Tuesday 7 December 2010

"Poll Tax and Iraq" moment approaches for Lib Dems

Congratulations to St Austell & Newquay MP Stephen Gilbert for passing another career milestone - turning down the opportunity to be interviewed on BBC Radio Cornwall. As far as we know this has never happened before.

The occasion was an invitation to discuss his approach to Thursday's vote on university tuition fees. My colleague Tamsin Melville tells me she is still waiting to hear back from North Cornwall's Dan Rogerson and St Ives's Andrew George, who have been strangely silent all day.

As I write this (Tuesday evening) the Lib Dem Parliamentary Party is in a huddle trying to work out what to do when push comes to shove. Some have suggested the issue will do for the Liberal Democrats what the Poll Tax did for the Conservatives in the late 1980s and the Iraq war did for Labour in 2003.

Rest assured that once the votes are in and Hansard duly published, the Lib Dems' opponents will make sure the record is fully reported, repeatedly, all the way to the next general election.

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