BBC NEWS | Politics | Embattled Kennedy quits as leader
So. We have done what we thought we would never do: assassinated our leader in a way more fitting for the Conservative party.
Have we gone completely mad? Don’t we recognise that squabbling in public has taken away much of the credibility that we have won with so much toil over so many years? And to do it just at the moment that the Tories are extricating themselves and beginning to look like a credible party?
Perhaps we are not all mad. Menzies Campbell and Mark Oaten were absolutely right in refusing to stand against him. And Simon Hughes navigated difficult waters with dignity in putting his role as party president first, and refusing to be drawn on his own aspirations.
And Charles himself has shown dignity in standing down quickly once the situation became untenable.
But if it had to happen, it did not have to happen this way. We have bickered in public. We have shown poor spirit, underhand tactics, disloyalty, and, worst of all, an appalling lack of political common sense.
It must never happen again.
Copyright 2006 martinturner.org.uk
