[davidjay]

"Staggering" is one word...

[Arrowhead]

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the sad passing of Charles Kennedy, at the age of just 55.

It’s a mark of how popular and widely respected Kennedy was that, several years after we lost him, he still attracts glowing tributes from figures on all sides of the political spectrum - Douglas Alexander tweeted a particularly poignant one earlier today.

I only found out recently that in 2010 Kennedy was literally the only Lib Dem MP to vote against the formation of the ruinous ConDem coalition, which makes me respect him even more.

RIP

[Timbo]

I've been getting some commuiques from Wera Hobhouse (LD MP for Bath) who has begun a nascent campaign to run for party leader. What I've seen of her so far impresses me. Any thoughts anyone?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Could Cameron have run a populist minority for a few months and then got another election, I wonder?

Labour gained 18 seats between the two elections in 1974. That would have given Cameron 324 seats. Here are the target seats:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_t ... l_election

The Lib Dems and Labour would probably have struggled to raise money for another election.

[Abernathy]

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the sad passing of Charles Kennedy, at the age of just 55.

It’s a mark of how popular and widely respected Kennedy was that, several years after we lost him, he still attracts glowing tributes from figures on all sides of the political spectrum - Douglas Alexander tweeted a particularly poignant one earlier today.

I only found out recently that in 2010 Kennedy was literally the only Lib Dem MP to vote against the formation of the ruinous ConDem coalition, which makes me respect him even more.

RIP

A good bloke, Charlie. I knew him slightly at university, where we were contemporaries.

[Arrowhead]

I've been getting some commuiques from Wera Hobhouse (LD MP for Bath) who has begun a nascent campaign to run for party leader. What I've seen of her so far impresses me. Any thoughts anyone?

She's seems pretty low-profile, although I guess that's to be expected having only entered parliament in 2017. I do know that she was very critical about the Lib Dems directing too much of their firepower on Labour in GE2019, which suggests she is perhaps on the left of the party rather than one of the orange bookers.

Whoever is elected leader needs to get serious about working in conjunction with Labour at the next GE, even if that means some sort of electoral pact in certain constituencies. If the Tories haven't already banned the practice by then, that is.

[youngian]

Perhaps not

she (Wera Hobhouse) and her husband were Conservative Councillors in Rochdale - and it was this fight that persuaded them to become Liberal Democrats in 2005 https://greenlibdems.org.uk/en/article/ ... obhouse-mp

[youngian]

Daveymania hits town

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Layla Moran seems to be offering a path away from the economic liberals towards the social liberals - which would chime with many centrist (Third Way) voters, I think.

See here:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... o-the-left

I see some promise for future co-operation with Labour there.

That might also see off Orange-Booker Ed Davey in the leadership thing.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Orange Book, as I understand it, isn't particularly objectionable. You can set progressive incentives for the market to deliver, provided you jump off the train before it crashes through the station buffer. Davey's climate change policies seem to be working pretty well.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

That rather depends on your point of view and opinion of neoliberalism.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Appropriate petrol taxes, sensible specs and the market deliver better fuel efficiency than having the government run car companies.

[Abernathy]

"Alexa, find me an example of rank hypocrisy."

https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-st ... -1-6742995

Ed Davey says he is ‘anti-Conservative’ and will work with Keir Starmer to oust Boris Johnson

That is Sir Ed Davey, knighted in 2016, who served in the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition from 2012 to 2015, in common with his boss, now Sir Nick Clegg. A coalition government responsible for the Bedroom Tax, punitive welfare benefits sanctions, and a programme of savage cuts to public services in the ideological name of "austerity".

Anti-Conservative? Really, Ed ?

[Arrowhead]

Anti-Conservative? Really, Ed ?

Agree 100% However, I'd still rather Davey - shameless hypocrite that he is - win the leadership than Layla Moran, simply because he seems far more likely to attract across disillusioned Cameron-esque, One Nation Tory voters at GE 2024 - of whom there are likely to be many by then.

Moran, by contrast, has pledged to shift the Lib Dems leftwards, which brings up the grim prospect of Labour and the Lib Dems spending much of the next four years pushing custard pies into one another's faces whilst the Tories burn everything to the ground around them.

Bearing in mind there are now plenty of Tory/Lib Dems marginals dotted throughout the country, I reckon a Davey leadership stands more chance of unseating, say, twenty or so Tories at the next GE than Moran would IMO.

The results are announced next month I believe, so we'll find out soon enough.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I don't give a flying fuck what Ed Davey was knighted for. I want rid of this disastrous government and a full accounting afterwards. If Davey gives us that, fine.