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Ming promises to reform the Lib Dems

So the Liberal Democrat’s have crowned their new champion, and rather than take a gamble on the promising Chris Huhne, or expressing uncharacteristic recklessness in anointing the sexually-perplexed Simon Hughes, they have plumped for the established Sir Menzies Campbell.

Firstly let’s wish Ming good luck. The Lib Dem’s are extremely important to British politics and with Labour’s lead being scoffed by a resurgent Tories, the chances of a hung parliament are very real. In four years Campbell may find himself playing powerbroker.

While I type this post, the Question Time panel are discussing his victory, and the consensus seems to be that Ming is a likable, but sadly not inspirational character. The delightful, and supremely talented (future leader?), Sarah Teather MP, bravely fought the yellow corner superbly against her snipping fellow panel guests. The audience’s reaction to Ming’s win was lukewarm at best.

All this is not particularly positive for Ming, but not entirely surprising. Over the past few weeks Campbell has led the party rather unspectacularly, including a damp squib of an appearance on PMQ. With a proven public speaker in Blair, and a charismatic whippersnapper ad-man in Cameron, the measured Campbell appears rather lacklustre. This is unfair. Ming is an experienced statesman, who has shown he is morally robust, intellectually equipped, and politically capable. He should offer the British people, tired of New Labour and wary of Cameron’s political vagueness, a real alternative.

It’s no secret that I wanted to see someone from the party’s right win the leadership contest. After Mark Oaten’s tabloid disintegration, my choice migrated to the economist Huhne. I want a party that will elucidate the folly of Cameron’s economic promises, and exploit Brown’s fiscal blundering, and maybe Campbell’s Lib Dem’s, with an emboldened Huhne as economic spokesman, will deliver. I just feel that Ming’s Liberals will put wealth distribution above economic competitiveness, meaning that he will settle to the left of Labour. Not a good place to be.