, strengthen data protection laws, "restore" the right to peaceful protest and abolish ID cards.

Nothing here about abolishing the National Identity Register, nothing here about dealing with the NHS Spine. Without tackling these under the counter apsects you are merely pruning. And we all know that if you prune a plant, rather than uproot it, it grows back stronger.

National Identity Register: EEA Countries
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department from which date EEA nationals will be compelled to have their personal information recorded on the National Identity Register; and whether they will then be issued with a UK biometric identity card. [130425]

John Reid: We will start issuing identity cards to British citizens from 2009, alongside compulsory biometric immigration documents to foreign nationals from 2008. No date has yet been set but, subject to further primary legislation, it is intended that registration on the National Identity Register should eventually become compulsory for everyone aged 16 and over who is resident in the United Kingdom for more than a prescribed period and this will include European Economic Area (EEA) nationals.

Nope, I cannot see any attempt to stop it here? Can you? Maybe I have missed something?

For the record, UKIP would abolish the NIR, and thus ID cards become irrelevant. We oppose the Spine, we oppose the proliferation of CCTV cameras, and speed traps (those placed solely to make money).
We also oppose the retention of DNA, the mass proliferation of CRB checks, the European Arrest Warrant (are you listening Mr Clegg) lifestyle laws as a general rule and countless other ways that those in power attempt to restrict our Liberty.

Nick 'Janus' Clegg slaps down colleague, sort of

I promised a while back to tell you the response if I recieved one from Nick Clegg's office about the egregious Paul Holmes MP for Chesterfield and the Lib/Dem Parliamentary Chairman and 'Shadow' Housing Minister.

So here it is,

Dear Mr Towler,

Many thanks for your email to Nick regarding Paul Holmes' signature ofEDM 982 on Fidel Castro and his further comments. Nick has asked me to reply to you on his behalf.

Paul Holmes MP signed this EDM in his role as an individual constituency MP. It should not be the role of the party leader to dictate which EDMs individual MPs choose to sign.

However, the content does not represent party policy and does not have the
support of Nick Clegg nor our Foreign Affairs Spokesperson.

All best wishes,

Victoria Helyar-Cardwell

Correspondence Manager

Office of Nick Clegg MP

So what is he actually saying here? That MPs are free to sign up to anything they want, from the slaughter of the first born to support for withdrawal from the European Union. Is he saying that a senior member of his party, elected no less to the Chairmanship of the Parliamentary Party, and a member of his so called Shadow Ministerial team is not covered by any form of corporate responsibility?

But it's OK. Clegg doesn't agree with him, nor does the shadow foreign team. Well I should ruddy well think not. Remember that I asked the question after Holmes was quoted as saying,

"It is true Cuba has political prisoners and no free elections," said Holmes, "but it has very good dentistry."

A monstrously flippant attitude to basic human liberties of those poor blighters in Cuba suffering under a Communist dictatorship. Good teeth be hanged. Good teeth if you are a party apparatchik or with US dollars to play with more like.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at the pusillanimity of Clegg's response, after all the NHS he worships has a similar feel to it these days. However given that he sacked people for refusing to abide by his three line whip to abstain, this is pretty weak, and rather telling.

I asked Clegg,

"Is this attitude something that you believe is acceptable from somebody so senior in your party.

And if so, why?"

I really don't think that this is an answer.