LibDem leadership election

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The die is cast

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Interesting that Oaten in't running; now is this to back up Kennedy (I'd say that's unlikely) or to back up some other Rightwinger? Like Ming the Merciless?

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Ming the Merciless has also announced that he won't run

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I wonder if this is going to be a 'put up or shut up' leadership election aka Major 1995 with only one token candidate up against Kennedy.

Perhaps... but... the thing is neither Oaten or Campbell signed the letter that (basically) called for Kennedy to resign. Neither did Slippery Hughes. Perhaps the media have been looking for plotters in the wrong places?
LibDem rules mean that a candidate has to be backed by 10% of M.P's before they can get into the election, btw.

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Hughes has said he hasn't made his mind up yet

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Ben, do you have a list of the people who signed the letter? Or who are rumoured to have signed it?

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Interestingly some are now demanding that Kennedy faces a vote of no-confidence next week (ie; before a leadership election)... including the leader of the LibDems in the European Parliament, Chris "Legalise Crack" Davies.

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Apparently Nick Harvey (Devon North) is going to table a motion of no-confidence on wednesday.

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Cable is going to hand Kennedy the letter wi'thenames on it. He's been making some not-so-very-veiled threats as well (the position of frontbenchers like him "would have to be thought through...depending on what happens over the next few days").

Apparently these are the names on the letter:

Vince Cable, David Laws, Chris Huhne, Sarah Teather, Sandra Gidley, Andrew George, Ed Davey, Norman Baker, John Thurso, Norman Lamb and Michael Moore

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Yeah, but there's absolutely no provision in the party rules for such a motion, which makes that entire option problematic at best, unless it is Kennedy himself that calls the vote.

How crazy are the LibDem leadership rules, exactly?

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George has threatend to resign on monday unless Kennedy quits before then.

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Norman Lamb has just said the same as George

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namely the Social Democratic Party (who still exist in the south of Wales)

Don't they still have a couple of councillers somewhere down there? I know they do in Bridlington (ER, Yorks).

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20 is now 25; 19 of the 25 are on the frontbench. By the sound of it the names might become public (though we can guess a lot already methinks...)

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They also hold this ward (which has two councillers) on East Riding UA:



This is their ward on Neath Port Talbot CBC:



And this is their ward in Richmondshire DC:

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Okay, I'm getting some idea of the signatories now:

Norman Baker, Tom Brake, Ed Davey, Andrew George, Sandra Gidley, Jeremy Browne, Lynne Featherstone, Jo Swinson, Evan Harris, Nick Harvey, Adrian Sanders, Sarah Teather, Jenny Willott, Vince Cable, David Laws, Chris Huhne, John Thurso, Norman Lamb and Michael Moore.

Thats 19. So I'm missing 6.

Interesting list; some suprising names there actually. And you misspelled Featherbrain

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The full list hath been published... +=reps. a London constituency, *=reps. a SW constituency...

Edward Davey+
Sarah Teather +
Norman Baker
Tom Brake+
Andrew George*
Sandra Gidley
Norman Lamb
David Laws*
Jeremy Browne*
Alistair Carmichael
Nick Clegg
Tim Farron
Lynne Featherstone+
Julia Goldsworthy*
Chris Huhne
Evan Harris
John Pugh
Jo Swinson
Stephen Williams*
Nick Harvey*
Martin Horwood*
Dan Rogerson*
Adrian Sanders*
Matthew Taylor*
Jenny Willott

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This is one of the great misnomers of this entire debate. He's not the most successful leader by any quantitative or qualitative standard.

In 1999 when he took over as Lib Dem leader, they had 46 MPs. At the 01 election they gained a further 6 and in 05 they gained a further 10, making a total of 16 MPs gaind in 6 years.

Now compare that to Paddy Ashdown: He took over in 1988 with 19 MPs. By the time he left in 1999 the party had 46 MPs, making for a gain of 27 MPs in 11 years. Ashdown also presided over their single most successful election in memory: In 1997 they gained 26 MPs in one election.

In terms of share of the vote Kennedy gained 22% in 2005, but that doesn't beat the Alliance's 25.4% in 1983 under Steel and Jenkins.

By any measurable standard, he has not been all that successful.

True; the claim is based largely on the total number of seats won. Which forgets that there are currently quite a lot more M.P's in the Commons than there used to be. And the fact that in the past not all seats had candidates from all parties; in 1929 the Liberals won the same % of seats as the LibDems did in 2005... but the % of Liberal candidates that got elected was much higher.
O/c if you add together the official Liberals and the National Liberals in 1931 (and in that year that was sod all difference between the two; both were part of the National Government) the number of Liberals elected was higher in raw terms than 2005 and in % terms as well. Only four Liberals (all close to Lloyd George) had nothing to do with the National Government (to their eternal credit), so they've not been included.
Interestingly in % of vote terms, the LibDems were only a few % higher than Jeremy Thorpe in 1974F; and in that election the Liberals didn't run candidates in 118 seats.

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True. Pretty much the only major thing about the last election that actually *suprised* me, was the failure of the LibDems to get out of the 60's.

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True (although they actually won Hornsey; I think you mean Islington South & Finsbury) and in one of those they didn't even manage to turn into a technical marginal (NUT Central).

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Which is why all this current mess has started up. That and the bad local results recently.

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True

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He's confirmed that he's resigned. Now what?

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O.K... possible candidates...

Campbell, Hughes, Oaten, Laws, Opik, Cable... Clegg? Davey? And Pete bet 5 [non-existent] quid on Carmichael so we'll hold him to that...

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Cambell has confirmed that he'll be standing

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File this under "funny"... John Hemming (yes, that one) is likely to stand!

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Oh, I do. Regulary. One of the funniest sites on the net

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Great news!

He's running!

O/c he probably doesn't have a hope in hell of getting enough M.P's to support him to get him onto the ballot but still

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Oaten's in. Amusingly (given his general views) he's probably going to wind up being the candidate of choice for LibDems who see what happend to Kennedy as an ideological coup by the Right and who aren't pinko-hacktivist types.