I. See to it that Nick Clegg pays for being so wrong about how he mishandled everything. He obviously should have got the complainants and Lord Rennard together and told the complainants that anyone who says anything more about the matter would be expelled from the party for bringing it into disrepute. If Lord Rennard did do it, he should not do it again, or there would be Big Trouble for him.
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/briefings/snpc-03872.pdf
A. Leadership election rules
The rules for the election of a leader of the federal Liberal Democrat party are set down in its
Constitution. The Constitution was agreed in 1988, on the formation of the Liberal
Democrats.
No changes were made to the leadership election rules between the formation of the party and the 2004 edition of the Constitution, which specified:
10.1 The Leader of the Party shall be elected by the members of the Party in
accordance with election rules made pursuant to Article 8.4.
10.2 An election for the Leader shall be called upon:
(a) the Leader asking for an election;
(b) the death or incapacity of the Leader;
(c) the Leader ceasing to be a Member of the House of Commons (other
than a temporary cessation by reasons of a dissolution;
(d) the receipt by the President of the resignation of the Leader or of a
declaration of intent to resign upon the election of new Leader;
(e) a vote of no confidence in the Leader being passed by a majority of
all Members of the Parliamentary party in the House of Commons;
(f) the receipt by the President of a requisition submitted by at least 75
Local Parties (including for this purpose, the Specified Associated
Organisation or Organisations representing youth and/or students)
following the decision of a quorate general meeting; or
(g) the first anniversary of the preceding general election being reached
without an election being called under any of paragraphs (a) through
(f), provided that:
(i) the Federal Executive may postpone such an election for no
more than one year by a two-thirds majority of those present
and voting; and
(ii) this paragraph (g) shall not apply if the Leader is a member
of the Government.
II. Applying for judicial review which, if successful, would subject the LibDems' actions (and the way they rode roughshod over established and important legal and liberal principles) to scrutiny by the judiciary. They are:
(i) the rule against retrospective legislation (Lord Rennard could not possibly have known that touching a woman's knee all those years ago could have landed him in such hot water now.)
(ii) the rule that we have the right to be treated as innocent till proven guilty after a fair trial
(iii) the rule against double jeopardy
III. Issuing defamation proceedings against his accusers, and their running dogs. This would include the leader as well as the party itself, for
(a) implying that Lord Rennard had committed a crime by putting this matter in the hands of the police
(b) insisting that he had something to apologise for, even when they knew they could not prove in a court of law that he was guilty, either to a criminal or civil standard
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/26/pdfs/ukpga_20130026_en.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment