THE THOUGHTS OF CHAIRMAN CHARLES

Whatever Charles Kennedy meant to say when challenged by interviewers with Richard Grayson’s proposition that he was more a chairman than a leader, it came out sounding for all the world as though the leader did not think he was much of a leader.

Grayson, a former Kennedy confidant, may have meant to imply that Kennedy’s style had become excessively laid back. Kennedy’s response was possibly meant to suggest that he prided himself on a consensual style.

Either way, it came across badly in public and set enough hares running about a leadership challenge for Simon Hughes to make it known that he had assured Kennedy that he would not challenge him for the job.

Despite Kennedy’s lack of profile since the election and his odd self-assessment at September’s party conference in Blackpool, any challenge remains remote.

The reason is that only Hughes and Mark Oaten have any interest in an early leadership contest (with the possible exception of Lembit Öpik).

Other potential leaders need time to establish themselves, make themselves known and give the party something on which to judge them.

Apart from hard-core Oaten and Hughes supporters, everyone else has an interest in keeping Kennedy in place.

As we said in Liberator 301, it’s a case of “Always keep a hold of nurse, for fear of finding something worse”. But that cannot last indefinitely.

Also in Radical Bulletin 306:

• IT’S GOOD TO TALK
• WAGES OF SPIN
• POSTAL DISORDER
• “I’M AFRAID HE’S TIED UP”
• THE COLOUR OF MONEY
• SMOKING GUNS
• ON THE CHEAP
• STOP PRESS
• BROWNE FIG LEAF
• TRAVEL GUIDANCE
• A SENSE OF PROPORTION
• GOOD RIDDANCE
• DASH FOR VICTORY
• NEVER AGAIN