Watched the leader of the Liberal Democrats being interviewed on the Politics Show today. The BBC have covered the interview on a web page, focusing on a silly little story about someone overhearing him being rude about his colleagues on a mobile phone. What's news about that. Since it wouldn't be a surprise to learn that the Metropolitan Police listen in on all of his calls, I didn't think this story was worth any coverage at all.
But Nick Clegg's response to the question about whether the party is going to return the £2.4 million that was donated to it by Michael Brown was much more worthy of a web page, and much more interesting. Lets recap. Michael Brown came by his wealth dishonestly, and the donation came out of money fraudulently obtained. There's no suggestion that the Liberal Democrats did anything wrong. I'm prepared to accept that the requisite checks were made before accepting the donation. The very reasonable question that Jon Sopel put to Nick Clegg was whether the money was going to be paid back, now that it was known to have been fraudulently obtained. The Times here yesterday thinks it might have to be repaid.
Nick Clegg's opinion was that as long as the proper checks had been made (at least what is required by the Electoral Commission) the money can be kept. By this reasoning, it would be OK if a donation came from a Mr R Biggs, on the grounds that the youngster in charge of the receiving office was too young to have heard of how Ronnie came by his loot. I thought Clegg, who usually tries to present himself as an occupant of moral high ground looked thoroughly discomforted to me. This looked a much bigger story than a bit of tittle-tattle on the mobile.
4 comments:
I watched that Glyn and he was very edgy. So he should have been, his excuse for not repaying the money was that it had been spent.
That's just not good enough Cleggers, if it was not clean money , then you just have to find it and repay it.
I think the word you are looking for Glyn is, 'hypocrisy'.
I am sick of the Lib Dems and their piousness on just about every subject and everything.
They fight dirty all over the UK - telling half-truths about all parties that oppose them. Look what said and did about the tory candidate in Henley recently.
They skulk around delivering their Lib Dem Focus newsletters - exagerrating polls, making up spurious polls and deliberately deceiving voters in the process.
However, when the tables are turned on them - like on today's Politics Show - Nick Clegg was exposed for the weak and useless leader he really is.
No wonder his opponent for the leadership election, Chris Huhne, once called him Calamity Clegg!
For God sake Glyn, step up your campaign and let's get rid of our local MP once and for all.
He is largely repsonsible for creating the gutter politics in which the Lib Dems reside.
You have to win Glyn and stop the Lib Dems here in Montgomeryshire for good.
They after all, were responsible for selecting the incumbent in the first place!
When you do win, please, please make sure you build the Tory Party up to ensure the Lib Dems are NEVER elected here again - they are a total disgrace.
Do not 'do a Dilwyn' and hand the seat back to them - do you hear me?!
VM - It may be difficult for the Lib Dems to repay the money if its been spent, but they could always pay it back by installments - say £500,000 a year over 5 years.
Elin - I'm working very hard to win - albeit by a strategy not everyone who supports me agrees with. I've taken on roles with several organisations which enable me to work constuctively for positive objectives - rather than traditional campaigning. And its also the case that my aim is to build up a respected Conservative voice in the constituency - thus our committment to Local Government which was so spectacularly successful last May.
if they dont pay itback, they will be guilty of liberal sleaze
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