Oct 15 2007
Bring on a Lib Dem leadership battle
As a Conservative I look forward to another Lib Dem leadership battle. It is wonderful entertainment to watch so many trying for such a "job", and to see and hear the skeletons falling out of the cupboards as each contestant is put through the mud wrestling challenge that is the Lib Dem leadership contest.
I am not going to waste my time sending good quality political advice to Menzies and his challengers. Conservatives who face Lib Dems challengers get used to them always claimong in their first election leaflet they are going to win. I will just sit back and enjoy the infighting.
If they do give us the joy of a contest I am told there are two front runners - and goodness knows how many backmarkers who want their moment of fame.
If we were lucky enough to get Nick Clegg, he I am told wants to make them more like the Conservatives. That would be a good way to persuade some more Lib Dem voters that they would be better off voting for the real thing. I am always delighted when my opponents think we have the best tunes. Nick would also alientate a lot of Lib Dem activitists, who would not agree on a move towards the Conservative view.
If we got Chris Huhne we would have against us that toxic combination of more whacky ideas to tax us more in the name of greenery coupled with a big dose of Euro federalism.
With him as leader we would have a better chance of reminding people that the quickest way to a federal superstate is to back the Lib Dems, who go along with every federalist power grab.
Menzies had better watch out. His Deputy was far from loyal today on the radio, telling us people are discussing his leadership. He underminded Menzies with sweet reasonableness, talking as if he were a political commentator looking on from afar. With friends like that I just hope poor old Menzies doesn’t have too many enemies in his party. Maybe Vince thinks he has the charisma some fear his Leader lacks.
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
A Tory gloats at the thought of a Lib-Dem leadership battle!
Hague, IDS, Howard and (almost - but saved at the last moment by the realization that Brown is useless) Cameron. Stones and conservatories anyone?
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Last time I was quite impressed with Chris Huhne who, as a Euro-MP was said to have spent his time putting sunset clauses into Euro legislation which seemed to me the most useful thing he could do. I usually also assume competence in people who make themselves into millionaires.
However as environmental spokesman he has stood for all the lunacies which have made the LudDims what they are today. Anybody who says that we can rely for 100% of our electricity on intermittent windmills, batteries (batteries are a storage medium & not a very efficient one, rather than a source) & “sources which haven’t been discovered yet” is unfit to have a role in government.
I could say the same for Zac Goldsmith except that he has never had to display competence.
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“I am not going to waste my time sending good quality political advice to Menzies and his challengers.”
Go on. They need something to cheer them up.
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I found your ” Nick Clegg” theory interesting. I know some in the Party are nervous about any attempt to copy Cameron but I can hear the reporters now, saying one has copied our policies and the other our man. The Murdoch press need someone who has a real chance before they will even bother to look.
If he loses, do you think he will try to jump ship or do you think he really does believe in an open door Britain?
Reply: I doubt if he really believes in it. He might jump ship if the new Captain of HMS Lib Dem takes it further onto the rocks.
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