The 14% pinstripe radical

Although it's been an unhappy month for our party there is, as I have argued, no need for panic.  Brown is beatable and Team Cameron are beginning to take the kind of steps that will bring the conservative coalition together.  The most notable steps are the crunchy policy announcements, the appointment of Andy Coulson and the 'Whitelaw' roles being given to Fox, Hague and Davis.  The real leader in trouble is Ming Campbell.  The Tories at 37% in yesterday's YouGov poll could be doing better but after the last few weeks that's not a bad rating.  The LibDems at 14% are not.  Today's Times reports that Ming is to be relaunched as a "pinstripe radical".  The party is to become more "spiky".  Oh dear.  The amazing thing is how LibDem MPs are willing to tolerate this state of affairs.

Comments

[Bill]

At least he dresses properly. And the Lib Dems
to their credit by opposing it got the Iraq War right.

[Simon]

Maybe the Libbies are 'reticent' about backstabbing another leader so soon after despatching the 'Alcoholic'. Plus, there are no real 'personalities' in the Libbies apart from the 'comedy brigade' ( Oaten, Opik, and Chuck K). I think the above caption is slightly tasteless! The Avengers was a classy 60's tv show. Steed, the epitome of English style. How the Minger measures up to that i don't know! Trying to relaunch Ming is like trying to relaunch the Titanic.

[The Huntsman]

Just how do you relaunch a corpse?

[TomTom]

This will be interesting. I hear on this site often how the LibDems adapt their campaign locally and are ruthless and efficient at local level. The Conservatives in contrast have feeble organisation in large areas of the country.

It will be interesting to observe if selling a leader is a strategy or boots-on-the-ground.....this could be a very interesting experiment

[Chris Palmer]

'Just how do you relaunch a corpse?' - Huntsman

Taxidermy?

[tapestry]

If Saddam was still in control of Iraq, would the world be a safer place?

If the Taleban were allowed to walk back into Kabul, would that too be better?

The issues about the war on terror are not as one-dimensional as Lib Dem supporters would like.

The Falklands War convinced the Soviets that the West would fight hard in any showdown, and helped to push them away from thoughts of war towards a more peaceful relationship.

Bin Laden was also convinced the West was weak, and attacking the West would demonstrate our weakness. War can never be a total solution, but it sadly has to be part of the solution.

Lib Dems never can see the realities. If they try to build their brand appeal based on their lack of vision and understanding of military affairs, that's fine. But in the real world, if you don't fight back against aggression in appropriate ways, you invite further aggression.

[bill]

Re "If Saddam was still in control of Iraq, would the world be a safer place?": on balance, I think it would be. Overthrowing Sadam Hussein and screwing up Iraq has 1) caused havoc in Iraq 2) inflamed Islamist sentiment 3) overstretched and weakened our main ally the US both economically and militarily 4) strengthened and emboldened Iran.

Iraq and the Falklands are not analogous. The US and its allies showed their will to fight in Afghanistan; they did not need to repeat it in Baathist Iraq.

[malcolm]

I hardly agree with you on anything else Bill, but on this I think you are spot on.

[powellite]

This poll should be pretty worrying reading for the Libs. In their position, they can promise anything in the sound knowledge they'll never be in power to be able to implement it. With that in mind, it's remarkable that they can't make any headway whatsoever.

Still, I'm not complaining...

[Paul Seery]

Their poll rating of the Liberal democrats makes me laugh so much. And yet there is those in the Liberal Democrats that say stick with Ming, Ming's got experience etc. etc.

What the Liberal Democrats are scared of is that they don't like to show that they are getting it wrong and come the next general election their number of MPs will be greatly reduced in the Houses of Parliament.

I would like to see that if it all goes paear-shaped for them will they have the bottle to say that they got it wrong and that they should have picked a more youthful leader like the Conservative party did in their appointment of David Cameron.

*This is my first comment post on the CH website:)

[Yet Another Anon]

And the Lib Dems
to their credit by opposing it got the Iraq War right.
If you call gaining votes through cynical opportunism rather than taking hard decisions "getting it right", then on that basis they did. As usual they tried to have the best of all worlds - glad the regime was gone, glad that it went without leaving any muck on them and also glad that they could take a simple populist line of saying that they were against it all along when they would have supported action if there had been a UN resolution in favour, when in fact a UN resolution in favour would not have made a jot of difference on what actually happened and the UN Security Council's splits mean that even with 2 or 3 members of the Permanent Security Council taking a determined line that even if so much as 1 member of the Permanent Security Council objects then they can block any resolution on anything they want - so the Liberal Democrats support this glorified talking shop that is quite happy to procrastinate while the world goes up in flame.

If the Devil laid waste the whole earth which was about to be consumed by fire, the Liberal Democrats would still say they wouldn't support action until there was a resolution on it if this suited their political ambitions!

[Richard]

Ming is the antidote for those who miss the days of Michael Foot.

[Paul Seery]

The sad turth about the Liberal Democrats is that they are just an opportunist party that only do well when the other two parties fail. Come the next general election they will be servely tested and this time there will not be an Iraq. Also they will have to contend against two parties that are getting stronger again and will be much more organised than the last. If I was them and I was one before June 1st I would be thinking about holding on for dear life and preparing for an almighty squeeze from both Labour and the Conservative parties. I just hope that the Conservative party will gain more than Labour on this one. We shall see.

[Matt Wright]

Paul, I think you are right. Evidence on the ground suggest they are being squeezed,

Matt

[Bill]

Thanks Malcolm.

[Kris Grebneralk]

Another relaunch for Ming? He's been leader for less than two years, and has already been re-released into the political wilderness twice so far.

[Graeme Archer]

May I just say that I'm horrified to find you attempting to link, in any sense, the ultra-cool and life-molding sensation that was, for me, the original Avengers, with that repetitious old bore who hangs around with those LibDem types ? That's Mrs Peel you've got him writhing backside-to-backside against! There are surely some standards left in public life?

[Paul Seery]

They would have tried Sarah Teather in that photo but her height would have proven a difficulty if you know what I mean;)