This article in todays Indepenedent on Sunday left me gasping at the pure arrogance
Hopefully this is just journalistic rubbish - I hope so but I fear not.
To be selecting your office furniture before the result has been declared let alone before the ballot has closed smacks of arrogance. I also did not like the suggestion that all those who were going to get jobs (in the event of a Campbell victory) would come from amongst Mings backers. Lets face it we are still a relatively small parliamentary party and we cannot afford to waste any of the talents we have at our disposal. I would hate to see the likes of Huhne and Hughes cast out into the wilderness should Campbell win. Similarly I would not expect Hughes or Huhne to lose the talents which Campbell has to offer to the party.
Perhaps someone with "Gravitas" from the Ming Campbell campaign would care to comment on this story
Tag Lib Dems
6 comments:
I don't have any "gravitas", but after reading that article twice, I couldn't interpret it as Ming would not include Chris in his frontbench team. Yes, it said, that "a reshuffle after the spring conference would promote MPs who took an active role, such as Ed Davey, Vince Cable and Nick Clegg", but that doesn't mean, that there wouldn't be place for Chris and his supporters, as well.
As for Simon, he is the party president, which is a prominent role, and there's no way that Ming could take that away from him.
I agree that it didn't directly say that. I was more concerned by the potential for a statement by omission. A better statement (in my eyes) would have stated the need for including all talents
Tony,
I've no gravitas, but as far as I know it's complete bollocks. There are discussions about how the leaders' staff (not the shadow cabinet) should be organised - but these are structural discussions, not furniture discussions - and I'd hope there were similar discussions in all the campaign teams - whoever wins needs to hit the ground running. When I last spoke to Archy on the topic (and admittedly this was some time ago), he was absolutely clear that Ming wanted ALL (as in ALL) the MPs engaged and involved in the process of building the shadow cabinet.
Check out The Observer - if anything it suggests that people on the Ming team who get too tribal will be the ones with something to worry about:
Speaking to The Observer, Campbell was at pains to emphasise his determination to unify the party if he emerges as leader when the result is announced this Thursday. Asked about resentment of Huhne's decision among some young Lib Dem MPs backing Campbell, he said there could be 'no room for resentment. People who feel inclined will be able to expiate their resentment on the backbenches.'
Martin
Brilliant - hope you are right. Some of us remember what happened last time
I'd be worried if any of the candidates had failed to give their shadow cabinet any thought at all.
Having said that, I don't envy Ming if he wins - at least, not over the question of who gets which job. A lot of sharp elbows behind him, and a lot of talent in the Huhne and Hughes camps.
But I have to say, as an ex-Indy freelance, that my old paper hasn't exactly surpassed itself in that piece. I mean, think about it - if you wanted to promote Vince, what job could you give him that's a step up from the one he already has? Sloppy writing...
I agree that they should all give some thought about how best to hit the ground running. I am worried about how this story cam out or was allowed to leak out. The bit about choosing the furniture could be protrayed as confidence but I have to say that to me it appeared as arrogance. My main worry was that if you were going to allow such a story to circulate and you genuinely believed that there were good and valuable people in the other camps then you might want to be more explicit in stating that people in those camps would form part of your new shadow cabinet
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