Liberal Democrat Leader Charles Kennedy Resigns

[amp88]

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4590892.stm

Praise has been paid to Charles Kennedy's contribution as Liberal Democrat leader after he stood down following his admission of alcoholism.

It comes after 25 MPs delivered an ultimatum saying they would refuse to serve on the Lib Dem frontbench.

Mr Kennedy said he was standing down as leader with immediate effect.

Deputy leader Sir Menzies Campbell said the party would be forever in his debt but the SNP said Julius Caesar was better treated than Mr Kennedy.

Well, I'm not much of a follower of politics, but I've always quite liked Kennedy. He regularly appeared on "Have I Got News For You", and had an interesting sense of humour. He was also a fairly important Scot on the political landscape of the UK, but after his public admittance of his drinking problem (which I suspect didn't come as a surprise to many people) the end was always going to come.

 

[Touring Mars]

Charles Kennedy will be missed, but he has done the right thing in my opinion, if a little belatedly. Once the feelings of the party (well, the MP's anyway) were made clear, he stood aside promptly, with good grace and with a decency and sense of perspective and humour that can only benefit the party as a whole. His achievements as leader of the Lib Dems have been outstanding, and whoever takes over, probably Ming ( him, not him) will inherit a party with a great deal more credibility than they had before the last election.

The only problem with that is, what would you call a Liberal Democrat if Ming was at the helm?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4594508.stm

 

[Lee]

You'd have to be drunk to take that post...

Nah he was an alright guy, just a shame he got onto the drink really.

Seems like the next election is gonna be fun then with 3 new leaders. (Tony Blair has to stand down before the next elections.)

 

[X5.]

I thought Charles Kennedy was a good chap. Fine, he had a drinking problem but not everyone is perfect, at least he was coming to terms with his problem which by my standards he deserves some credit, but everyone digs into him until eventually he is forced to resign. Quite unfortunate but not surprising - when you get high enough everyone wants to bring you back down 👎