It looks like the Michael Martin’s strategy of hiding behind the Prime Minister has failed.
Over the weekend, Brown stated that the issue of the Speaker was a matter for the commons, not the Government.
Yesterday Martin bounced the issue back to the Government, putting his fate firmly into Brown’s hands.
Today, after meeting with all the Party Leaders, Brown appears to have been put into a position where he knew he couldn’t protect the speaker (by simply refusing to allow the debate to happen). Clegg had made it clear that the Lib Dems would use an opposition day debate, if necessary. The stink surrounding the Speaker would have been smeared all over Brown too.
So the Speaker’s resigning, it seems. And the Spectator, the ones that wondered aloud if Clegg should publically demand the Speaker should go follows up now by telling its readers that Cameron missed a trick by not being publically involved with this, that Clegg’s stolen a march.
As much as it looked like a trap, turns out it wasn’t.
Shaun Pilkington said...
19 May 09 at 4:27 pm
Anything to do with the rumour that the Queen last week told Brown to get this crisis under control or she’d have to dissolve Parliament, I wonder?
Anyway… time to watch the remaining expenses rats try to draw a line under what they’ll call systemic failure in the (vain) hope we’ll forget about the guys who took so much money they couldn’t recall their mortgages being paid off (both Labour) or the soon to be ex-MP who had his Moat dredged (Tory) which had an obvious impact on Parliamentary business. What, you can’t see it? Well, they need somewhere to bury the bodies…
Darrell said...
19 May 09 at 5:34 pm
Pop-quiz; who got a 55% approval rating in the latest ICM poll for their handling of the expenses issue? David Cameron, of course so I am sure he will be gutted that Spectator readers think he ‘missed a trick’. Meanwhile, much needed internal party reform goes undone etc,etc and nobody will even remember this story in a week.
Stu said...
19 May 09 at 7:26 pm
I’m not sure the Labour Party are organised enough to set a trap such as that nowadays.
The sad thing is, they’re supposed to be running the country.
Charlotte Gore said...
19 May 09 at 7:37 pm
It’s not so much Labour. Lib Dems have a history of Right Wing media outlets goading the Lib Dems into doing X then kicking the snot out of them for it afterwards. Paranoia is rife!
Darrell said...
19 May 09 at 8:59 pm
Charlotte,
I didnt think they would kick the snot out of us; I just think that there were happy for us to do it while Cameron cleaned up by addressing issues that has won him what, frankly, is an exceptional approval rating under the circumstances. Yes Clegg got 1 days good coverage out of it; unfortunatly it was procedded by 1 or 2 days of Cameron being covered looking, frankly, every inch a Prime Minister in waiting. Come the General Election, I wonder which one the people will remember?
Besides a good rule of thumb if you are leading the Conservatives and want to lead them into government is to *totally ignore* just about everything the Spectator says and certainly not champion their causes because of the kind of publication it is and what its readership is like.