28 February: “We welcome what the Prime Minister said about a possible no-fly zone.”
14 March: “when the Prime Minister first publicly floated the idea of a no-fly zone two weeks ago, that we welcomed the possibility. It is disappointing that Friday’s communiqué did not mention it … it seems to us that the priority must be to translate the no-fly zone phrase into a practical plan.”
28 March: “I welcome the fact that the military operation to enforce the no-fly zone and protect civilians is showing signs of success.”
I wonder if this shows a desperation amongst The Tories after recent travails. Regardless it is pretty grubby and we await a retraction.
Got this through from Liverpool Council leader Joe Anderson and though it worthy of a reprint:
"They’re at it again – but then did we ever expect anything less? Many residents have been contacting me over the last week to tell me all about the latest Lib Dem leaflet which has been going through letter boxes across the city this week.
Well, I say ‘across the city’ – its mainly been in the south of the city and in places which were once Lib Dem strongholds, where their sitting Councillors are now clinging on desperately.
Indeed, ‘desperate’ is how I’d describe their latest effort. Its such a shame, this is a bunch of councillors which could be lobbying their Government to stop hitting Liverpool with cut after cut after cut. This is a party which should be on the phone to their Ministers and MPs telling them not to slash 800 officers from Merseyside Police, or another £50million from Liverpool City Council.
But instead, they’ve taken to telling lies about how much we’re spending on taxis, trying to claim that what we’re spending in a year on taxis has been spent in six months. And here’s another thing: the vast majority of these taxis weren’t used by lazy councillors or extravagant council staff, but by adults and children to help them get to their care centres and children’s homes.
Do the Lib Dems want to make these vulnerable people walk to their care homes and children’s centres?
And here’s something else for the Lib Dems to think about from their moral high ground: Last year, 35 Lib Dem councillors claimed £2,321 in travel allowances, whilst 50 Labour councillors claimed just £303.
When the Lib Dems want to have a serious discussion about transport and care packages for vulnerable people – care packages that have to be delivered against a background of savage Lib Dem / Tory cuts – then I am ready to talk sensibly. Until then, I’m more than happy to keep embarrassing them with statistics just like these."
Pretty sneaky from the Liverpool Lib Dems but par for the course after their election fibs about weekly bin collections and the crap they through at Luciana before the general election.
Ed Miliband has blamed the riots that swept English cities on a "me first" culture - and accepted Labour must share the blame for creating it.
The Labour leader said his party had failed to tackle inequality and not paid enough attention to morality.
And he linked the riots to a wider collapse in social responsibility exemplified by the banking crisis and MPs expenses scandal.
He said he would set up his own riots inquiry if David Cameron failed to act.
Mr Miliband told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the breakdown in social order that occurred this week showed many people had lost their sense of right and wrong and there was a "me first" culture.
"There is an issue which went to all our souls - this is an issue not just about the responsibility and irresponsibility we saw on the streets of Tottenham.
"It's about irresponsibility, wherever we find it in our society.
"We've seen in the past few years MPs' expenses, what happened in the banks, what happened with phone hacking."
And he admitted that Labour had not done enough to tackle deep-rooted moral problems during its 13 years in power.
"I deeply regret that inequality wasn't reduced under the last Labour government. But we did great things to tackle inequality in our society," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"We did better at rebuilding the fabric of our country than the ethic of our country."
He urged the prime minister set up a public inquiry in the next few days, adding: "We have got to avoid simplistic answers.
"There's a debate some people are starting: is it culture, is it poverty and lack of opportunity? It's probably both."
Mr Miliband said that if Mr Cameron does not agree to set up an inquiry "I'm going to do it myself".
Speaking to a group of young people in Brixton, south London, Mr Miliband said the inquiry should not just take evidence from the "usual suspects" but should also include people from communities affected by the rioting.
The Commons Home Affairs Committee will begin its inquiry on 6 September, with London Mayor Boris Johnson set to be its first witness.
Committee chairman, Labour MP Keith Vaz, said: "We will be looking at police tactics, we will be looking at the operation of gangs, we will be looking at mobile communications, and we will be revisiting some of the issues we have looked at in the past, such as the inquiry into the G20 protests.
"This will be a thoughtful and measured inquiry."
The police officers who put themselves in harms way night after night have barely caught their breath, I think it's hugely disrespectful to come out and publicly criticise the police and (judging by what I'm hearing from police officers speaking on the radio) Cameron might well live to regret it....yet another example of him looking to blame everyone else whilst taking responsibility for nothing?
I am sure they didn't get it 100% right in a rapidly developing situation, reviews will take place and improvements but it's wrong & distasteful to come out and publicly lambast the people who were landed with the job of containing an unprecedented amount of criminilaty.
