Sunday, February 05, 2006
Getting personal?
Not since the 1970s Liberal leadership contest when supporters of David Steel let it be known that his rival, John Pardoe, had a bald patch, have we got this personal within the Liberal Democrats. It is nice to see a bit of debate at last.
We have had Ming's camp putting it about that Chris Huhne broke an agreement not to stand against him. We have had both the Huhne and Hughes camp hinting that Ming was behind the briefing that led to the ousting of Charles Kennedy and now we have Chris Huhne picking up specifically on Ming's slogan of a bridge to the future and challenging him to say whether he will fight the election after next as leader. Chris Huhne also contrasted Ming's reluctance to join the anti-war march in London with his own enthusiasm for the cause.
All of these are perfectly valid points of course and in no way amount to the sort of personality based campaigning that papers such as the Express allege. The two worries I have about Menzies Campbell are the agenda of the people he has gathered about him and the fact that he would effectively be a one-election leader. The party deserves somebody who is going to commit to it for at least two or three elections. We do not need a leader who has nominated his successor before he has even been elected. Such a course of action can only prolong the plotting and instability.
My concern about Chris Huhne is over his ability to reach out to a wider audience and to inspire them. I may be proved wrong on this of course, but so far he has failed to exude the sort of passion that leaders need from time to time. I hope to get to the hustings in Cardiff on Monday so I will see if his performance there changes my mind. I think that is unlikely. For me Simon Hughes remains the man best able to take the party forward.
We have had Ming's camp putting it about that Chris Huhne broke an agreement not to stand against him. We have had both the Huhne and Hughes camp hinting that Ming was behind the briefing that led to the ousting of Charles Kennedy and now we have Chris Huhne picking up specifically on Ming's slogan of a bridge to the future and challenging him to say whether he will fight the election after next as leader. Chris Huhne also contrasted Ming's reluctance to join the anti-war march in London with his own enthusiasm for the cause.
All of these are perfectly valid points of course and in no way amount to the sort of personality based campaigning that papers such as the Express allege. The two worries I have about Menzies Campbell are the agenda of the people he has gathered about him and the fact that he would effectively be a one-election leader. The party deserves somebody who is going to commit to it for at least two or three elections. We do not need a leader who has nominated his successor before he has even been elected. Such a course of action can only prolong the plotting and instability.
My concern about Chris Huhne is over his ability to reach out to a wider audience and to inspire them. I may be proved wrong on this of course, but so far he has failed to exude the sort of passion that leaders need from time to time. I hope to get to the hustings in Cardiff on Monday so I will see if his performance there changes my mind. I think that is unlikely. For me Simon Hughes remains the man best able to take the party forward.
