Tag: Liberal Democrats (UK)

If women needed any more reason to be put off politics, episode three of Bodyguard was probably it. (At the time of writing, this theory is one of several. Only show creator Jed Mercurio knows the rest.) Bodyguard may be fiction, but its portrayed world of toxic masculinity, fragile egos and women wearing high heels from dawn until dusk is probably not that far off the mark. We don’t know if Montague, the fictional home secretary, is dead – apparently she might just be laying low until the finale – but in the real world, female heads do roll. Amber Rudd, for example, resigned from the Home Office after failing to prevent or deal with the Windrush scandal, while male politicians who have arguably committed equally egregious acts have simply escaped through the revolving doors of a cabinet reshuffle. Forgive me, but work-life balance does come into it. When I was lucky enough to have dinner in the canteen at Westminster a few years ago, I vividly remember having a chat with a female MP. It perhaps goes some way to explaining why so many powerful women don’t have children, whether it be Angela Merkel, Julia Gillard, Natalie Bennett or even the fictional Julia Montague. Once you are elected, you will be lucky if you have one full day off a week.

Sir Vince Cable has ruled out ever leading his party into a formal coalition with a Jeremy Corbyn-led government, a move he says would be just as “appalling” as working as junior partners in an administration run by Boris Johnson. He says the latter are planning to leave the party in droves if Corbyn becomes prime minister. Speaking on the eve of his party’s annual conference, which opens on Sunday in Brighton, Cable suggests he has already held discussions with disaffected Labour members about joining what he has called a new “movement for moderates” on the political centre ground. “If you talk to a lot of Labour backbenchers they just can’t, they’re not willing under any circumstances, to countenance a Corbyn government. But if they formed a coherent group, I’ve said that whatever happens with our internal reforms, I want to work with them. “It may sound a bit deterministic but I think the very odd combination of numbers combined with the financial crisis and people out there saying the whole bloody place is going in flames. A year ago, before the last Lib Dem conference, Cable was on strikingly optimistic form, telling this newspaper he believed there was a decent chance he could become prime minister, so unpredictable was politics. He now seems to accept that the job of leader has proved more difficult than he expected. “I mean, I remember 10 years ago when I was acting leader I had two questions a week in prime minister’s questions. I am now allowed one every four weeks.

Cable and Farron, who have positioned the Lib Dems as the stop-Brexit party, were away from the Commons on Monday night during the vote on amendments tabled by Jacob Rees-Mogg’s hardline European Research Group (ERG). 14 Tories rebelled. Tim Farron and Vince Cable (those doughty, fearless crusaders against a hard Brexit) didn’t vote. This was how Tim spent his evening: https://t.co/Iz5dHz9RHL July 17, 2018 The Lib Dem chief whip, Alistair Carmichael, also admitted he “messed up”. After the government won two of the votes with a majority of just three, remain-backing Labour MPs turned on Cable and Farron – although three Labour MPs, and a former Labour MP also backed the government. Stephen Doughty (@SDoughtyMP) Yet you were happy to tweet this as you absented yourself from a crucial #Brexit vote tonight. pic.twitter.com/l8AJpmqZI8 July 17, 2018 The Lib Dem’s Brexit spokesman, Tom Brake, criticised the government for accepting amendments to the customs bill from the hardline ERG. That is why we must now give the people the final say and an opportunity to Exit from Brexit.” #CustomsBill #FinalSay pic.twitter.com/0fMPqpqX6I July 16, 2018 But when he was challenged by LBC on why Farron and Cable had failed to vote on the amendments, he said the Lib Dems did not anticipate that the vote would be so close. A Lib Dem source said: “Vince had an important meeting off the parliamentary estate that had been approved by the whips and nobody thought these amendments would ever be so close.” He added: “The Chequers plan is unworkable in any form and our aim is to stop Brexit. These amendments don’t make it any more workable, the whole thing is unworkable.” Play Video 1:51 The Tory rebel Anna Soubry attacked Theresa May for accepting the amendments.