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Week on the web
Martha Moss
As government officials jubilantly supped champagne following their win over the EU treaty vote this week, Nick Clegg licked his wounds after a quarter of his party defied his orders on the issue.
Bloggers from across the field acknowledge that the rebellion, which led to the resignation of three Lib Dem frontbenchers, was not the party's finest hour, but there is some disagreement as to how it reflects on Clegg.
Dizzy has this post suggesting that there could be a separate rebellion rising in the Lib Dem blogosphere.
Arguing that Clegg no longer presents any real threat to Labour and the Conservatives, he links to this post in which veteran Lib Dem Nich Starling claims the party are "as prepared to tell lies in order to win votes as any other political party".
Others are less scathing, with Liberal Burblings going so far as to say it was a good day for Nick Clegg. Stephen Tall at Lib Dem Voice accepted that Wednesday was not his party's finest hour but claimed that the Tories are still "as split as ever" over Europe.
Over at Red Box, Sam Coates talks of Clegg's "masochism strategy" and points out that Vince Cable chose to sit behind the party leader, rather than next to him as usual.
Nick Robinson argues that Europe always has and always will be a party splitter, but this post suggests that the Tory wars are finally over.
This week also saw the resignation of Lee Jasper, Ken Livingstone's beleaguered race adviser, after the Evening Standard newspaper published claims that he had sent illicit emails to a woman involved with organisations which received money from City Hall.
For Brian Paddick it is the "beginning of the end" for Livingstone, while Mark Pack questions why the mayor failed to contact the police after claiming that Jasper's computer had been illegally hacked.
Nick Cohen accuses the mayor of "patronising politics" in attempting to secure the "black vote", and Shiraz Socialist says Livingstone and Jasper are guilty of playing the "race card" without justification.
Meanwhile, ConservativeHome covers Johnson's pledge to make politics more transparent by putting City Hall's register of interests, covering staff and members of the London Assembly, on the internet for all to see.
The other big resignation this week came from Ian Paisley, who announced he would be standing down as Northern Ireland's first minister and leader of the DUP.
Simon Jenkins on Commentisfree describes Paisley and Adams as the Taliban of Europe, claiming that the pair made Northern Ireland "ungovernable and brought death, destruction and untold misery to tens of thousands of their countrymen".
The Telegraph's Three Line Whip blog says it marks the end of a "remarkable chapter" in Ulster politics and points out that Ladbrokes betting shop opened a book on who would succeed Paisley as soon as he announced his intention to stand down.
Big Ulsterman described Paisley as "a bigot and an embarrassment", but said it was impossible not to "admire a man who held so much public goodwill for so long".
Bloggers this week were also concerned with the results of a government review into pub licensing.
Some pointed out that the new licensing laws had failed to prevent alcohol-fuelled violence or create a café culture and others drew attention to the gap between "intentions and results, rhetoric and reality".
The most thoughtful post on the issue comes, however, from Mick Hume who bemoans the sober truth that despite supposedly lax licensing laws it is still impossible to get a drink in the wee small hours.
Elsewhere on the web, Guido describes it as "unfathomable" that former deputy prime minister and notorious "political bruiser" John Prescott - infamous for punching a voter and making a V-sign at the press - has been chosen to leading a diplomatic mission to Armenia.
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Published: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 13:41:10 GMT+00
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