BBC: Embattled Kennedy quits as (Lib Dem) leader

[muriel_volestrangler]

Charles Kennedy has resigned as Liberal Democrat leader.

In a statement at Lib Dem HQ, Mr Kennedy said he had been "inundated" with support from party members since admitting having a drink problem.

But it had become clear he did not have strong enough support among MPs and had decided to quit with immediate effect.
...
Mr Hughes, Sir Menzies and home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten are likely frontrunners in the leadership race. Sir Menzies and Mr Oaten had said they would not stand in a contest if Mr Kennedy was a candidate and his departure leaves the field clear for them to run.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4590688.stm

Sir Menzies Campbell has confirmed he will stand, and some senior MPs have already backed him.

[non sociopath skin]

1. About turn, quick march .... Tories to the left, LibDems to the right ...

Nowt so queer as politicians.:shrug:

After the shennanigans of the last few days, however, I definitely think that the race to be "the nasty party" de nos jours is wide open.

[Briar]

2. I think the LibDems have won it! n/t

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

3. He should have resigned yesterday.

What a mess.

[Gregorian]

4. Really disturbing.

One of the most common sense politicians. I thought his drinking problem was overblown. Damn.

We cannot afford to lose people like him.

But I don't know that much about UK politics. Who knows where it will all lead.

[Briar]

5. This wasn't really about his drinking

I think. As skin says, this was really about driving the Lib Dems to the right. Ideological issues. Many of the new young MPs want to adopt free market policies and drop support for the EU. The activists don't. So it will indeed be interesting.

[non sociopath skin]

7. Couldn't agree more.

Drink a problem eh? Churchill appears to have spent most of the Second World War pissed. Didn't turn out too badly. George Brown had to lose his seat before anyone worried too much about his "tired and emotional" moods.

Interesting that Michael White, the Guardian's political correspondent, said on Breakfast TV on Thursday (?)that he hadn't ever seen Kennedy the worse for drink. Fortunately, he was too discreet to name those he had ...

I say give Charlie the permanent chair of "Have I Got News For You". He'll be a hell of a lot happier than he ever was trying to re-arrange the LibberDemmers into a well known phrase or saying ....

The Skin

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Lived in the UK for a while. His drinking problem is very real...

according to some there who should know. This is always very sad, when someone with so much to offer is diminished in effectiveness by this crippling problem.

[Gatchaman]

8. Great, now the repukes have something to use

to divert the media spotlight their problems. Ohhh, look a Kennedy has resigned! Ohh, he has a drinking problem (chuckle, chuckle). And of course, there will be endless meaningless references to Chappaquiddick.

(it's sad, to see how Chappaquiddick is spelled, all I had to do was type "Ted Kennedy" into Yahoo. The second link was a smear site. I didn't have to search for "controversy", or "accident", or even "bridge".)

[sweetheart]

9. Take a look at the forces behind this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=191x14105

The next general election is being won right now. Labour party membership has dropped
by 50% since blair came to power and the libdems arn't getting the surge they need to
compete in this political transformation.

I would not be so simplistic as to say its a left-right move by any parties, but a
more complex move. The last general election, the libdems won at the cost of the torys
and labour, by collecting the moral anti-war voters, the pacifists and the libertarians
together in an anti-war conherency. But this is not a party, just a protest.

The torys are shifting more libertarian, given that their leader has confessed to being
of a libertarian ilk (granted, he's an unknown who can say anything... but his consistency
is being measured by UK conservatives from this getgo.

The link shows that, the torys have gotten a jump with a new leader, and without a
similar shakeup, the libdems will be sitting ducks to a party that wants their constituents
voting paleo-conservative under the "c" party and not the "ld". I've not met a single
person who would say charles kennedy had the gravitas to make PM... but many who really
like him.

I don't find it tragic for a political party to wake up and realize its about winning.
Its all for the best.