wednesday1 Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 53 Cons voted with Labour and represents a large back-bench revolt, I wonder if this is Camerons' John Major moment whereby the Tory Eurosceptics made life very difficuilt for Majors hapless government and prompted Norman Lamont to state the then Government 'gave the impression of being in Government, but not in power'. Hmmmmm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andygardener Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 53 Cons voted with Labour and represents a large back-bench revolt, I wonder if this is Camerons' John Major moment whereby the Tory Eurosceptics made life very difficuilt for Majors hapless government and prompted Norman Lamont to state the then Government 'gave the impression of being in Government, but not in power'. Hmmmmm Actually Labour whipped their mps to vote with 53 backbench Conservatives, not the other way around. The big positive from this is that it seems that all parties are united in a determination to stop the costly flow of money to the EU and the only disagreement is what the best start point of the negotiating possition is. I hope that all parties honour that commitment and we actually get somewhere in repatriating both money and sovereignty from the undemocratic EU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wednesday1 Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 Actually Labour whipped their mps to vote with 53 backbench Conservatives, not the other way around. The big positive from this is that it seems that all parties are united in a determination to stop the costly flow of money to the EU and the only disagreement is what the best start point of the negotiating possition is. I hope that all parties honour that commitment and we actually get somewhere in repatriating both money and sovereignty from the undemocratic EU. However you dress it up, 53 Cons voted against the Government, and that is the story. All of the Lib Dems voted with the Government, in favour of the status quo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andygardener Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 However you dress it up, 53 Cons voted against the Government, and that is the story. All of the Lib Dems voted with the Government, in favour of the status quo. I think it was you who "dressed it up" as 53 Conservatives voting with Labour, it was a eurosceptic backbench Conservative motion which the Labour party ordered their people to support. For the record I fully support them, the government approach is pitching for a inflation based freeze for 7 years as their negotiating red line and the default in the absence of agreement is an inflation based freeze for 1 year so not a great approach in my view. Hopefully the vote gives the PM a mandate to go in a lot harder than he was maybe planning to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bladesman Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 Are you saying the opposition should just be against every decision made by the government even if it's a good one?Isn't that just Punch and Judy politics? Where has that got us? Exactly. This government could say "We have just found a billion quid" and Labour would say "A billion is not enough and we don't believe you anyway". It is just political point scoring and its very very tiresome to read about. All it means is nothing gets done as everything gets opposed whether its a good idea or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoatwobbler Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 While the state of the Labour party during the early and middle part of Thatcher's tenure didn't help she had enough of a loyal majority to force pretty much anything she wanted through. The situation was pretty much the same during the new labour years. From Thatcher onwards, the most effective opposition to all of the governments has been the House of Lords. As much as I believe reform of the HOL is necessary, I'm not convinced that it would be such an effective opposition. This time round, the labour party hasn't self destructed and so they have proved to be a better opposition but they are a bit limited in their outlook as they are mostly "public school -> oxbridge -> special advisor ->MP" types. A greater separation of legislature and executive would help too Excellent post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mecky Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 from the BBC "David Cameron has accused Ed Miliband of "rank opportunism" after the Labour leader decided to back Tory rebels in a key EU budget vote." OK, am I missing something here? Isnt it the oppositions job to look for any sign of weakness and to exploit it? The PM seems to be having problems with his pawns and Milliband decide to take advantage of it. Isnt that what he SHOULD be doing? Its not HIS job to defend the PM from his own internal squabbles. Disasterous Dave should be more concerned about his own back-benchers, why doesn't he have a go at them? Is it because the public have began to realise the government is a bigger shambles than they thought or the government would like them to believe? Remember, what comes around goes around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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