Chris Huhne's anger isn't about saving the Yes to AV campaign ? the Lib Dems are only interested in saving themselves
By the time you read this I may be in jail. Chris Huhne believes it is against the law of the land to claim the introduction of AV will cost �250m, and has said he is inclined to test his theory in the courts.
As someone who, when they were working for the No to AV campaign, produced hundreds of posters containing such a figure, then organised their distribution on billboards up and down the land, I'm worried. Nor am I alone. I'm told the baby that appeared in the poster has now gone into hiding.
After all, Huhne is a cabinet minister. He must know what he's talking about. He wouldn't make an accusation like that simply to grab attention, garner a headline or seize the political spotlight.
Actually, he would. And he has.
Huhne is not stupid. Hypocritical, self-righteous, ambitious ? yes. But the guy's nobody's fool.
The synthetic anger suddenly spewing forth from Huhne, Vince Cable and their Lib Dem colleagues has nothing to do with the AV referendum. That's lost, and they know it.
What we are witnessing is what's known in the trade as "playing for position". They are not concentrating on the vote on 5 May, but the political manoeuvring that will begin on 6 May, once Lib Dem councillors have experienced the electoral equivalent of the Somme, and their dream of electoral reform lies shattered for a generation.
For a while last week, I couldn't understand what the Yes campaign was playing at. They were breaking every rule in the book. Boosting their opponent's message by highlighting the �250m cost. Talking process, rather than pursuing their own narrative. Then I realised it wasn't the Yes campaign at all. It was the Liberal Democrats.
The Yes campaign is trying to present itself as the people versus the politicians. So why, in the closing straight of the campaign, are we seeing politicians making the anti-politicians case? Lib Dems to boot. VAT hiking, tuition fee pledge-breaking, PR loving, AV's a messy compromise, Lib Dems?
Because they've abandoned ship. They're not interested in saving the Yes campaign. They're only interested in saving themselves.
It's why Nick Clegg made his spectacularly ill-judged intervention last week, which was purportedly to bolster AV's crumbling support. Nick Clegg? If Clegg gave every voter in the country �10 people would say, "That lying bastard Clegg just gave me a tenner."
Clegg wasn't trying to shore up votes. He was trying to shore up his party. And as his MPs engage in a bidding war to see who can say the nastiest things about their Tory cabinet colleagues, he's been forced to turn on David Cameron like a playground Judas abandoning his friend to a gang of bullies; literally, "He's not my mate."
Let's remember what AV was supposed to be about. About making politicians work harder for us; about making them work together for us. Now look at Huhne, Cable and co.
These are the people who were telling us a couple of months ago they were obliged ? obliged ? to enter coalition with the Conservatives in "the national interest". The economy, deficit reduction, public service reform; it was vital for us all that the Lib Dems were in there, shielding us from the worst Tory excesses.
Now? The nation is at war. The economy remains teetering on the precipice. But that's irrelevant. A couple of harsh words from Baroness Warsi and the national interest can go hang. If you stop us getting AV we're taking our bat and our ball and we're off.
Dear God. Want a reason for voting No? Don't look at one of my posters. Just look at Huhne. Under AV that man could hold the balance of power in perpetuity.
And to think he has the temerity to accuse others of undermining trust in the political process. I might give the police a ring. Surely there must be law against it.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/26/lib-dems-av-chris-huhne
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