Wednesday 17 September 2008

The telephone always rings

Thanks to Iain Dale for another example of Lib Dems saying one thing and doing another... Any chance of a response from Stephen Williams? (The phone story, not the one about Bear Stearns or Lehmans - although that's also worth a read).

And perhaps Stephen could also confirm at the same time whether it's true - as I was told last night by an impeccable source - that on taking up his current frontbench post he proudly told his Labour opposite number, 'I've been given this job to persuade the party to accept tuition fees?'

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Evidence of the u-turn designed by the man who appeared in all his leaflets saying no tuition fees can be found in the Times Higher Education Supplement.

This is my response:

Labour Calls for Resignation of Lib Dem Hypocrite

Stephen Williams should resign his seat of Bristol West as he won it on the basis of a lie. This is the call from Paul Smith, Labour’s candidate for the area, after Williams reversed his position on one of the two main issues he fought the seat on only three years ago, student tuition fees.

“Williams made his opposition to tuition fees a main plank of his election campaign in a seat with 20,000 university students. For the last year he has been writing plans for a u-turn. This blatant and cynical act shows that Williams is a hypocrite who is prepared to tell any lie and make any promise to win the student vote. It is unlikely that Williams would have won the seat from Labour’s Valerie Davey without this lie and he should do the honourable thing and stand down.” commented Smith.

In September this month Williams told the Times Higher Education Supplement that “the policy was unsustainable,” and that Nick Clegg, the leader of the party, had come to this conclusion after "long internal discussions".

It has long been known that Mr Williams, MP for Bristol West and Lib Dem spokesperson for Higher Education has been planning to ditch the lib dems commitment on tuition fees and that the issue was not debated at the Lib Dem Party Conference in February because of fears it would cause a rebellion against the leadership.

Paul Smith added “This is the sort of behaviour which brings politics into disrepute and turns people off voting.”