Cross-posted from Liberal Democrat Voice
The highest profile issue at Deputy Prime Minister’s questions today was the issue of press phone hacking in the light of the allegations concerning Milly Dowler and the News of the World.
Harriet Harman asked Nick Clegg to back Ed Miliband’s call for a general public inquiry into illegality in the newspaper industry. As someone has said, this is a bit like holding an inquiry into why we get bad weather. In a sign of divisions within Labour, Chris Bryant, in contrast, has called for a more narrow inquiry.
Nick Clegg stopped short of backing an inquiry but, instead, emphasised the importance of the police doing their job, while strongly condemning the behaviour alleged in the latest revelations:
…if the allegations are true such behavior is beneath contempt. To hack into the phone of a missing child is grotesque, and the suggestion that that might have given false hope to Milly’s parents that she might have been alive only makes it all the more heart-rending. The absolute priority is now to get to the bottom of what actually happened – what is the truth – and that requires, above and beyond everything else, a police investigation that pursues the evidence ruthlessly wherever it leads.
House of Lords reform was, as usual, high on the agenda. The recent Commons debate on the subject centred, to a large degree, on fears that the Commons would lose its supremacy to the Lords. Nick Clegg was at pains to emphasise repeatedly that the Bill will be worded so that the House of Commons remains supreme:
Bicameral chambers all round the world manage this relationship perfectly adequately, with two directly elected chambers that have a relationship of subservience between the one and the other.
Matters concerning the electoral register were discussed at length. The government is investing great effort into “matching data pilots”. This is where electoral officers use publicly available databases to make comparisons with the electoral roll, to identify those people who are not registered to vote. They will then “follow up” those people.
Angela Smith (Lab) bowled Clegg a bit of a googly. She claimed that LibDem councilors in Sheffield have recently co-opted a “United Kingdom Independence Party candidate” to “one of our local town councils to maintain their grip on power”. Nick Clegg did not know to what Smith was referring. Indeed, I am unable to find anything about it on Google or Twitter (except for two repetitions of Ms Smith’s accusation).
According to David Amess, Conservative MP for Southend West, the “whole country” is “gripped by Southend mania”. Eh? ….It was something to do with their bid for city status, since you ask.
In common with David Cameron, the Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office, Mark Harper (Con), was taught by Vernon Bogdanor. Mark Harper also answers questions at these sessions. He stated that he disagrees with Bogdanor on the issue of fixed term parliaments, calling them “a huge constitutional improvement”. Coalition trebles all round.
Liberal Burblings 