Permanant Link For Entry #286

Charles Kennedy dies, tributes are revived

Charles Kennedy, former Liberal Democrat leader, dies aged 55. Read the BBC news story
here.

This news came as an unwelcome surprise this morning. I'm no Lib-Dem fanboy and I did not follow the man's career particularly. But he seemed to me to be one of the decent politicians and 55 is too young to go. When he was the Lib-Dem leader Charles Kennedy made a mark and he was an entertaining TV personality.

I noticed how the tributes were pouring in, out of every crevice, on the news this morning. The newsmen referred, of course, to his problem with booze, which was one of his "demons".

But I noted that the tone was much more forgiving than it was back in 2006, when Kennedy was effectively ousted from leadership, not by the party en masse but by his colleagues; and quite brutally. I wrote about it at the time:-

My article: not so liberal and certainly not democratic
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