There is a remarkable paucity of information about the sudden political death of Ming Campbell. I mentioned Nick Robinson's brief entry on his BBC blog yesterday, but his entry could win prizes for literary development compared with Sky's Adam Boulton, who has had to satisfy himself with basically reprinting Ming's letter of resignation. Longer articles in the dead tree press today have not yielded much insight either. The Independent's main news article moves sharply away from objectivity in its description of Ming as 'a respected elder statesman', and his resigning being 'dignified'. There's not much dignified about leaving a letter with your deputy and tailing it up to your home in Edinburgh to hide from any questions.
The Independent, however, also has a more illuminating piece by its Commons sketch writer, Simon Carr, about why Ming failed in the Commons, and why he never gained the stature he had as a foreign affairs spokesman.
The truth is, he didn't know what to do with his leadership. He was happy to take advantage of Charles Kennedy's misfortunes, and then had no idea how to lead. For the leader of a third party at a time when the two major parties are viewed as being clones of each other, that really is failure on a grand scale. We should not weep for Sir Ming.
7 comments:
I better make this quick cos mans got some homies to go shank but basically yeah blad, i think you need to be less harsh on minge. I happen to be a big fan of minge, you however might have other preferences. All mans trying to say is we need to celebrate minge, not slag it off.
Campbell had it coming. When you're ratings in the polls fall to 11% from 22% you have to wonder whether your leader is that effective! He was not dynamic and let ramblings about his age dominate anything newsworthy about the Lib Dems, (apart from the odd sex scandal) even if it was a rather pointless issue! Ming will not be missed, that is if anyone notices he's gone!
if this infighting in the Liberals continues all of their leaders will only last for a short period of time. We already have far too many nicknames such "vicious Vince" derived from dirty tactics and they all appear to just be backstabbers not prospective leaders. This sort of behaviour will only cause them to fall further behind the oppostion. after such a boring leader the liberals really need a man who can deal with the public limelight... "luscious" Lembit Opik anyone?
i agree. Campbell had it coming. When you're ratings in the polls fall to 11% from 22% you have to wonder whether your leader is that effective! He was not dynamic and let ramblings about his age dominate anything newsworthy about the Lib Dems, (apart from the odd sex scandal) even if it was a rather pointless issue! Ming will not be missed, that is if anyone notices he's gone! 90% of people like me.
what's the story, washed-up tory?
these liberals don't know what they have done! Menzies was the single greatest leader of any british political party in the last century. He could have turned the slump around in no time. the only reason that they were failing at the polls was because the voters could sense they were going to force him out!
tomlakey's comment sounds familiar doesn't it? poor attempt at humour me thinks!
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