BY the usual standard of spring conferences, this weekend’s Liberal Democrat bash in Liverpool has attracted hefty media attention. I can recall little coverage of Labour’s gathering last weekend in Birmingham.
One reason for this isn’t too hard to fathom – namely last Wednesday’s revolt by nearly a quarter of Lib-Dem MPs, over the now seemingly doomed bid for a referendum on the EU’s Lisbon Treaty. Leader Nick Clegg faced a storm of questions over his handling of the issue when he bounded into a media event at the Crowne Plaza hotel on Friday (I attended along with others from the local press).
Tough times are the ones in which to gauge political leaders, and I was impressed by the candour and vigour with which Mr Clegg defended his position on the EU before the throng of hacks. He described this as being a “pragmatic� response to a Hobson’s Choice. Then he went on the counter-attack: the Lib-Dems had backed a referendum on the direction-setting Maastricht Treaty in stark contrast to John Major’s then Tory Government; the Conservatives are hopelessly split over Europe beyond putting Lisbon to a plebiscite, he claimed.
Incidentally, Radio Four’s ‘Any Questions’ yielded one supporter of Mr Clegg’s position who is not well known as a fence-sitter – Labour’s London Mayor Ken Livingstone.
Sunshine through the clouds?: Nick Clegg MP arrives at spring conference
A feisty response to his critics then, from a man whose stance on ID cards smacks of the old Miltant Labour Liverpool MP Terry Fields on the Poll Tax (Mr Clegg says he’d be prepared to face court rather sign an ID register). But what fate awaits Lisbon rebels such as Southport’s John Pugh (a junior Treasury spokesman)? One throw-away remark seemed to speak volumes. ‘Will privileges for the rebel MPs be withdrawn?’ asked one correspondent. Mr Clegg replied he was unsure what privileges these could be – but suggested the dissident MPs’ “use of the gym in the Liberal Democrat headquarters� could be under threat. The gulag it ain’t.
Far from picking scabs over the Lisbon Treaty, this weekend had one intended headline-grabber for Mr Clegg and co. – the party’s new health policy.
It has been some time since the Lib-Dems stood on a platform of increased overall taxation to fund better core services. We’ll wait for their budget response to see if they envisage more cash for the NHS. But in the meantime their new showpiece policy is direct elections to local health boards, i.e. hospital trusts and PCTs.
Such an innovation – if ever implemented – would certainly add an interesting extra dimension to local politics. But might not it quickly sour, both for the electorate and elected? If Mr Clegg felt he was between a rock and a hard place in Westminster last week, it’s a feeling that vastly more amateur local health politicians would quickly have to get accustomed to. Take the hot potato of hospital parking charges, last week scrapped in Wales. I recall speaking to former Southport & Ormskirk Hospital Trust non-executive member Cllr Les Byrom about the last rise to parking fees at the hospital sites. He had voted against the increase, which came at a time when the trust still faced a mountainous debt. But he told me the board was effectively presented with a choice between clinical (eg nurses’ jobs) and non-clinical priorities. I wouldn’t envy anyone having to sell that decision to voters.
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »