Kennedy can’t go on

The bloggers are all coming to the same point of view. We supported Kennedy in the recent past, even after the attacks began. But now we get it. He can’t continue.

Richard Allan, Will Howells, the people at Apollo, Jonathan Calder are amongst the many.

Although it pains me to say it, we’re starting to understand why it had to happen this way and not through the constitutional processes the party has. Why did no-one challenge Charles when he stood for re-election in June?Because he’d have won hands-down in any all-member ballot. It would have been a waste of money posting out the papers. Now we know that for a long time, our MPs have been keeping mum about legitimate concerns about Charles. How could they have let the rest of us know — the ones of us who get to vote for leaders of the party — without making the waves that have been made in the last few weeks? We all knew the innuendo about the drink problem. Did any of us think it was actually serious?

But any ambitious MPs have been paying a dangerous game. If Charles resigns under these circumstances, anyone who has been overtly attacking him will not fare well.

This leaves us agog. Who will stand in the election? Some people are postulating a care-taker Menzies leadership for a decent period. I don’t think that will clear the air. We need people to set out their stalls. A proper election will get a few more faces more widely known.

But we can’t be too hopeful. We can’t expect any contest of ours to give us as much bounce as the Tory campaign. But I don’t see why a swift leadership election should necessarily hurt our chances in the May council elections this year.

Kennedy can't go on

The bloggers are all coming to the same point of view. We supported Kennedy in the recent past, even after the attacks began. But now we get it. He can’t continue.

Richard Allan, Will Howells, the people at Apollo, Jonathan Calder are amongst the many.

Although it pains me to say it, we’re starting to understand why it had to happen this way and not through the constitutional processes the party has. Why did no-one challenge Charles when he stood for re-election in June?Because he’d have won hands-down in any all-member ballot. It would have been a waste of money posting out the papers. Now we know that for a long time, our MPs have been keeping mum about legitimate concerns about Charles. How could they have let the rest of us know — the ones of us who get to vote for leaders of the party — without making the waves that have been made in the last few weeks? We all knew the innuendo about the drink problem. Did any of us think it was actually serious?

But any ambitious MPs have been paying a dangerous game. If Charles resigns under these circumstances, anyone who has been overtly attacking him will not fare well.

This leaves us agog. Who will stand in the election? Some people are postulating a care-taker Menzies leadership for a decent period. I don’t think that will clear the air. We need people to set out their stalls. A proper election will get a few more faces more widely known.

But we can’t be too hopeful. We can’t expect any contest of ours to give us as much bounce as the Tory campaign. But I don’t see why a swift leadership election should necessarily hurt our chances in the May council elections this year.

Who are you (doo-doo, doo doo)

Advanced Global Personality Test Results

Extraversion |||||||||||| 46%
Stability |||||||||||||||| 70%
Orderliness |||| 13%
Accommodation |||| 16%
Interdependence |||||||||||||||||||| 83%
Intellectual |||||||||||||||| 70%
Mystical || 10%
Artistic |||||| 30%
Religious || 10%
Hedonism |||||||||||||||||| 76%
Materialism |||||||||| 36%
Narcissism |||||||||||| 43%
Adventurousness |||||||||||||||| 63%
Work ethic |||||| 30%
Self absorbed |||||||||| 36%
Conflict seeking |||||||||||| 50%
Need to dominate |||||||||||||||| 70%
Romantic |||||| 23%
Avoidant |||||||||||||| 56%
Anti-authority |||||||||||| 50%
Wealth |||||||||||||||| 70%
Dependency |||||||||||||||| 70%
Change averse |||||||||||||||||||| 83%
Cautiousness |||||||||| 36%
Individuality |||||| 30%
Sexuality |||||||||||||||||||| 83%
Peter pan complex |||||||||||||||||||| 83%
Physical security |||||||||||||||||||| 90%
Physical Fitness || 10%
Histrionic |||||||||||||| 56%
Paranoia |||||||||||||||| 70%
Vanity |||||||||||| 43%
Hypersensitivity |||||||||||||| 56%
Female cliche |||| 16%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Ramm must go

I didn’t realise that Ian Ridley was blogging. But he is, has been for a long time, and his most recent post is a piece about the editor of The Liberal. This is the magazine calling loudly for Kennedy to resign, and the magazine that many of us in the Lib Dems hadn’t even heard of until The Guardian and the rest of the Fleet Street pack started to call it our in-house journal. (It’s not, we have Lib Dem Pravda for that, and Liberator if you want something a bit more insightful and less party-line.

Anyway, upstart “The Liberal” has a petition for Kennedy to go, which is dodgy at best for the reasons Ian explains. Hence the need for www.RammMustGo.org.uk.

Fully moved in

In spite of all the problems…

in spite of the prospect of indentured servitude for the rest of my life…

in debt beyond my wildest dreams…

I love the house.

The Money Pit

We’ve moved in. We’ve moved every box from the old house to the new one and now we’re drowning in the tat of ages. This house is much, much smaller than the previous one–we know that now that we’ve shifted the tat out of the previous one and can see the walls again.

Stopped Clock




Stopped Clock

Originally uploaded by nilexuk.

A stopped clock is right twice a day. The upper block is radio controlled and very accurate (the second hand moves in sync with the pips on’t radio). The lower clock hasn’t worked since Feb and we’ve never quite got around to getting it fixed.

The brick




The brick

Originally uploaded by nilexuk.

This is the brick that was thrown through our kitchen window on Xmas eve. Police scene of crime have told us to leave the kitchen as is, bar the boarding up of the window, until they can investigate. This means we can’t take crockery, utensils or food from old kitchen to new, and means we’ll be sitting down to beans on toast later on. With cheese if possible.

I haven’t been a big one for Xmas festivities since I was a teenager. I find gift giving and even gift receiving a bit of a fag. I find it really desperately disturbing that a large part of the wheels of the economy depend on the results of the Xmas sales reason. The financial well-being of the nation depends on people buying mountains of unwanted, unneeded tat for each other.

But it doesn’t seem to be possible to opt out without being accused of hum-buggery or skinflintedness.

So I’m not at all bothered by enforced lack of turkey (we’ll be doing that with my parents on Boxing Day). I’m not at all bothered by spending Christmas Day hefting boxes and tidying the old house.

P prefers the kitsch and clamour and isn’t having so much fun: he says this is his second worse Christmas ever, second only to a day in his childhood when he was taken suddenly ill.

Congrats to Stephen

Stephen, who readers may know from his appearances on University Challenge, but who I know from umra, appears well on the way to getting his book published.

I mention this because in the comments section on the post, an American reader asks whether us Brits wish each other a Happy Boxing Day.

I quite like the idea, and will be taking it up.

Happy Boxing Day to both my readers!

Meanwhile, the house move continues apace. We’ve been sleeping uneventfully in our new house but approximately 40% of our possessions are still in the old one. The festive season means that our evenings have been as much social whirl as box-hefting. In particular, most of the kitchen is still in the old house. Hell, most of the kitchen isn’t even washed up. So what are we going to do for food tomorrow? We can’t live off nibbles from Lidl, much as I’d like to. I’m certainly not using the new oven for the first time to cook a full turkey dinner!