He has by all accounts watched the Lib Dem contest with quite close attention for a man with a lot else on his mind
He has, by all accounts, watched the Lib Dem contest with quite close attention for a man with a lot else on his mind, and some frustration. He wants the links to continue beyond the retirement of his friend, and despite the quite vociferous opposition of some in his own party. Why not pocket the (extremely significant) gains, such as a share in the government of Scotland, and proportional representation in the Euro-elections – and prepare to exploit what must eventually be the unpopularity of the Government? The Project, in other words, is simply out of fashion, on Labour’s side as much as among the Liberal Democrats.That is not at all how Blair sees it. But, in the event, it meant that there was much less incentive for Kennedy to compete for votes on that side of the argument than among the supporters of oppositionalism, represented in varying degrees by all four of the other candidates.At this point, however, a further argument against making the case for co-operation is brought into play, at once less tactical, more fundamental, and almost wholly spurious.This is that the “Project”, as it is called in the ugly jargon of the times, has simply run out of road. The contest might have been much more interesting if one of them had. Both the candidates who would have put the case for co-operation without equivocation, Menzies Campbell and Don Foster, decided not to run.
On the central strategic question of whether he proposes to maintain and enhance the relationship with Tony Blair’s Labour Party, Kennedy has been, in turns, cautiously positive, enigmatic, and negative. Some of this is understandable; all the pressure on him, as the candidate most favoured by those who support continuation of the bonds with Labour forged by Ashdown and Blair, came from the opposite direction. Instead it became an introverted, unchallenging and rather unpolitical contest about which of two admittedly articulate and telegenic men should inherit the Ashdown mantle.
This has been largely due to the depressingly risk-averse campaign waged by the front-runner, Charles Kennedy. And the huge compensating gain would have been a timely raising of the party’s profile at just the moment at which it most needed to be raised, to show that the party still mattered after the retirement of Paddy Ashdown – the one man who, frequently defying gravity to do it, had proved himself capable of keeping it in the public eye. The leadership contest was an opportunity to resolve the competition between two real and alternative visions of the party’s future direction, a choice that no amount of flummery about unity can wish away. The Liberal Democrat leadership contest has been a dismal affair, doing little to excite the 90,000 members of the party, let alone the voters at large.
A BALLOT that draws almost unnoticed to a close today could exercise a profound influence on the shape of 21st-century British politics But you wouldn’t think it. This universal era would start at the dawn of the Neolithic and would include all the history that we are ever likely to date to within less than a century
P J STEWART
St Anne’s College, Oxford. He smiled wearily at my innocence and asked, “Who would believe us against them?”In any future proceedings I hope that full evidence is taken from impartial observers.MONICA FINANFormby, Merseyside. Sir: As the Christian era is known and used all over the world, the practical way to remove its ethnocentric character would be to add a nice round number: 10,000 (letters, 2, 4, 5 August). Sir: I share the misgivings of Colin Murison Small about the proposed new law against air rage (letter, 2 August).