I made up my mind to vote for Chris Huhne as the next Lib Dem leader after watching Thursday's Question Time debate in which I thought he was clearly the better performer, relaxed and confident, able to articulate a clear liberal vision while having an obvious mastery of detail. Although today's Politics Show debate did not change my mind, I thought Chris did himself absolutely no favours whatsoever.
The problem is that although there are legitimate questions to be asked about some quotes which Nick Clegg has come out with in the past, there are ways and means of doing that. Talking over Nick and preventing him from answering, which is what Chris was doing in the programme, is not only silly, it's unnecessary. Nick was visibly riled by the end, and quite rightly so.
Also, Chris has to get a grip on his campaign workers. If people in his campaign are putting out briefings without his approval entitled "Calamity Clegg", then he needs to give them a swift kick up the backside and tell them that if that's how they work, their services are no longer required on his campaign. That sort of briefing is unacceptable and I think heads should roll as a result.
UPDATE: I see similar things are being said by Charlotte Gore, Linda Jack (twice), Jeremy Hargreaves, "Harold Muckle", Colin Ross, Joe Taylor, and Julian H. Doubtless there will be plenty of others.
Posts
A History of the World in Admin
6 years ago
4 comments:
Yup, if Huhne will now be elected, Lib Dems will be known as the new Nasty Party.
Thanks for the link, Bernard. Look forward to perhaps sharing a real ale at conference one day.
But, Anon, Chris can't be elected now. Nick would be justified in excluding Chris from the shadow cabinet, and forever Nick will have to counter the terrible nick-name that Chris's own team invented for him!
I think you're right to want Huhne to reign it in. He's running a very effective but total unsubtle campaign which (I suspect) won't play well with a potentially very important electorate - the MPs that would have to work with him in the event that he won. This isn't a good long term strategy for any leader IMHO.
However,I sense that Huhne is boxing well and repeatedly pushes Clegg into corners he doesn't feel comfortable with but knows he must address to get the activist vote.
Post a Comment