Sharks were his pet project?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Sharks were his pet project?

In many ways, she’s the yin to his yang.

- Jerry Brown’s most important adviser: his wife, MercuryNews.com, December 17, 2010.

3. Nick Clegg has suggested the public does not care about House of Lords reform as he ruled out giving voters a say on the Government’s plans to axe the Upper House.

The Deputy Prime Minister, who insisted on a referendum on electoral reform last year, risked public ridicule and a civil war in Westminster by blocking a nationwide vote on his latest pet project.

A joint committee of senior MPs and peers appointed to scrutinise the plans will today say there should be a referendum on whether to replace the Lords with an 80 per cent elected Senate.

But the Lib Dem leader said there was no point having a referendum when all three main parties are committed to reforming the Lords and the public is not interested.

He told the BBC’s Sunday Politics programme: ‘Why is it that we should spend a great deal of money, millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money, asking the British people a question which frankly most people don’t worry about very much?

‘I think to subcontract to the British people an issue which the politicians at Westminster just can’t deal with, I think is asking a lot of the British people.’

Mr Clegg admitted reform of the Lords is not even one of his main priorities. He added: ‘Our priority of course remains rescuing, repairing and reforming the British economy.’