Wednesday, May 16, 2007

LibDem Voters Desert Ming

Cartoon by Paul Doyle. Click to enlarge


54% of LibDem voters want to see Ming Campbell replaced according to a Populus Poll in today's Times. See HERE for more. The Times also thinks he ought to go in its Leader Column. It concludes...



Sir Menzies has to project strength quickly. If he has fresh ideas, he
cannot afford to wait for months before revealing them. If he intends to take on
his activists over policy, he must signal that immediately. He also has to
commit himself wholeheartedly to improving his presentation skills. Mr Brown has
shown in the past few days that a mediocre performance can work a little magic
on stage. Above all else, Sir Menzies has to ask himself whether he has the
necessary fire in his belly for the task in front of him. If not, then it is but
a matter of time before his leadership is extinguished.

22 comments:

Man in a Shed said...

How can we help keep him in office ?

He's great - the Lib Dems are still Winning here and there (after all would their posters lie ?).

All is bright - don't worry Mingers !

Anonymous said...

What I love about this story is that one just knows it is going to develop into a tragedy, then a farce. Ming will raise his game, not by a lot, but by just enough to squeeze over the hurdle of being 'adequate'. Things will trundle on for a while before he starts slipping back into mediocrity. Then the whispers will start again. There will be a short period of minor improvement. Then a few back benchers will start worrying about their majorities and be soothed by the siren voices of contenders for the leadership.

There will be some sort of mini-coup showdown, but no one will have the balls to wield the knife.
Ming will have been scared into the bucking up of his ideas for a few months. And he will have made it over the line to the period within 12 months of a potential general election, during which it would be electoral suicide to change the man at the top.

And then complacency and drift will set in, with the Lib Dems powerless to do anything but watch the slow car crash which will inevitably occur at the polls, and they will not be able to do a thing about it.

Newmania said...

Never mind the yellow zombie what on earth is Cameron up to letting Broon smile his way out of ten years of culpability for the Labour nightmare.
Has Cameron got the stomach for a fight , so far all he has had to do is not frighten the horses but now we need him grappling in the with Brown. It has all gone quiet over there , what the matter with them ?

I begin to think they are scared of Brown and the BBC want him to win ( Marr`s interview was a joke).
Stop accoerding this prat respect he does not deserve he is nothing but a time serving little numbers man.

God how I would love five minutes on air with him.

Newmania said...

....although it is of course tremendous watching the Libs implode.One of the things I especially detest about this Lib Dum Franchise( not Party) is that the fact they are left leaning may encourage Brown to go for PR if he gets a chance especially if the Mac Client state floats free .
A horrifying prospect

Unknown said...

IDS wasn't bright/public-spirited enough to go of his own volition.

What track-record is there for politicians who aren't on the pace to admit it and go?

Grandpa Ming is likely to soldier uninspiringly on.

Anonymous said...

That cartoon looks like Rupert Murdoch. Are he and Ming related? I think we should be told.

The Huntsman said...

If Brown hangs on until 2010 because the polls are not good for him, Old Carpet Slipper Man will by then be 69 and still quite useless. Then hopefully we will once again be able to get all LidDem MPs into a Citroen 2 CV where they belong.

"Dave" need do nothing at all but sit back and enjoy the fun.

Anonymous said...

Loved the way the Lib Dems have been prevented from cohabiting with that other lefty party the S/Nats - presumably so that in the event of a hung parliament they will step in AGAIN to save Labour and Ming will be Foreign Sec - well better that Beckett! Oh and I DO SO HOPE your little chipmunk gets to be Labour Deputy Leader - such fun to be had there!

Anonymous said...

SHIT ! The Tories have defected to Ming the Merciless !

They are all wearing yellow ribbons !

Why has George Osborne joined the Lib Dem army ?

Anonymous said...

Prezza is on form !!!

Andrew said...

Why does your cartoon depict Martin McGuinness though? And isn't it the wrong way round? As I recall it, he's supposed to be metamorphosising from a blood-spattered monster into a respectable elder statesman, at least as far as the media are concerned, isn't he?

Anonymous said...

I'm increasingly worried that Brown will make mincemeat of Cameron.

When THE FUCK is Cameron going to make a stand on something and show some grit?

Anonymous said...

The LibbyDems are right behind the Minger! PS: he's standing on a cliff edge! I think we tories should start a 'Save the Minger' campaign, after all we'd be helping the elderly- and we'll be saving the LDems from choosing ANOTHER hopeless leader!

Anonymous said...

Don't worry, Ming: "The future's bright. The future's orange."

(Or was that Kilroy-Silk's line? I forget.)

Phil Whittington said...

The silence on a certain announcement on grammar schools is DEAFENING...

Anonymous said...

Well its not on Conservative Home!

Question is whether it is another own-goal for the Cameron Camp or a clever ruse to fool the Labour Party, the Labour loving media and the public in general.

Certainly its a good way to disguise the fact that DC is AWOL again playing teaching assistants in John Prescott country.

YHN said...

"The silence on a certain announcement on grammar schools is DEAFENING...

Oh but selection by ability is so old fashioned. Equality of outcome is the modern way so everyone get a chance to be excellent.

Great. When do I get my chance to play up front for England?

Anti-grammar suits the socialists and the toffs and by proposing streaming they just create a special class of schoolkid known in the playground as the "let's kick the shit out of the egghead who thinks he's better than us".

Anonymous said...

Listening to the radio phone in's I would not be surprised if the Lib Dems announce their support for Grammar Schools. What a policy disaster for the Tories!

The problem with Cameron is that he has surrounded himself with people from another planet. That Fop from Dorset and Willetts the man with two brains. They must all be scientologists! NOW is THAT the story??????????

Anonymous said...

On Willetts and the grammar-school story, I sat next to <name-drop> David Davis and opposite David Willetts</name-drop> at a recent lunch, and although Chatham-House rules prevent me from discussing the contents of the conversations, I don't think I am breaking confidence by saying that, contrary to the Two-Brains reputation, it seemed to me that DD was vastly more intelligent than DW. I suspect people think DW is clever because what he says is so fluently unintelligible that there must be method in his madness, which we're just not smart enough to understand. Actually, he's just talking bollocks most of the time. Same as Letwin. They both think that the test of a good idea is whether it sounds elegant, regardless of whether it holds water in practice.

On Ming, I really hope it goes this way (i.e. they get rid of Ming). Nothing against Ming, I think he is one of their more decent MPs. But, unless something dramatic happens, the LibDems are likely to lose seats at the next election regardless of leader, and I'd rather that twat Clegg (who'd almost certainly get the job after Ming) got the blame than that Ming did. With real luck, we'd have Chat-Show Charlie back following a Clegg election failure. But that's why I don't think they'll ditch Ming - people like Clegg and Huhne are too sharp to want to take the blame for the next election, and would rather let Ming take the fall, and then take the credit for rebuilding.

Anonymous said...

So Camoron thinks that selecting a school on the basis of where you live rather than being able to pass an entrance exam is somehow more meritocratic or just. Perhaps the misspent youth is catching up with him. Can't wait to see him replaced. Nothing like destoying aspriations and keeping the plebs down.

Anonymous said...

When did Willetts become a UKIP recruiting sergeant?

What a daft policy shift.

Anonymous said...

"LibDem Voters Desert Ming"

How about another rather more important matter, Iain:

"Cameron Abandons Bright Children"?