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[Dave]

Sir Menzies Campbell has won the Liberal Democrat leadership election with 57% of the vote. It's a bit of a shock, as Chris Huhne, the runner-up, was evens at the bookies this morning to win.

I get the horrible feeling that David Cameron is going to have him for breakfast, lunch and supper in the coming months. Fresh, young leader, untainted by political scandal against bufferish patrician type who still has questions to answer about his role in Charles Kennedy's resignation. We'll be back to a two-party system quicker than you can say "Scottish mafia".

[Cloud]

Originally Posted by Dave

I get the horrible feeling that David Cameron is going to have him for breakfast, lunch and supper in the coming months. Fresh, young leader, untainted by political scandal against bufferish patrician type who still has questions to answer about his role in Charles Kennedy's resignation. We'll be back to a two-party system quicker than you can say "Scottish mafia".

That's exactly what I'm thinking too. I wonder if this could be the end of the Lib-Lab coalition in the Scottish Parliament - they don't exactly have a huge majority in Holyrood (5 or 6 seats? can't remeber), and considering there's the issue that they'll have been in for 8 years now - I'm tempted to say that the election next year will be a very interesting one.

I'm not a Lib Dem by any stretch of the imagination, but it seems blatantly obvious to me that replacing Kennedy with Campbell was a bad move - how exactly is an old man (compared to Blair and Cameron) going to appeal to young voters who are more likely to consider the alternative than their older peers?

I just can't help but think that the Lib Dems started to believe the hype surrounding them after their performance in 2005 and have shot themselves in the foot as a result.

Yes, but the bookie odds were based on nothing more than the way in which money was being placed.

Basically to become the "favourite" all Huhne had to do was get lots of people to put money on him.

Originally Posted by Cloud

That's exactly what I'm thinking too. I wonder if this could be the end of the Lib-Lab coalition in the Scottish Parliament - they don't exactly have a huge majority in Holyrood (5 or 6 seats? can't remeber), and considering there's the issue that they'll have been in for 8 years now - I'm tempted to say that the election next year will be a very interesting one.

I'm not a Lib Dem by any stretch of the imagination, but it seems blatantly obvious to me that replacing Kennedy with Campbell was a bad move - how exactly is an old man (compared to Blair and Cameron) going to appeal to young voters who are more likely to consider the alternative than their older peers?

I just can't help but think that the Lib Dems started to believe the hype surrounding them after their performance in 2005 and have shot themselves in the foot as a result.

What really amazed me was someone like Jo Swinson, only 26 years old, new to parliament and elected entirely thanks to the leadership of Charles Kennedy, felt that she was in a position to demand that her leader should resign from his position and said that she would not work with him if he remained as leader. Likewise Sarah Teather who won the Brent East by-election on the back of Kennedy's leadership. The arrogance is breathtaking.

The problem in the Lib Dems at present is that there are two competing schools of thought on the right and left of the party pulling in opposite directions. It will be interesting to see which one prevails over the next 3-4 years.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by tv tanned

The problem in the Lib Dems at present is that there are two competing schools of thought on the right and left of the party pulling in opposite directions. It will be interesting to see which one prevails over the next 3-4 years.

It was hard enough to tell where the Lib Dems stood under Kennedy. It seems that the right of the party is in the ascendant now, just at the time when the Tories have finally started to move into the middle ground. For all Campbell's talk of remaining independent and refusing to discuss arrangements for a hung parliament, the prevailing mood would suggest that they would enter a coalition with the Conservatives in order to keep Gordon Brown out of office.

The left of the party are nowhere. Those who railed against the war and argued for a 50% top rate of tax are going to find little in common with the new administration. Most of them will drift back to Labour or the SNP. The only candidate who really stood for that side of the party in this contest was Simon Hughes, and he's been utterly humiliated.