Vince Cable Talks Bollocks

Vince Cable was interviewed by John Sopel on today's "Politics Show" on BBC1. He was asked if the Liberals had betrayed their pledge to vote against rises in Tuition Fees. His reply was the biggest load of bollocks I've heard in a long time.

Cable said, no we haven't betrayed that pledge, because we didn't win the election, and we have had to compromise on some of our commitments. But, this makes no sense whatsoever. The commitment that the Liberals gave was not, "If we win the election we will vote against any increase in Tuition Fees", but simply we will vote against any increase in Tuition Fees!!! In fact, it would not have made sense to have a commitment to vote against any increase in Tuition Fees had they won the election, because they would have been the Government, and they presumably would not have been bringing forward any such proposal to vote against! And, although the Liberals always go through the fantasy at election times of pretending that they have as much chance as anyone else of winning, every sensible person, and come to that even every Liberal, knows that they do not.
When they made that commitment, and repeated it in numerous TV appearances, in signed pledges and so on, it must have been on the basis of assuming that they would NOT win the election. What has changed for the Liberals here is not that they made a pledge whose fulfilment depended on winning the election, but like all other Liberal policies is the fact they can make all kinds of rash promises on the assumption they would never have to implement them, but have now found themselves in Government, and called to account!

Cable says, we had to compromise commitments as part of the Coalition agreement, but the Coalition Agreement was not something that they HAD to enter into. And as part of those negotiations did the Liberals not have a responsibility to insist on the right and necessity of them sticking to those very commitments that they had sworn a solemn oath to, and which in many seats was the only basis on which they got their candidates elected? The Liberal-Tories have made great play about the need for honesty and trust in Government, but they have shown very little commitment to either in the last few months. They promised the right of electors to recall their MP's where such honesty and trust was breached. We should demand that be put into practice and that we have the right to recall all MP's who no longer have the support of their electors.