Joe, I stand to be

Jock — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 11:00:55 +0000

Joe, I stand to be corrected, but my reading of the news story is that Nick has made a complaint and "party officials" are the ones "considering" it (the complaint already lodged). But that might be wrong - after all the Beeb did create teh story in the first place, after a fashion.

Please, Jock only

Joe Otten — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 10:25:57 +0000

Please, Jock only CONSIDERING prolonging the spat. I agree it would be a mistake to complain. What can be done, after all? Somebody should be giving Chris a ticking off for his constant invention of policy differences, but I don't suppose an informal ticking off flows easily from a formal complaint. And I wait and see whether Chris has learned his lesson or will continue the spat himself anyway. I agree with your point on policy too. It is always fun to discuss policy, and it is frustrating when candidates agree too much. But as you say, a candidate ruling something out is a candidate threatening to ride roughshod over democratic policy making.

Indeed. I think Clegg would

Tristan Mills — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 09:53:29 +0000

Indeed.
I think Clegg would have been best to let it drop. The complaint looks like he can't play with the big boys...

I still think its a shame we didn't get a wider range of people standing. I'd have liked a broader choice....

Now Clegg prolongs the spat

Jock — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 03:37:02 +0000

Whatever one thinks of the public spat on the Politics Show yesterday, and plenty of bloggers have made their views plain enough, not entirely always to their own credit, I can't help feeling that this is not the cleverest of moves:

BBC NEWS | Politics | Lib Dems consider Clegg complaint:

Senior Liberal Democrat officials are to consider a complaint by leadership contender Nick Clegg over a document describing him as a "calamity". That paper was issued from the camp of leadership rival Chris Huhne. Writing on his website, Mr Huhne "sincerely apologised" and "disassociated himself from it". Mr Clegg's campaign team lodged an official complaint with the party's chief whip and party officials are to decide whether to take further action.

What action could, or should, "party officials" take? Order an apology? It's already been posted, and presumably communicated directly and personally to Nick (if not it should be - a statement on a website is not enough, one to one). What else is there? Disqualify one of only two candidates? Nothing would be more likely to lead to long lasting rancour and recriminations in the party, and I'm not even suggesting it's a possibility, let alone one "party officials" should consider if it were. So if your two potential remedies are either already in process or impossible, that's the time to let it lie, or be seen as not taking it all with good grace.

It seems to me that all an "official complaint" does is prolong the least glorious moment of the contest for another few days - maybe longer, and, on an individual level for Nick, ensure that the phrase "Calamity Clegg" gets more airing than it ever warranted (which was none). One thing is sure, there'll be a "researcher" somewhere tonight learning the hard way that you can never put out a "catchy" title for a press briefing and expect said media not to take such a thing literally as summing up what you think about the subject of the briefing.

The document itself raises some pertinent questions about differences between what Nick has said or written and what others, friends, have apparently said or written on his behalf. Or at least they would be pertinent if a leadership contest was about setting policy, which it is not. But in demanding definitive statements on this or that an issue from either leadership candidate it seems to me that all that is achieved is putting an entrenched position on the record that can then be thrown back at you when the party, sovereign policy making body of course, decides something different somewhere down the line.

One can just imagine the smug Mr Sopel in a few years' time putting it to the Lib Dem leader, whoever that may be, that "you are losing control of your party, aren't you, because when you stood for leader you said that you would be against such and such and here's the party voting for it".

Jock's Place - Now Clegg prolongs the spat - Comments

Joe, I stand to be

Please, Jock only

Indeed. I think Clegg would

Now Clegg prolongs the spat