Vultures Start to Circle over Ming

A few weeks ago Ming Campbell berated Simon Hughes for giving him until the Party's September conference to get his act together. Hughes's view is now repeated by none other than Welsh AM and blogger Peter Black. He headlines his piece TIME FOR MING TO SHAPE UP... but leaves out the words OR SHIP OUT. But that's the clear implication of his piece. Time for an interview without coffee by Ming's CoS Norman Lamb, methinks...

When Charles Kennedy was forced out by MPs against the wishes of the membership, they gave as their reason that the party was going nowhere. They were dissatisfied with Charles' leadership style and with the impact of his 'health' issues.Now we have the MPs' choice as leader and yet, despite successes in Dunfermline and Bromley, our opinion poll ratings are stagnating and slipping back. Ming has made little impact with the public at large. The Parliamentary Party has effectively taken charge of our policy direction and strategy, whilst the leadership has established a lock on the party organisation irrespective of the party's democratic structures.Ming is playing for very high stakes and in doing so has placed a great deal of his personal authority on the line.

If things go wrong then there is nobody else to blame, he has made sure of that by the way he has gathered all the threads around him.The next few months are going to be critical. In a week or two we will be publishing tax plans that have largely been drawn up by the Treasury Team. Worthy as they are, these proposals seem unfocussed and lack a clear narrative. It is my hope that once we see the full details that will change. However, it did not help that Ming felt it necessary to reveal details before the Commission had reported or the democratically-elected Policy Committee had decided whether to accept them or not.The debate will, of course be critical but so too will Ming's performance at the Conference. We need to get some bounce in the polls out of that week in Brighton.

When Simon Hughes said that Ming had until the end of the Conference season to prove himself he was absolutely right. So far the only people who appear to be totally content with the leader are the MPs. They have to realise that, important as they are, they are not the Party. Having experienced a coup de grace at the top, we are entitled to expect results. It is now time for Ming Campbell to start delivering on his promises and the expectations of success that are associated with him.

The blog entry is on Peter Black AM's blog HERE. It's from 27 July.

UPDATE: I see the BBC have picked up on this story HERE. Hope it was nothing I said...

UPDATE: I didn't hear Sir Ming on the Today Programme, but Stephen Pollard did. This is his take...

But what fair took my breath away was his reaction to the conviction of Michael Brown, the man who has given £2.4 million to the LibDems. Asked if he was embarrassed, Sir Menzies replied that "these are matters which are sub judice" and then huffed that they "are not matters which are anything to do with the LibDems". No, of course not. It's nothing at all to do with the Lib Dems that one of their main donors is a crook, and they have no intention of returning the money. As I have pointed out before, the LibDem's website says this: Unlike the other main parties, the Liberal Democrats do not receive funding from big business or trade unions. But fraudsters are just fine. I don't understand why people say Sir Menzies isn't fit to be LibDem leader. He's a hypocrite in charge of a hypocritical party. Seems like a perfect fit to me.