Lords Reform And A Libor Cover Up

Cameron is being blamed for the fiasco over House of Lords reform as he should have known a vast number of Tory MPs were against the Clegg proposals for reasons of principle and would therefore vote against it and in particular against the Timetable Motion. I think though that Cameron took the only course open to him. Despite the fact that the Coalition Agreement only provided for a Committee to be set up to consider Lords reform Clegg insisted on bringing in a Reform Bill as after his defeat on AV he wanted something on the Statute Book that represented a Lib Dem legacy from the Coalition. For fear of the Coalition coming to a premature end Cameron was unable to deny Clegg his demand even though Cameron knew Tory MPs were against both 15 year terms and proportional representation. Cameron had made it known that he would not hold it against those MPs who voted against the Bill and thereby in effect announced that he was not wedded to the Bill and would be glad to see it kicked into the long grass but to keep Clegg happy he had had to insist on a three line whip. Cameron could not have been in favour of the Bill anyway as he knew that Clegg's main reason for wanting the Bill was because it would entrench more Lib Dems in Parliament, albeit in the Lords, as a result of proportional representation. Cameron gave Clegg what he wanted, no doubt warned Clegg what the consequences might be, and then let the action play out. Clegg is surely screaming at Cameron that he did not try hard enough to whip his party into line but even Clegg must know that it was clear for some time that there were going to be a significant Tory rebellion against the proposals. Even Clegg's advisers must have told him that. Since what was anticipated came to pass Cameron could sensibly only take one course of action and withdraw the Timetable Motion. The question now remains how long the Coalition will survive. There is also the question of what will happen to Osborne. There seems to any number who think George was ill advised to tear into Balls as he did last week in the Commons. But did George know more than he was saying? On Jeff Randall Live this evening we learned that it is thought Tim Geithner knew all about Libor fixing in 2007. If he knew it is puzzling that the scandal didn't come out then? It seems most unlikely that if the Bank of England weren't told about it by Geithner when he became head of the New York Fed that he didn't tell the FSA? If the FSA knew they would surely have told their political masters. As nothing leaked it begins to look like a cover up at the highest levels. This story has legs.