Nick Clegg - A Wet Lettuce

The Lib Dems sure know how to pick a winner (not). Just watched Newswnight and my God Clegg is an out and out wally. Did they really ditch Ming and Charlie Kennedy for this dweeb who would seriously have difficulty winning a by-election where I live? The man is a car crash. He comes across as David Cameron's twin brother - minus the intellect. Electorally, he has to be a disaster.If I were a Charlie Kennedy kind of person , I would be crying into my single malt.Whatever cred the Lib Dems had as some kind of radical alternative to New Labour must be shot down in flames. Back to a two-party serious political arena........

LIB DEMS OPT FOR SHOO_IN

Well, that's that then. Not as bad as a "coronation" but it looks as though any interesting ie not boring centre-ground candidates have already ruled themselves out of the leadership race. Kennedy isn't running, Webb isn't running, Hughes isn't running. So it's a toss-up between one boring white middle-class male and another. Roughly the same to look at, roughly the same politics. Two cheeks, as George Galloway might put it , of the same a***. What happened to interesting politics? FYI Pinky and perky, the two puppet pigs on the left were very popular in my childhood. They were utterly indistinguishable........and very very tedious.

WILL KENNEDY RUN?

One of the many problems the Liberal Democrats now face is that there is no recognisable "face" at the top. Let alone anyone who can drag them back from their miserable 14 per cent in the polls.I reckon the only man who can save them is Charlie Kennedy. OK, he has had a drink problem. But so did until very recently Labour Ministers like John Reid and they sorted it out....Kennedy led the Party to a 30 per cent position in the polls and is still popular with the grassroots. He's also personable and human in a way which wonks like Clegg and Huhne just aren't. At the moment, he is said to be taking soundings and my guess is that he will have a go.

WILL HE BE MERCILESS TO MING?

As the Lib Dems gather in Brighton, the rumour mill is working overtime on the prospect of Menzies Campbell hanging on to the leadership. The less likley a snap election, the more it seems that he's in trouble. At 66, Ming is hardly in the first flush of youth. But that is hardly a reason to get rid of him. A better one is that since Charlie Kennedy was forced to pack it in the Libs have plummeted in the polls.
The latest opinion poll for the Independent shows them marooned on 15 points, down seven points since April. Labour continues to flourish on 37 per cent and the Tories are on 34. However, the gloomy findings echo a Sunday Times poll which said 63 per cent of Lib-Dem supporters believed the party would do better with a younger leader. The bad news forMing is there is now talk of David Owen re-joining Labour and his gang Of Four colleague Lord (Bill) Rodgers says he is " disappointed with Sir Menzies's leadership." Just a thought, but I suppose if Rodgers, Owen and Shirley Williams all jump ship and head back to Labour, then Ming is surely doomed....

LIB DEMS AND LABOUR IN A PADDY

So now we know. Paddy Ashdown was offered a job in Gordon Brown's Cabinet. Northern Ireland Secretary, to be precise. How that must have cheered the cockles of the heart of another erstwhile Liberal, Peter Hain . And what a nice slap in the face to all the talented people in his own Party.Word now is that Brown is to appoint non-Labour people to Cabinet jobs via the House of Lords in a bid to appeal to the centre ground and Middle England. Once that pesky Sunday's Deputy leadership is wound up , there will be no more talk of "lurching to the left." Brown's coup against his own supporters has left many on his own side pretty aghast. Personally, I just can't understand how a man this clever can start his premiership by already geting it so utterly wrong. Both left and right in the Labour Party share a tribal contempt for their Liberal opponents. To publicly court them, as Brown has done, is a recipe for disaster.And a gross insult to his own Party.