As I noted after his monthly press conference on Monday, Ed Miliband was clearly uncomfortable when asked exactly why his scheduled appearance at a cross-party Yes to AV rally on Tuesday was cancelled. He was meant to share a platform with Charles Kennedy and Caroline Lucas, but the event was called off at the last minute. He told the assembled hacks that the reason for the cancellation was that Nick Clegg had withdrawn Kennedy from the rally in protest at Yes to AV's insistence that the Lib Dem leader himself didn't appear.
Clegg has apparently now backed down and is allowing Kennedy to appear at the rescheduled event on the 29 March. However, Newsnight's Michael Crick reported yesterday evening that a "senior Clegg aide" had called him to deny that it was the Lib Dem campaign that pulled Charles Kennedy out the event. They said:
"It's not true that we stopped Charles attending. And it was Miliband who said no to the deputy prime minister, not the 'Yes' campaign."
Who's telling the truth? Clegg's camp say Miliband pulled out, while Miliband himself said it was Clegg that scuppered the event. The whole thing smacks rather of playground wails of 'Miss, he hit me when you weren't looking, honest, he did'. You could be forgiven for thinking that both parties were more interested in bickering and sniping than securing electoral reform.
Shane laid out Ed Miliband's choice in the clearest possible terms yesterday: he can either throw his wholehearted support behind the Yes to AV campaign, or he can focus his attentions on destroying Nick Clegg. But at the moment he seems to be trying to have his cake and eat it too by seeking to discredit Clegg while also pushing hard for AV.
Whoever is ultimately telling the truth here, neither comes off particularly well. With this exchange of claim and counter-claim, all they've achieved is to draw focus from the campaign itself and expose the petty squabbling everyone suspects, but never really wants to know, that our politicians indulge in.
Comments
Jim Holling / March 17 2011 1:42pm
Who's lying?
Let me take a wild guess based on the fact they're both politicians- BOTH!