It is laughable for Nick Clegg to call himself a Liberal “Democrat”. His contempt for democracy was on public display when he appeared on The Andrew Marr Show, earlier today.
Clegg had turned up to justify his part in trying to prevent the UK leaving the EU. After the obligatory platitudes (of course he respects the decision of the electorate in the EU referendum) he follows it up with the biggest “but” he can contrive, so he can convince himself he is not trying to overturn the decision.
But overturning that decision is precisiely his intention.
What is his argument? He thinks we mandated the government to leave the EU, but we did not tell the government which type of “Leave” we meant. Well, I have news for you, Clegg. We knew exactly what we were voting for. It was written on the ballot paper. It asked us if we wanted to Remain or Leave the EU. And we voted to Leave.
Which part of Leave do you not understand? With your public school and European University education, you certainly understood the issues during the campaign. You and your cronies argued repeatedly that leaving the EU and entering an arrangement like Norway or Switzerland was untenable. It was the same as being a member, except that you had no democratic participation in the EU’s decision making process. You told us again and again, Norway is not an option. Switzerland is not an option.
We knew that. We heard you. Give yourself the credit for elucidating the options much more clearly than your Leave Campaign opponents. But even if they lied through their teeth, as you love to repeat endlessly, the vote was about the electorate listening to BOTH SIDES and deciding. So if you think they lied, you know the truth was put before the electorate – by YOU.
His real objective was clear when Andrew Marr asked him if losing a vote in parliament would delay the triggering of Article 50.His reply: “Yes, and by the way that would be a very good thing”.
Later in the interview he was even more explicit – asked if this move for a parliamentary vote was just a tactic to overturn the referendum decision, he said “It is not a tactic. It is an attempt to ensure that, as the government pursues its mandate of pulling us out of the European Union they do so in a workable way, a legal way, and crucially in a way that does not throw the single market baby out with the EU bath water.”
The baby Clegg is trying to save is EU membership. If he cannot have the whole thing, then he will accept a truncated baby, which is better than nothing for him.
After losing the vote, after teling us all that the Norway option or the Switzerland options were just a rehash of EU membership, but with less good points, he has the effrontery to suggest in this interview that Norway is a model we could follow.
Don’t be such a cringing snake, Clegg. At least your replacement as leader of the Liberal Democrats is open about his intent to get the decision overturned.
As a so-called “democrat” try accepting a democratic decision you don’t like for once.
Luckily for us we poor, stupid, ignorant, misled voters have a saviour in Clegg and his Remain colleague MP’s. We made the wrong decision. Now let’s leave it up to a body that overwhelmingly opposed our decision to decide what we ‘really’ wanted.
We should not be surprised at this convoluted attempt to paint an anti-democratic manoeuvre as true representative democracy. Remember, this is the man who gave a written pledge to oppose rises in student fees, and then did a complete volte face as soon as he was presented with a chance to get a place in government, a ministerial salary and a commensurate pension.
LIberal “Democrat” my a***.