On a Ming and a prayer

Well it's over and once again in British politics mediocrity wins out. No-one has, or can, complain that Ming The Homeliness can be considered a bad choice. It's just not a good one. Campbell is a senior statesman and a great man, he's done a lot of great things throughout his life and is a fantastic politician. He's just not the man to grab British politics by the scruff of its neck and drag it away from the centre. Even someone who would take the Liberal Democrats towards the Right then at least it would force Labour back to the Left a little. Instead Ming is going to head quick sharp for the centre and nothing is going to change. Maybe they'll pick up a few seats and hold the balance in a hung parliament at the next election. Woo. Great, so we get even more compromise and fudging and status quo.

I'm not sure that Chris Huhne or Simon Hughes has what it takes to lead the party to victory or at least the opposition benches but I know for sure that either one of them would have constructed a policy agenda that would have challenged the Centrist apathy of the other two. Cameron is Blair mark 2 and Blair is Thatcher with less testosterone. The world is crying out for a compassionate, decisive and socially responsible leader willing to make hard unpopular and much considered decisions. Not someone who governs by focus group and reading The Sun. The Lib Dems were the only party to call Tony on the Iraq destruction, to bang the drum for strict environmental reform and to talk seriously about introducing PR. This was Charlie's doing, I can't imagine Ming causing such a fuss.

So it's back to sqaure one and I must admit I'm not feeling good about the near future for British politics.

There's not much up yet but the Gruaniad already has some comment up - http://politics.guardian.co.uk/libdems/comment/0,,1722004,00.html - read it and, well, weep.