Clegg's allies turn on Farron
David Blackburn 11:57am
James wrote at the weekend, Nick Clegg's Orange Book allies fear Tim Farron, the Lib Dem President and standard bearer of the social democrat wing of the party. Yesterday, Farron said that the coalition would "end in divorce" in the months running up to the next general election. That provocative comment followed the barnstorming speech that Farron gave on Saturday, in which he labelled Nick Clegg as the "Leader of the Opposition". Quentin Letts has echoed the views of many party foot soldiers by saying that this was a leadership pitch for the future by the Party President.
Unsurprisingly, the leadership has moved to quash Farron. The Times reports (£):
Mr Farron was ordered to appear before colleagues at this morning's meeting of MPs, having failed to show up yesterday to justify his suggestion which stopped just short of advocating a break-up. His comments were disowned publicly by Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, yesterday morning. "I and my colleagues are most definitely not talking about coalition divorce," Dr Cable told the BBC. "We are committed to the coalition Government. We have a massive task to do to turn the economy around. It has to be done in an environment of fairness, which is where this issue of reward for failure comes in, but nobody is talking about divorce".
The general consensus among observers is that Clegg is absolutely secure and is likely to remain so; but, plainly, Farron's manoeuvres have not gone unnoticed.
UPDATE: Farron has just appeared on the Daily Politics (video above), where he was grilled by Andrew Neil about his leadership ambitions and the coalition. It was fun viewing, with the cheeky chappie from Westmoreland reduced to rambling incoherence at times. Eventually, though, Fallon said that the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats "will go there separate ways" after the next election. He also added that he had "no...ambition" to lead the party. In a later interview he said that Nick Clegg will "almost certainly lead the party into the next election", which is not quite the same as saying that Clegg will.
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Sally Chatterjee
September 20th, 2011 12:29pm Report this commentMy goodness. The economy, the riots, Europe in crisis but the Lib Dems seem obsessed with self-regarding gossip.
Chris
September 20th, 2011 1:02pm Report this commentBad link to Letts article.
denis cooper
September 20th, 2011 1:23pm Report this commentI notice that the Fixed Term Parliaments Bill finally received Royal Assent on September 15th and so is now an Act.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/14/contents/enacted
According to Section 1:
"The polling day for the next parliamentary general election after the passing of this Act is to be 7 May 2015."
It seems to me that most probably it will be, however frayed some relationships within the coalition may become.
For the next couple of years at least a collapse of the coalition would risk a collapse of the gilts market, and the party held responsible by the voters would be hammered in the polls.
That would effectively take us through to spring 2014.
It would look very strange indeed if the party which demanded this legislation for fixed term parliaments then precipitated an early general election during 2014, so it's unlikely that it would do so.
Therefore if there was to be an early general election it could only be because the Tories proposed the motion specified in Section 2:
“That there shall be an early parliamentary general election.”
and Labour felt obliged to vote for it, thus providing the necessary two thirds majority.
I think it's far more likely that Cameron and Clegg would stick it out to the bitter end, with ever more open hostility between their two parties during the last year as they positioned themselves for the general election on 7 May 2015.
SJH
September 20th, 2011 2:09pm Report this commentHe's even worse than I thought if he said "there separate ways".
rosie
September 20th, 2011 2:36pm Report this commentEvery time CHris Huhne says he is ten years older than Clegg, and 57, he is really saying, "Clegg is too young, and Cable is too old."
Publius
September 20th, 2011 2:54pm Report this comment@dennis cooper
Thanks for pointing this out, Dennis. Another trendy nail in our political constitution -- and oh so European! Just when the failure of their grandiose systems is becoming apparent, we gleefully ape them.
Theresa
September 20th, 2011 2:57pm Report this commentIs there a man lacking more sex appeal?
General Zod
September 20th, 2011 6:39pm Report this commentI've just watched Brillo destroy him on the Daily Politics. Farron is a lightweight fool.
Magnolia
September 20th, 2011 6:43pm Report this commentWatch that big deep blush spread all over his face when Mr Neil asks him if his speech was in part to position himself as a future leader of his party.
Publius
September 20th, 2011 7:25pm Report this commentGeneral Zod writes: "I've just watched Brillo destroy him on the Daily Politics. Farron is a lightweight fool."
Quite.
From all the recent reporting, I had supposed we were dealing with a latter-day Cicero.
David Evershed
September 21st, 2011 11:03am Report this commentYou need to decide if you are talking about Tim Farron or Tim Fallon!
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