Good for Matthew Oakeshott

Posted on February 10 2011

Lord Oakeshott has resigned as a Lib Dem Treasury spokesperson for saying the Treasury is a mixture of arrogance and incompetence, unable to negotiate its way out of a paper bag.

Someone had to say it.

I've met Matthew Oakeshott several times. I always wondered how he managed to toe the ConDem line. Now I know the answer, He found it hard.

And he said and did the right thing.

Good for him.

Project Merlin is an appalling caving in by this government to bankers. Maybe others might have the courage to say so. But not Danny Alexander. Has there ever been anyone less convincing in government?

PDF of article

Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:

There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.

You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.

And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:

Comments

When commenting, please take note of this blog's comment policy, which is available here. Contravening this policy will result in comments being deleted before or after initial publication at the editor's sole discretion and without explanation being required or offered.

4 Responses

Teresa Harding says:

February 10 2011 at 10:59 am

Now Oakeshott has to convince the once ‘national treasure’ Vince Cable to show real integrity and resign. As for Alexander, just remind us of the type of proper job he held before becoming a politician. Of course this is one of the real problems with our political elites, so few of them have held jobs in the real world (outside banking/speculative finance and PR) and yet as ministers they are allowed to control vast budgets and instigate untried policies with the potential to impact adversely on people’s lives.
Richard Murphy says:

February 10 2011 at 11:12 am

@Teresa Harding

Seconded!
Howard says:

February 10 2011 at 11:29 am

Well done by Matthew Oakeshott. Lib Dem councillors have also been doing their bit, writing a very cogent letter to the Times lambasting Eric Pickles’s approach to local government funding cuts:

http://www.nextleft.org/2011/02/these-cuts-arent-fair-and-we-blame.html
Arnald says:

February 10 2011 at 9:54 pm

Oakeshott has been consistent with his questioning of this status quo. His message has always been strong, but delivered eruditely.

i fear that he won’t be able to make the column inches needed to advertise the cause anymore. That said, being connected to the once “Saint Vince of Cable” is a non-starter.

Once big-oil, always capitulating.