Why the lib-dems are shit

[free spirit]

The discussion tab on Wiki is always very interesting when looking at controvertial issues:


So it's the then chairman of this terrible group which is now making these accusations. It seems his hand written piece of paper is the only evidence there is.

BTW, here's a much better scan of the alleged membership list:
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/2009/02/06/cuca_msp_list_amended.jpg


So I hit google and all the newspaper stories go back to this one person - a Tory MP - making an accusation against Nick Clegg based on this piece of paper:
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/centreright/2008/04/nick-cleggs-tor.html

I'm not saying he is lying, as I have no evidence to back up such a claim, but I'm not necessarily going to trust the ex-Chairman of CUCA either.

I reckon the key to this would be finding out what the '(A)' bit is after N Clegg's name.

it's also after several other first years names, but not after anyone's names in any of the other years, and the (A)'s after 2 of the names have been crossed out and had something like GD handwritten after it.

My assumption would be that the (A) stood for associate member, or something like that, and refers to someone who signed up probably in freshers week, but hasn't paid any subs or attended any meetings or anything to make them into a full member.

That'd explain why there's no (A)'s in any of the other years, and also why Clegg's able to deny being a member at the same time as hands having a membership list with his name on it.

Loads of people sign up for loads of random societies in freshers week for all sorts of reasons (eg fit girl on the stand, peer pressure, being pissed and not even realising what you're signing, wanting to get the annoying twunk with the clipboard out of your face etc), and that's their first and only contact with the society, and they're hardly likely to remember doing it several decades later.

 

[TAE]

What - recently? I can find one single passing mention.

My apologies, you are quite right.

The stories are from mid-April ... but 2008 ... as is the blog.


At the time, however, it was in enough newspapers:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-st...a-student-tory-at-university-115875-20384448/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-559910/Did-30-lovers-Clegg-flirt-Tory-Party-student.html

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jonathanisaby/3669211/Nick_Cleggs_Conservative_credentials/


So ... it seems to be an old claim which never really got proven either way.

For some reason I thought this was a new accusation, but then again there was no reason for me to make that asumption.

I reckon the key to this would be finding out what the '(A)' bit is after N Clegg's name.

It's explained in the blog I linked to:

The "A" after his name meant he had paid an annual subscription.

 

[butchersapron]

A if for having paid an annual subscription.

 

[sihhi]

Pro-war whilst pretending to be anti-war on Afghanistan Wed, 23 Sep 2009

You cannot win a war on half horse power. We owe it to the young men and women serving in Helmand to give them all the political leadership and all the resources they need to do the job. We should either do this properly or we shouldn’t do it at all. So I say to the Prime Minister: time is running out.

Unless you change course, there will be no choice but to withdraw, and that would be a betrayal of the servicemen and women who have already made such enormous sacrifices on our behalf. I do not want British troops to come home defeated by political failure. I want them to come home, mission successfully completed, with their heads held high.

 

[bankside]

The stuff about Nick Clegg int the Mail really didn't show them in a good light.

 

[butchersapron]

Vince Cable wants to outlaw strikes in essential services like the railways and to introduce an even tougher industrial relations regime then the one we have at the minute in which strike after strike is being struck down by tendentious legal judgments.

Dimbleby: Is it the policy of the Liberal Democrats, if you were to have a position in government, to say we should toughen industrial relations law in order to make it more difficult for these unions, rail, air, whatever it might be, to take strike actions?

Cable: Well, if we’re talking about essential public services like the railway system then we should be looking at it, certainly.

 

[Spanky Longhorn]

Anyone who votes Libdem is voting to smash the unions even more quickly than is going to happen over the next couple of years. That's what you idiots are voting for, not fucking PR so we can have a couple of nice Green MPs.

 

[butchersapron]

What was the phrase the notoriously anti-union former chief economist of Shell Cable used - 'pinstriped Scargills'? That tells you all you need to know.

 

[Spanky Longhorn]

What was the phrase the notoriously anti-union former chief economist of Shell Cable used - 'pinstriped Scargills'? That tells you all you need to know.

He was married to a black woman though.

 

[sleaterkinney]

What was the phrase the notoriously anti-union former chief economist of Shell Cable used - 'pinstriped Scargills'? That tells you all you need to know.

He was talking about Bankers though.

Anyone who votes Libdem is voting to smash the unions even more quickly than is going to happen over the next couple of years

Quicker than the tories?

 

[DotCommunist]

raising the ghost of scargill, as a slur, might suggest some anti union feelings IMO

 

[butchersapron]

He was talking about Bankers though.

He was comparing the bankers billions pounds rip offs with normal w/c people struggling to defend their families, their living conditions and their communities. Disgusting, and designed to appeal to right-wing anti-union sentiment. If you think that it's ok to use those people and their struggles to attack bankers to boost your own neo-liberal agenda then you're wrong and you're demonstrating as few principles as Cable did when he used that phrase. You can attack bankers and the rotten system without slurring those people.

 

[butchersapron]

raising the ghost of scargill, as a slur, might suggest some anti union feelings IMO

It's amazing the ability that some people seem to have suddenly discovered to ignore a whole raft of issues isn't it?

 

[sleaterkinney]

He was comparing the bankers billions pounds rip offs with normal w/c people struggling to defend their families

No, he was comparing them to Scargill.

 

[sleaterkinney]

Here's clegg expanding on it

The banks, he said, have now become Britain's great contemporary vested interest. He said: "Bankers are Scargill in pin stripes. Scargill's stated aim was to challenge who runs the country. The bankers have behaved in the same arrogant way ... to benefit only themselves ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/12/nick-clegg-bank-tax-recession-lib-dems

 

[Spanky Longhorn]

Anyone who thinks Scargill was only in it for himself is a cunt.

 

[butchersapron]

No, he was comparing them to Scargill.

Oh please - he was doing his usual comparison of trade unions and bankers as both being 'vested interests' fucking up the country for the nice people. Now excuse me if i'm being naive, but i'm not sure that Scargill counts personally as a vested interest - which leads me to beleive that he was using him as a shorthand for the unions - and you damn well know this.

 

[sleaterkinney]

Just an aside - I won't be voting at all in the election, let alone for the lib dems, but I find the level of opposition to them here interesting

 

[butchersapron]

Here's clegg expanding on it

The banks, he said, have now become Britain's great contemporary vested interest. He said: "Bankers are Scargill in pin stripes. Scargill's stated aim was to challenge who runs the country. The bankers have behaved in the same arrogant way ... to benefit only themselves ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/12/nick-clegg-bank-tax-recession-lib-dems

This was the preceding paragraph:

Clegg said he remained, on balance, "a huge critic" of Margaret Thatcher, but admitted Britain needs to rediscover the zeal she showed when she tackled the unions.

..and now the equivalent 'vested interest', the one that followed on from the unions is the bankers. That's the whole bloody point. You've just demonstrated that he was directly comparing the unions to bankers. Not Scargill, not one man. Come on.

 

[butchersapron]

Just an aside - I won't be voting at all in the election, let alone for the lib dems, but I find the level of opposition to them here interesting

Is that right Mr Freud. Let's have your diagnosis then.

 

[DotCommunist]

It's amazing the ability that some people seem to have suddenly discovered to ignore a whole raft of issues isn't it?

Obama effect. Change!

 

[mk12]

His views on industrial relations definitely suggest the lib dems are "shit" from a left wing, socialist perspective. If that's what we're trying to do on this thread, then fair enough. But their views on potentially banning strikes on the railways is not going to affect their poll ratings, is it?

 

[butchersapron]

Here's clegg expanding on it

Btw, that's not really Clegg expanding on it - that's Clegg introducing it. That shit comes down from the very top.

 

[sleaterkinney]

Oh please - he was doing his usual comparison of trade unions and bankers as both being 'vested interests' fucking up the country for the nice people. Now excuse me if i'm being naive, but i'm not sure that Scargill counts personally as a vested interest - which leads me to beleive that he was using him as a shorthand for the unions - and you damn well know this.

Well labour have the union vote already and the tories have the banker vote so of course he's not going for them.

 

[Spanky Longhorn]

His views on industrial relations definitely suggest the lib dems are "shit" from a left wing, socialist perspective. If that's what we're trying to do on this thread, then fair enough. But their views on potentially banning strikes on the railways is not going to affect their poll ratings, is it?

You're right on both points yes.

 

[butchersapron]

Well labour have the union vote already and the tories have the banker vote so of course he's not going for them.

I don't care what his tactical reason for smearing people like that was - the fact that it was a tactical choice makes it even worse if anything. I'm glad you accept that's what he was doing now at least.

 

[butchersapron]

His views on industrial relations definitely suggest the lib dems are "shit" from a left wing, socialist perspective. If that's what we're trying to do on this thread, then fair enough. But their views on potentially banning strikes on the railways is not going to affect their poll ratings, is it?

My mentioning it on here won't no. This is just a thread to show how and why the lib-dems are shit. That's all.

 

[butchersapron]

Ipsos MORI poll to be announced tmw:

CON 36%(+4), LAB 30%(+2), LDEM 23%(-9)

Up your two arses.

 

[creak]

Ipsos MORI poll to be announced tmw:

CON 36%(+4), LAB 30%(+2), LDEM 23%(-9)

Up your two arses.

Where'd you get that from?

 

[butchersapron]

Here