So the honourable Ming has bowed to the inevitable and fallen on his sword. No real surprise there - the spotlight shifted onto him as soon as the election was called off. There's no doubt the Lib Dems have been out of the picture recently as Brown and Cameron slug it out under the media glare, and it mus be frustrating for those Liberal young turks who live by the oxygen of media publicity. The question is: given the current political situation, would it have made any difference if any of the plotters had been in charge? I think not.
Who's to blame for Ming's departure? The 'loyal' party members blame the media for stirring it all up. They would, of course, wouldn't they? If the media is to be blamed for anything it was the frenzied speculation over an imminent election, stoked up by those shadowy advisers close to Gordon Brown whose very lives are all about scheming, manipulating and briefing. Really, who wanted an election? Not the public, particularly in Scotland where there is simply no appetite for another trip to the polling stations; Gordon Brown didn't need one, David Cameron didn't really want one and the Lib Dems probably couldn't afford one! No, the real beneficiaries of an autumn election would have been the media. With party conference season over and little of substance on the horizon to fill the political pages, it was the media who badly wanted an election. They didn't get one, but with Campbell's decision to quit and the subsequent leadership election they've got their story now - thanks to over-excited Lib Dem MPs.
Yes, the real assassins here are those Lib Dem schemers who have so little else to do - they are almost an irrelevance in Westminster and they are now bit-part players at Holyrood too - that they have spent months scheming and plotting the downfall of their own leader in the hope of generating some publicity. It's a dirty business - and we can now all look forward to a leadership election where all of the candidates will no doubt praise the great work done by Menzies Campbell and Charles Kennedy before him! I bet you can hardly wait - the phrase 'bald men fighting over a comb' was never more apt!
Sir Ming came across as a decent and an honourable man but not one who is cut out for the often brutal, cut throat world of front-line politics - he seems a man who would be more at home in one of those many leathery old gentleman's clubs which abound around Westminster, discussing issues of national import over a brandy and cigars. He never looked comfortable carrying out the photo opportunity and sound bite sessions so necessary for today's media-savvy politicians, and I'm personally quite pleased that we won't have to witness the undignified spectable of Ming in a baseball cap, or Ming skateboarding to the Commons while listening to the latest sounds on his Ipod! He's not that old, but he gives the impression of being an old-fashioned politician of a bygone age. He's now paid the price for that - something he could really do nothing about.
Incidentally I couldn't help but chuckle at remarks made by former Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer at the weekend. The noble Lord - known as Billy Bunter to not a few Labour back benchers - urged Gordon Brown to show 'vision for the country'. Falconer's greatest claim to fame is that he shared a flat with Tony Blair when they were both aspiring young lawyers. Strangely enough Charlie fairly shot up the establishment ladder, yet 'visionary' is not an adjective one would use to describe our dear old Charlie. Gordon Brown is not perfect - he's been a fair exponent of the old 'black arts' himself in the past - but I think he's something of a rarity these days: a conviction politician and a man who still believes in the ethos of public service. The day he starts taking advice from the likes of arch-Blairite Bunter - or come to that those advisers for whom politics is a career option and who have no experience or knowledge of life outside that of their wee Westminster bubble - will be a dark day indeed.
Gordon Brown has learned some hard lessons from the events of the past few weeks. I hope one of them is to be his own man.
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