I doubt if Ming Campbell is feeling very charitable towards Susan Kramer today. On GMTV this morning she stuck the knife into him, albeit using the usual coded language. She knew what she meant, GMTV knew what she meant and so do the rest of us. Here's the transcript... David Mills: And a final question on the leadership, do you think Ming Campbell, if he felt he wasn’t the leader to take you to the next stage as you were talking about earlier, do you think he would make that decision on his own?Susan Kramer: Ming of all things is a person of absolute integrity and I think he’s also harder on himself than almost any outsider would be. I mean, this is not a man who has flexible standards and I think if he felt that he wasn’t taking the party in the direction it needed to go, that if he didn’t see those changes happening, you know, internally, in the policy area, that had to be in place, he might well make that decision, but I think most of us looking at him basically would say ‘Ming, stick with it. This is not the time for revolving door politics, not the time to choose your leader by focus group, or how they look in a shop window. This is a time to choose your leader by their real qualities of integrity, determination, statesmanship, intelligence and a vision of taking Britain forward. I really do think that matters the most.
She has of course left herself enough 'wiggle room' for Liberal Democrats to tell us that she hasn't called for him to go. But the truth is she has spoken for many in the LibDems who wish Ming would fall on his sword but are too scared of the implications of a second leadership contest in fifteen months. You can hardly blame them either.
The LibDems are like a business which is failing. It's staff know it but the chief executive keeps insisting that there is a big order just around the corner. And the directors keep harking back to their last big success, as if they are somehow predestined to repeat it at some stage.
Susan Kramer may just have done the LibDems a favour by speaking her mind, sort of. Far better to have these discussions now, than a year before an election.
And, as Dame Edna might say, I mean that in a caring way.
11 comments:
Iain stop helping them.
Why are the female Lib Dems more willing to wield the knife than their men?
Bloody hell, Iain, that is laughably desperate. I've read what Susan said several times now and still can't see any evidence of knife wielding.
Why this preoccupation with the idea that the Lib Dems are 'failing'? Is it simple, good old fashioned spin, or are you actually trying to convince yourself?
James, but the LibDems ARE failing. 240 odd councillors dowm, losing 4 councils overall, only gaining councils where there are strange local circumstances, a declining vote in Wales, failure to make gains for the third time running, remaining the fourth party in both Scotland and Wales, need I go on?
And it's not just me who has interpreted Kramer's words in that way - so has the BBC, Sky and ITV.
"Why are the female Lib Dems more willing to wield the knife than their men?"
In Susan Kramer's case, he's called Zac Goldsmith.
"Iain stop helping them."
Quite right - never interrupt your enemy while he is making a mistake.
Someone I know was at a party with Ming a couple of years ago and when he was asked if Charles Kennedy had a drink pronlem his reply was.
"I wouldn't rule anything out."
I think the same answer applies here
I'm not denying the Lib Dems have had a blip, but a 1% dip in the vote does not a failure make. I've been around long enough to recall that every time a Lib Dem member sneezes, our opponents seize on it as evidence of some imminent collapse, yet strangely it never happens.
You claim that Sky, the BBC and ITV have seized on this, yet I can't find any evidence of this on any of their websites. If this is the best you can do to find some kind of grassroots rebellion, you are struggling. I could find more evidence of a Tory rebellion by spending 5 minutes on ConservativeHome.
I take it that by "strange local circumstances" you mean "pretty much everywhere". That bit of analysis you dismissed by Mark Pack happens to be fact: our entire loss of councillors happened in just 21 local authorities, most of which are in constituencies the Tories already hold.
James
It was on the Rawnsley Show, 5 Live and Sky this morning. I heard them all myself.By strange circumstances, I'll give you an example - Eastbourne - Tory council had voted through huge allowance rise I believe and imposed an unpopular parking scheme.
It Would be Susan Kramer. Unlike most of our MPs who seem woefully complacent about the Tory threat because the local elections in their area went reasonably well, this is a woman who is fighting Zac Goldsmith.
He's an utter shit, so i'll be doing all i can to help her, but he's also got a strong chance of winning. She knows Ming would have us sleepwalking into electoral disaster and she wants to prevent that.
Good on her for having guts.
If Ming goes who have they got? Apart from Huhne I can't remember the other leadership candidates. Oh yeah - Simon Hughes - something about him doesn't shout "leadership material". I seem to recall that Mark Oaten has ruled himself out - something about hair loss?
No, still can't think who the others were.
Has Charlie dried out yet? Will it stick? What did he actually do for them anyway?
My local MP is a LibDem but I can only recall that he's called Paul something.
You see, they don't have anyone that can appeal to more than 15% to 20% of the electorate. Keep knocking them Iain!
Even highlighting a bit of what she said does not diminish the fact that she said he was not failing & shouldn't go. He is & should but this is not the rebellion you are looking for.
I still think well of Huhne even though, as environment shadow, he has had to say a lot of extremely silly things.
Clegg is clearly the leadership's blue eyed boy.
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