Published: September 4th 2010 - at 11:00 am

Libdems face local resignations


by Newswire    

Nick Clegg is facing a growing grassroots revolt as Liberal Democrat councillors quit the party in protest at the decision to form the Coalition with the Conservatives.

Eight councillors in four areas have already resigned and the party’s high command is braced for more resignations as the full impact of the public spending cuts becomes clearer. Town halls face a severe budget squeeze despite the Government’s pledge to devolve power.

The rebellion suggests that Mr Clegg could face a rough ride when his party holds its annual conference in Liverpool in two weeks. Four councillors in Halton, Cheshire, who have quit the party and now sit as independents, said the Liberal Democrats had become “nodding dogs for the Tories”. One of them, Peter Blackmore, said he “can’t look people in the eye” because of the spending cuts.

In Liverpool, Councillor Ian Jobling has defected to Labour, accusing the Liberal Democrats of “double standards and hypocrisy”. He said: “Our manifesto in May clearly stated that there would be no cuts before 2011-12 because it would cost jobs.”

…more at The Independent


---------------------------
    Share on Tumblr  


About the author

· Other posts by


Story Filed Under: News


Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.


Reader comments


It’s OK Nick Clegg will soon move himself to the Tories or will become Lord Clegg, you can bet your ass he has done a deal to make his future secure.

This is just regurgitated material from the Independent. Write your own content! What’s the point of visiting this blog for cut and paste? It’s ridiculous. Lazy bu*gers!

There is a fairly constant trickle of members & councillors moving between parties, your figures demonstrate nothing unless you can show there are substantially more moving in one direction than the other. 8 out of about 4,000 isnt very significant, is it ?

8 out of about 4,000 isnt very significant, is it ?

Agreed.

If anything it’s further evidence of the overwhelming majority of the Liberals’ utter delight at the current coalition and its neo-Thatcherite direction.

See also: The forthcoming party conference/rally.

I’m with Scratch on this. The lack of anything but vague efforts at differentiation in response to the coalition deal suggests simply that the lib dems like this deal, like the agenda, and like the coalition.

Which says a lot about a party some people on here pretended was left wing not so long ago.

PS

This is a stepping stone job for Clegg so he can one day be a european commissioner. That’s his real ambition.

It’s not only Lib Dems disappointed with the coalition… http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11186771

8. PotteGeorge W. Potter

Yawn. Yet another sort with almost zero basis in fact. I don’t know why I bother coming here anymore, all it does is copy and paste (without fact checking I might add) sorties from elsewhere.

pottegeorgewpotter

Lib Con has always linked to political stories elsewhere. It doesn’t only do that by why complain that it does that too? Some of us appreciate it.

@2 and @8:

I don’t quite see what your problem is. LC has always been a mixture of news and opinion. The news has always been taken from other sites, whether they are press releases or news stories from papers from the Independent.

What exactly is wrong with LC providing links to news stories that it thinks its key audience (lefties) will be interested in? If you don’t like it, don’t read the news stories on the RHS, just read the opinion on the LHS, because a lot of it is excellent.

Also – George W Potter – the headline is “Lib Dems face local resignations”, and the story is about 8 councillors resigning. So how can this story have no basis in fact, when these councillors have actually resigned? Just curious.

11. George W. Potter

@10 I said little basis in fact as the paper talks about “a growing grassroots revolt” when only 8 out of 4,000 have left (which is something like 0.02%) and party membership and renewal rates have significantly increased. The figure I’ve heard is ten joining for every member leaving. Now, there’s certainly some people who are uncomfortable with the Coalition deal (myself included) but there is nothing like a grass roots revolt as something like 85% of members supported the Coalition deal in a recent internal poll.

In short, this story has, as I said, little basis in fact and, if the author had been more truthful, could have been no more than three paragraphs long, basically saying that a Lib Dem councillor has resigned, bringing the total to eight. I don’t object to LC c&p ing stories but it’d be nice if they could actually fact check the stories first and inform us when what the article is saying is not the whole story.


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
  1. Liberal Conspiracy

    Libdems face local resignations http://bit.ly/c7bpeH

  2. Will Wilcox

    RT @libcon: Libdems face local resignations http://bit.ly/c7bpeH

  3. Pucci Dellanno

    RT @libcon: Libdems face local resignations http://bit.ly/c7bpeH

  4. Laith Gibani

    Libdems face local resignations | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/iPn6UxT via @libcon

  5. Max

    RT @libcon: Libdems face local resignations http://bit.ly/c7bpeH

  6. Alun Davies

    RT @libcon: Libdems face local resignations http://bit.ly/c7bpeH

  7. Melissa Nicole Harry

    RT @libcon: Libdems face local resignations http://bit.ly/c7bpeH

  8. Natacha Kennedy

    LibDem local politicians start quitting the party http://bit.ly/98nCIQ #condem

  9. Bryan Lee

    #Libdems face local resignations. looks like Cleggs common purpose possy are waking up? http://is.gd/eWb8d





Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

 
Liberal Conspiracy is the UK's most popular left-of-centre politics blog. Our aim is to re-vitalise the liberal-left through discussion and action. More about us here.

You can read articles through the front page, via Twitter or RSS feed. You can also get them by email and through our Facebook group.
LATEST COMMENT PIECES
» Criticism of Obama for its own sake: a reply to Mehdi Hasan
» Do older people really need more NHS healthcare?
» There are alternatives to the reckless ‘Plan A’
» On Beecroft: it is already quite easy to sack people
» Why Cameron’s claim of 600,000 jobs created is plainly wrong
» By using age to allocate NHS funding, Lansley rewards Tory voters
» The rise in domestic violence deaths is not an “isolated” problem
» Adrian Beecroft highlights mindset of Tory right
» The US is now a model for the Eurozone to save itself
» The IMF plan to revive the economy doesn’t go far enough
» The Boris brand is weaker than his friends think
» Nine things you can do to halt Lansley’s destruction of our NHS






43 Comments



91 Comments



23 Comments



50 Comments



10 Comments



26 Comments



22 Comments



69 Comments



44 Comments



25 Comments



LATEST COMMENTS
» Jim posted on How Newsnight demonised a single mother

» So Much For Subtlety posted on Do older people really need more NHS healthcare?

» JC posted on Why Cameron's claim of 600,000 jobs created is plainly wrong

» pagar posted on '43% of young women sexually harassed'

» So Much For Subtlety posted on '43% of young women sexually harassed'

» So Much For Subtlety posted on Criticism of Obama for its own sake: a reply to Mehdi Hasan

» Briar posted on Do older people really need more NHS healthcare?

» Eddy Cool posted on How Newsnight demonised a single mother

» Ben2 posted on '43% of young women sexually harassed'

» pagar posted on '43% of young women sexually harassed'

» Amanda posted on How Newsnight demonised a single mother

» Chloe posted on How Newsnight demonised a single mother

» Zoroaster posted on How Newsnight demonised a single mother

» Ben2 posted on '43% of young women sexually harassed'

» David Irvine posted on By using age to allocate NHS funding, Lansley rewards Tory voters