* I'm being loyal
* I've got cojones
* Nick Clegg isn't here
* I am here
* Ed Davey is useless
* I'm not
It put me very much in mind of another debate in the House of Commons in May 1940 when
Thursday, March 06, 2008
The Chris Huhne Air Raid Shelter
If you look at the Hansard from yesterday's debate you will see that Chris Huhne decided to ignore my advice yesterday! Up and down he bobbed, intervening on various Labour and Tory MPs like his leadership ambitions life depended on it. The subliminal messages being given were revealing...
* I'm being loyal
* I've got cojones
* Nick Clegg isn't here
* I am here
* Ed Davey is useless
* I'm not
It put me very much in mind of another debate in the House of Commons in May 1940 whenLeo Amery Lloyd George intervened on another potential party leader, one Winston Spencer Churchill who was rampantly defending the actions of Neville Chamberlain's government. Amory begged Churchill not to turn himself into an air raid shelter for Chamberlain. Perhaps someone should have done the same for Chris Huhne yesterday.
* I'm being loyal
* I've got cojones
* Nick Clegg isn't here
* I am here
* Ed Davey is useless
* I'm not
It put me very much in mind of another debate in the House of Commons in May 1940 when
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19 comments:
Three cheers for the Lib Dems implosions!
Bit of flattery for Huhne, or indeed any LimpDem, even to mention them in the same breath as Churchill or Amery
So let me understand this. If Chris Huhne stays away it is a sign he is plotting to take over the leadership. If he turns up and argues the Lib Dem case it shows he is plotting to take over the leadership. Hmmm.
Maybe, as a consistently vocal advocate of the party position, Chris Huhne was just being consistent and arguing for what he believes? Or is that insufficiently cynical of me?
I realise that creating mischief for the Lib Dems is part of the raison d'etre of this blog Iain, but I really do think it is ludicrous to suggest that Chris Huhne has any remaining designs on the party leadership, and this is the second time you have done so in as many days.
Having changed its leader twice in past three years, the party is now stuck with Clegg for good or ill, and despite the best efforts of the Tory blogosphere, and to be far some rebel Lib Dem bloggers too, it is going to take a bit more than a minor rebellion over Europe to dislodge him.
Chris Huhne would have been a good leader in my view. But he is going to have to get used to being remembered as the "best loser" in British politics - the man who got closer to leading his party without actually winning than anyone else.
The next LD leader will in all likelihood be Julia Goldsworthy. But Clegg will get at least two GEs, as did Steel, Ashdown and Kennedy before him.
You're slightly in error Iain. It wasn't Amery who used the air raid shelter analogy but Lloyd George, possibly after a cartoon in the day's Daily Express. And many did not see Churchill as the primary alternative to Chamberlain during that debate - most people thought it should be Halifax (except Halifax).
I love the 'line through' stuff.
Leadership ambitions. As if!
Nice one.
I notice that other 'Honourable'Lib Dem Nick Harvey, having PROMISED in writing to his constituents that he would support the referendum. DIDN'T!
Man of Straw!
I've heard a lot of not too flattering things said about David Cameron but am I the only one who thinks that he has scored a remarkable goal over this whole EU treaty debacle?
The Lib Dems are in an unholy mess, I should imagine that Calamity Clegg has made for the bunker this morning and Huhne only needs to walk around smiling.
Broon has lost what little bit of credibility he had left along with all of the labour MPs who are prepared to sell their souls to the highest bidder.
Come the next election whose manifesto are you going to believe?
Paul Linford is spot on. I do think this spinning is getting a bit far fetched here Iain.
Lib Dems - you'll miss em when there gone. Which given their current performance is going to be quite soon ...
There will be no change of leader.
Whatever happened to Leo Amory..? I think we should be told.
I think that Leo Amery said to Churchill before the debate "do well, but not too well". Lloyd George made the air raid shelter refernce.
To let the best candidate slip through their fingers once is a misfortune.
To let it happen twice looks like carelessness.
It was a remarkably close decision & clearly would not have gone that way had this been seen in advance but I am afraid Paul is right & they are stuck with it. Which in turn means the country is likely to be stuck with Mr Blair-Lite in due course.
Leo Amery's son, Julian was MP for Brighton Pavilion. During the Liverpool riots on an Any Questions panel I heard him memoriably open "I too was born in an inner city terraced house" As this was one of those nice porticoed jobbies in somewhere like Eaton Square it brought the house down - so to speak!
mutleythedog said...
"Whatever happened to Leo Amery..? I think we should be told."
He retired in 1945 - the year in which his son John was executed for treason. He died in 1955.
Leo Amery spoke the best line ever delivered to a useless political leader.
"You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"
To Neville Chamberlain May 1940.
{Chamberlain resigned}
Bill Quango MP said...
"Leo Amery spoke the best line ever delivered to a useless political leader."
He was quoting Oliver Cromwell who said it in 1653 when addressing members of the Rump Parliament.
Amery's line is from Cromwell, I think, to the Rump Parliament in c. 1643. If only Conrad Russell were still alive to tell us for sure!
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