What I wrote at Lib Dem Voice

January 07, 2006

An open e-mail to Charles Kennedy

I have just sent the following to Charles Kennedy, copied to our 61 other MPs:
Dear Charles,

Thank you for your recent statement, and for your invitation to Lib Dem members to make known our views.

You have been an incredibly successful leader of this Party, and I thank you for all you have done. You have consistently made the right calls on the big decisions that mattered. You have led the Lib Dems to our most successful position in 80 years. We are all in your debt.

However, it is now clear that a change must be made. For your own good, and that of the Party, I ask you to resign, and allow a leadership contest to take place to elect a new leader. I think that, only in this way, can we hope to move forward as a united force to serve the people who elected us.

Thank you again for all that you have done, and I hope your considerable talents will continue to be seen from the Lib Dem benches in the House of Commons.

With kind regards,

Cllr Stephen Tall
Oxford East constituency

3 comments:

Stephen Glenn said...

Sadly after the events of the last 24 hours Stephen I have come to agree with your sentiments here.

Anonymous said...

Thirded

- random lib dem member

Tristan said...

As a recent member of the party I must also agree.

It pains me to say this. Charles Kennedy's leadership has been a good time for the party, but I think his position is untenable now.
I would like him to take a back seat for a while, really combat his drink problem without the pressures of the party leadership and then come back to front-line politics in the Commons.

I don't think this should signal the end of his political career, I think he still has a lot to offer the party and the country, just not as the current leader of the party.