The Coalition agreement could not have been clearer:
“We will bring forward early legislation to introduce a power of recall, allowing voters to force a by-election where an MP is found to have engaged in serious wrongdoing and having had a petition calling for a by-election signed by 10% of his or her constituents.”
This morning, recall is dead. The Indy is blaming Cameron and Osborne, reporting that Clegg was all for it but it was vetoed by the Tories. In truth, in spite of the rhetoric from all three party leaders, there has been no appetite to let voters have the chance to boot out corrupt MPs. Last year Clegg himself flip flopped when put on the spot by Zac Goldsmith, refusing to give any sort of time frame or specifics on when he would be pushing for recall:
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Zac ain’t impressed:
Even by the shitty standards of dishonest UK politics, the LibDems really are revolting. I cannot understand why anyone supports them.
— Zac Goldsmith (@ZacGoldsmith) February 13, 2014
Given their record for dealing with their own disgraced MPs, the LibDems pretending they are “furious” today is rather lame…