Labour overtures to the Lib Dem group on Birmingham council with its leader comparing his Labour counterpart to Hitler.
Labour overtures to the Liberal Democrat group on Birmingham council to form a new progressive administration for the city have been rebuffed, with its leader comparing his Labour counterpart to Hitler. Just for good measure, Lib Dem councillor Paul Tilsley compared himself to Winston Churchill. He said:
“If we were to jump into bed with Labour it would be a bit like Churchill joining forces with Hitler after the war.”
While progressive Lib Dems in the Westminster parliament argue that the mathematics of respective strengths of the parties in the House of Commons makes a Labour-Lib Dem coalition impossible, this is not the case in Birmingham. This is the second consecutive election on which Labour has received the most votes in local elections, and it is the largest party on the 120-member council, only six short of a majority:
After last week’s election results, Nick Clegg’s party faces a choice about whether to be a force for centre-left politics or a prop for Conservative administrations. It appears that Liberal Democrats in Birmingham have made their choice.
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18 Responses to “Birmingham Lib Dem leader compares Labour counterpart to Hitler”
Mr. Sensible
People should really not be making such comparisons with the Nazis.
Well the Birmingham Lib Dems haven’t learnt have they…
Duncan
Yeah yeah yeah – more tedious Labour cheerleading from LFF, now I remember why I stopped reading – I think it’s pretty obvious this isn’t a ‘Hitler comparison’ in the ordinary sense; he’s not saying the Labour leader is a fascist; he’s just stressing the fact that Labour are seen by him and the other people fighting the council elections as the opposition. Remember that the Conservatives are Stalin under this analogy, so a coalition deal with the Tories doesn’t seem a foregone conclusion.
To all the retweets below; congratulations, you have the journalistic standards of the Daily Mail.
Jim Grundy
“Yeah yeah yeah – more tedious Labour cheerleading from LFF, now I remember why I stopped reading..” All evidence to the contrary.