Lib-Dems come under the spotlight

12 April 2012

The Liberal Democrats have found to their cost just what it means to unsettle the political order. Ahead of tonight's leaders' debate, the words and deeds of Nick Clegg have been subjected to merciless scrutiny. Some of the resulting criticism is unmerited: Mr Clegg's reflections about the legacy of the last war for Britain, made while he was still working in Brussels, are relatively unimportant, and his earlier work as a lobbyist does not disqualify his claim to want to clean up politics.

But other aspects of the Lib-Dems and their leader do deserve close scrutiny. Mr Clegg's expenses claims suggest that he was not much different from many MPs in other parties. More importantly, the revelation that wealthy businessmen made donations to the Lib-Dems directly into Mr Clegg's personal bank account in 2006 do not sit easily with his rhetoric. He declared the donations to the authorities, but his explanation that they were made in this way for administrative ease is unsatisfactory. It looks like naivety at best.

As for the party's policies, they too merit examination. There is much to be said for Lib-Dem ambitions to simplify the tax system by raising the threshold for personal allowances to take the poor out of taxation. Conversely, the party's support for an amnesty for illegal immigrants could mean giving indefinite residency to up to a million people. But there are other issues that tonight's debate will raise. The party deserves real credit for its opposition to the war in Iraq and its reservations about Britain's unqualified support for US foreign policy. It has not, however, made clear what alternatives there are to keeping Trident. As for its implicit support for Britain joining the euro, it seems nonsensical at this time.

Even on the crucial question of which party the
Lib-Dems would support if the election is inconclusive, there is no clarity. Until recently, Mr Clegg has made a virtue of saying that it will be the voters, not he, who will be the kingmakers; the Lib-Dems would support whichever party wins the most seats, or votes. Yet now he suggests he would only support a party that favoured proportional representation, which would effectively exclude the Tories. On this, as on other big issues, the Lib-Dems cannot have it both ways.

Airlines count cost

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary did himself no favours with his initial refusal to pay for the costs his passengers incurred when stranded abroad after the Icelandic volcano grounded air flights. That was churlish; the company's subsequent U-turn rather less so. In fact, like other EU-based carriers, Ryanair says that it will pay for passengers' reasonable costs while they waited for an alternative flight. The requirement has hit the industry hard: the bill for last week may be £1.1 billion. EasyJet says it lost £50 million.

It is right that the airlines should honour the rules and reimburse passengers. But we should look again at those rules, which were designed to deal with the effects of overbooking. Airlines should be held to account for problems arising from their own actions, not for acts of God.

More holey war

Boris Johnson is out in Wandsworth with Conservative shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers, promising to get tougher with utilities companies whose works cause prolonged road closures. Londoners can be forgiven for feeling they have heard it all before: fines, "lane rental", better co-ordination. What we need is action, not words.

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