tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post6284518401036118724..comments2024-03-04T17:54:32.559+00:00Comments on Iain Dale's Diary: Book Review: Paddy Ashdown's AutobiographyIain Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03270146219458384372noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-44254241971835659612009-08-21T01:33:33.038+01:002009-08-21T01:33:33.038+01:00I have been reading the book over the Summer and h...I have been reading the book over the Summer and have 2 chapters left. Also thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the early years and the winning of Yeovil.<br /><br />I think Iain is right; if the public had known more about his varied background when he was leader Paddy might have done even better than he did. And he clearly took the party from the brink of collapse to some stunning successes. He doesn't even mention a highlight of the 1992 election for the Lib Dems (and some Tories?) was Don Foster winning Bath and unseating Chris Patten, who then was Tory party Chairman.<br /><br />I thinks its 'derring do' btw not 'daring' but not certain......SDWnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-23043640495089905152009-08-20T23:19:57.888+01:002009-08-20T23:19:57.888+01:00Ashdown is just incredibly pompous. He is humourle...Ashdown is just incredibly pompous. He is humourless too.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-6260373205067390832009-08-20T16:08:12.013+01:002009-08-20T16:08:12.013+01:00Ashdown knowingly & deliberately supported unr...Ashdown knowingly & deliberately supported unrepentent ex-Nazis poblicly committed to racial genocide (the Bosnian Moslem & Croatian leaders). He lied to sell these obscenities to the British people. He lied to promote racial mass murder & to install blatantly ethnicly cleansed Nazi derived regimes in eastern Europe. He has been proven to have perjured himself in the Milosevic "trial". During the Kosovo war he abandoned leadership of the LibDems to help organise the KLA - a NATO armed & organised group of drug lords, sex slavers, secret police torturesr & ex-Nazis openly & admitedly engaged in racial genocide. With his secret service contacts he must have known that this "liberation army" consisted of people who had already been dissecting Albanians, including babies, to sell as medical parts, yet his support for them was unlimited, both then & when they became Britain's "police". As gaultier of Bosnia he exacerbated tensions by opposing the release of Fikret Abdic, the only Moslem leader not implicated in genocide & almost tailor made for any attempt to create a country. He also did nothing to diminish the trade in schoolgirls in Bosnia, particularly among members of his own international administration & feted Nasir Oric, the perpetrator of the only proven Srebrenica massacre, of 3,870 Serb villagers & now running what is described as a "night club".<br /><br />Hardly "holier than thou" - certainly not holier than Goering.neil craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09157898238945726349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-73138101170703569922009-08-20T15:27:08.070+01:002009-08-20T15:27:08.070+01:00"It is a cracking read and will no doubt be....."It is a cracking read and will no doubt be..."<br /><br />...remaindered for about £2.99 at all large bookshops within about 6 months.<br /><br />Sadly, this kind of book has a notoriously short shelf life.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-5582873569190105182009-08-20T14:43:04.800+01:002009-08-20T14:43:04.800+01:00If indeed the libdums are "a real third force...If indeed the libdums are "a real third force in British politics", is it more because the beeb shows them disproportionate and undeserved favour in featuring them on TV and Radio?<br /><br />Think of the number of times the beeb calls on vince cable when they could get a clearer and more expert opinion from John Redwood.gordon-bennetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00249699675694944419noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-70276220802275796392009-08-20T13:54:03.621+01:002009-08-20T13:54:03.621+01:00Haven't read the book but wholeheartedly agree...Haven't read the book but wholeheartedly agree with the assessment of the man (and his wife). <br /><br />In my view the Paddy Pantsdown episode was the turning point in his leadership. Before that point he had managed to acquire a rather sanctimonious public persona that wasn't really chiming too well. The obvious bravery and honesty with which he tackled the extremely embarrassing revelations both brought him down to earth and showed the rest of us that he was capable of great humility as well as courage.<br /><br />Politically I think his greatest domestic achievement was not 1997 but rescuing the party from oblivion after the catastrophe of the 1989 Euro-elections. However his aggressive strategy of targetting winnable constituencies and letting other areas go hang, effectively, was not universally popular in the party but paid off spectacularly in the end.<br /><br />All this and and then Paddy the international statesman afterwards. Quite a guy and quite a career. The Lib Dems were very lucky to have him.Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07745631202883795369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-4725697177277910812009-08-20T13:44:54.419+01:002009-08-20T13:44:54.419+01:00Cannot be as good and as readable as Alan Clark...Cannot be as good and as readable as Alan Clark's diary. Whenever I pass through Hotel Amigo in Brussels I cannot help chuckling that Alan Clark used to stay in this hotel as a govt minister.<br /><br />It is not about Pantsdown's persona , but his patronising advice on proportional representation and his smugness that he alone knows about Europe and the Balkans that I cannot take.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-3398053352147332412009-08-20T13:44:45.002+01:002009-08-20T13:44:45.002+01:00All very well, but the man was still a LibDem. A t...All very well, but the man was still a LibDem. A tragic case of misdirected talent.Salmondnethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04135160187810480222noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-50393515871012427712009-08-20T13:10:22.284+01:002009-08-20T13:10:22.284+01:00He did well with David Laws too. Helping to show h...He did well with David Laws too. Helping to show him the ropes and how to be a 'local' MP.Bill Quango MPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14861116614665461655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-44954751726744355692009-08-20T12:23:16.557+01:002009-08-20T12:23:16.557+01:00You should read on the toilet, it's where my b...You should read on the toilet, it's where my best reading takes place.A Nounenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-29484293941882540432009-08-20T12:07:36.983+01:002009-08-20T12:07:36.983+01:00A very good assessment of what is a thoroughly int...A very good assessment of what is a thoroughly interesting book.UKIPerhttp://my.telegraph.co.uk/euroscepticreporter/blog/?message=WW91ciBwb3N0IGhhcyBub3cgYmVlbiBzdWJtaXR0ZWQhnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-39928060091482253942009-08-20T12:05:42.757+01:002009-08-20T12:05:42.757+01:00Hear, hear - and congratulations for giving him cr...Hear, hear - and congratulations for giving him credit for (a) saving the party from oblivion and (b) increasing the number of MPs so dramatically. As a former aide to Paddy from the bleak times onwards, it used to get up my nose hearing people making out the advance was down to Charles Kennedy when they should have been asking why he hadn't developed the Ashdown legacy much further than he did.Max Atkinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06163447049027217653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-14183004871275167842009-08-20T12:01:11.324+01:002009-08-20T12:01:11.324+01:00I first saw Jeremy in action at a British Aerospac...I first saw Jeremy in action at a British Aerospace AGM, in 1982 or 1983. He was then the prospective Liberal candidate. He was very impressive, and ran rings round the Chairman, Sir Austin Pearce. <br /><br />My mother-in-law was living in the Yeovil constituency at the time, and said that he was doing a very good job there. She pegged him then as probably overturning the natural Tory majority.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com