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Home , Menzies Campbell, Simon Hughes

Campbell as Leader

In October 2007, resigned as Leader of the Liberal Democrats after just nineteen months in the post. On page 45 we carry a review of his autobiography. In July of this year Journal Editor Duncan Brack interviewed him with a view to supplementing the story told in the book.

38 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 Campbell as Leader

Q: Your autobiography has relatively both socialists. So I suppose it school when he was fourteen; little to say about why you became was a series of factors: being his first job was as an office boy and remain a Liberal, apart from more politically aware, being in a tea import company. That being attracted by and attracted by Jo Grimond, seeing was thought by his parents not the Liberal position on Suez. Can what some thought might be a to be a very stable existence, you say more about why you joined Liberal renaissance, reading John so he went and he served his the party? Stuart Mill, and not wanting to apprenticeship as a joiner, and he MC: My parents were both do what might be expected of worked on one of the ships that Labour – neither of them were me – none of these was of itself was built on Clydeside as part of activists, I think their member- the compelling factor, but taken the effort to deal with the worst ships had probably lapsed by the together I joined the Liberals. of the recession. His brother was time I was a teenager, but they Political debating was the a great ladies’ man and used to did talk a lot about politics. And thing at university. There was go to the dance halls, but my the first thing I was conscious of a kind of progression: first-year father went to night school; was Suez in 1956; I remember students had to make their mark, and eventually he had his own thinking, because there were then you had to try and become business. As for my mother, her National Servicemen at Suez Treasurer of the political club, friends and contemporaries say and I was fifteen, that three years and then Secretary, and then you she could have played hockey for later and it could have been me. would lead it in your fourth year. : she was a very good That was a seminal moment for And so I got on to that treadmill sportswoman. So when I was British politics: this was the lion – although I was the only politi- growing up, there was a feeling pretending to roar but having cally active student who was on that they were doing their best no claws and sounding rather the running track as much as I for me; there was a sense of duty hoarse; and of course it brought was in the debating chamber, about making the most of it. the end of Anthony Eden. For and from time to time the two So that’s what I think a Liberal Britain it was the end of the were not entirely in sync. So, society should provide: it should immediate post-war era, some- that’s why … and I just felt natu- offer opportunity for those who thing of a watershed. And lo and rally sympathetic and at home; are lucky enough to have the tal- behold, bestriding all this was Jo I sometimes refer to it as gut ent, and it should offer support Grimond who, it seemed to me, Liberalism. for those who need it. And the was the person who spoke out Q: How would you describe that overall arching cement that binds most effectively and charismati- if someone asked you to sum it up in it all together should be freedom, cally. There was the Torrington a sentence? What are the values of individual liberty and human by-election, too; I remember gut Liberalism? rights – and internationalism. schoolboys shouting ‘remember MC: Individual freedom; per- Q: Although they’re not as wide Torrington!’ It did seem that sonal liberty; opportunity. This as journalists pretend, there are some under Jo, Liberalism was going is the way I put it in the book: ‘I differences between the so-called ‘eco- to have a renaissance. Then I count myself to have had a privi- Left: Menzies nomic liberals’ and ‘social liberals’ in went to university, and politics leged life in which opportunity Campbell during the Lib Dems. Where would you was the fashionable activity for has always played a significant his leader’s put yourself in the party now? students at the time. I used to part. I see my life as one of expe- speech at the MC: I tried to argue dur- say that my first serious act of rience and not of achievement.’ Liberal Democrat ing my leadership that this was rebellion was to join the Liberal Those two sentences have to conference an artificial distinction. I mean, autumn 2006 Party, because my parents were be read together. My father left there’s no intrinsic merit in

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 39 campbell as leader taxation, any more than there’s part of the suits. And I was a sup- So, there you stood for the leadership in 1999? intrinsic merit in nuclear weap- porter of ’s, of course, After all, although ons; it’s what the consequences who would have been regarded are: strong looked unbeatable at the start of the are that is important. Taxation as being on the right of the party on defence, campaign, ’s campaign is only justified to the extent in some respects. But remember, almost caught him, and might have that it’s necessary to provide the he was Chairman of the Anti- strong on overtaken him if it had started earlier. quality of public services, par- Apartheid Movement, Presi- MC: I’d been ver y closely asso- ticularly health and education, dent of Shelter, and author of the civil liberties, ciated with the so-called ‘Project’; that a civilised society should Abortion Act of 1967. So, I’m I was one of the small group of embrace. Now I don’t know if answering your question by say- no taxation people to whom Paddy would that’s left- or right-wing; but it’s ing that I do not think it is easy for taxation’s talk before he went to meet Blair certainly always been my view to characterise people within our and to whom he would come that there is no point taxing for party as necessarily left and right. sake. back and report. And it seemed taxing’s sake. On individual free- Q: You don’t say much about to me that although the party dom, on the British spectrum I your period as Chair of the Scottish may not have known just how suppose I would be regarded Liberal Party, from 1975 to 1977, far these discussions had gone on, as being strongly on the left – apart from stabilising its finances. nonetheless by 1999 they knew though within our own party What do you think you achieved in more or less what had been hap- the spectrum may not be exactly this period? pening and they were ready for the same. I was also robust on MC: It happened because something else. And it didn’t defence. I supported David Steel there was a palace revolution. In seem to me that someone who in all his trials and tribulations 1974, we’d fought almost every- had been so close as I had could over nuclear weapons. And actu- thing – 68, I think, out of the 71 provide that something else. ally, going back to Jo, the policy seats in Scotland, as part of the Also, the clear impression in Jo’s time was for a nuclear Thorpe strategy in the second was that Charles was way out deterrent, but a NATO nuclear election of ’74 – and we didn’t in front. I always assumed that deterrent to which the UK have the resources to do it. There his campaign was ready to run. would subscribe; and of course were people in tears because they He’d become President, he’d that’s in effect what has hap- never got what they were prom- been round the country, he was pened, because British nuclear ised from headquarters. So there well known, and very good on weapons are effectively assigned was a Young – or Middle-Aged the box. It seemed to me that he to NATO. So, I was always a – Turks’ revolution, of which I was unassailable. Don Foster and Grimondite, I always accepted was part. You ask me what I did and I met several the utility of nuclear weapons. then. It’s a good question. I kept times under the chairmanship But that is not inconsistent with the ship afloat. It does seem to of to deter- disarmament. I’m signed up to me that I have often been the mine whether one of us should the ‘Toward a Nuclear-Free coxswain in the lifeboat! We had stand, but in the end all three of World’ initiative put forward practically no money; we were us, for different reasons, decided by Shultz, Perry, Kissinger and bust until we developed an early that we wouldn’t and we then all Nunn, which Margaret Beck- form of the lottery. What I was gave our support to Charles. ett also supported, trying to put doing was holding the damn Also, because David and then some bite into the whole notion thing together – with a very Paddy had become such close of multilateral disarmament. So, good man as Treasurer called friends of mine, I knew what the there you are: strong on defence, John Lawrie, who was an actu- frustrations of leadership were. strong on civil liberties, no taxa- ary, terribly precise. So – sur- I know it cost both of them in tion for taxation’s sake. vival. It was also the beginning terms of family life and personal I suppose I was always of a serious debate about home life; although there was one regarded as being on the right rule, devolution; Labour was thing which they didn’t have to because my jacket and my trou- frightened to death by the suc- contend with to the same extent sers always matched … what’s cess of the SNP in October 1974. as we all do now, and that is the very interesting is the difference Since we had very few MPs, as 24-hour-a-day constant news in the party now. I remember Chairman I did a lot of televi- agenda. I talked to Elspeth, and the first party assembly I went to sion and radio. We tried to put we wrote down the pros, we – 1961 in – and there some meat on the bones of the wrote down the cons. The cons were lots of suits about; but then federalist case. included not being able to keep the party changed quite dramati- on doing any legal work, which cally thereafter and there weren’t was quite important to my quite so many suits! Now there’s Ashdown resigns financial responsibilities. The a proper mixture. But I suppose Q: Looking back, do you still think cons outnumbered the pros very I was always regarded as being it was the right decision not to have considerably.

40 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 campbell as leader

Q: Do you still think that was The Kennedy leadership Iraq would most certainly have the right decision? Q: If you had been elected leader in been the end of it. MC: Yes. People do say, as 1999 instead of Charles Kennedy, Q: You opposed Charles speaking you pointed out in your ques- what would you have done at the big anti-war demonstration in tion, look at how close Simon differently? February 2003 (though backed him Hughes got – but remember, MC: I think I would have when he decided to speak). Why? he was coming from a differ- tried to keep open a dialogue MC: If you remember, on that ent wing of the party from me. with Labour – though I’m not platform there were a lot of not- And then (the things we wish sure that it would necessarily very-liberal people, and there we’d never said!) I was asked have taken the form of the JCC, was a lot of visceral anti-Amer- about it and I said, ‘Well, for ten nor that it would have lasted icanism. Now, as you know, I minutes a day I think I made very long. My analysis of Blair is spent a year in ; one a mistake, and then common that he went on a journey almost of my best friends is Jeff Bin- sense kicks in.’ Of course eve- from the moment he became gaman, who is US Senator for ryone quotes the first half of the Prime Minister; he turned into New – he voted against sentence and not the second. I this quite extraordinary authori- Iraq. There were lots of Ameri- never regretted the decision not tarian figure. We would not cans who were on the same side to stand. I knew in my heart have been able to live with him of the argument as us, and my that for sound, sensible reasons on tuition fees, or Europe. We feeling was that to be associated it wasn’t for me; standing was would have been disappointed with such fundamentalist anti- a romantic kind of speculation at the failure to give full-blown Americanism was really not a which soon vanished in the cold freedom of information. I was good thing at all. light of reality. particularly disappointed by his But what happened was that Q: Do you think Paddy was right insistence on a referendum on Charles went to lunch at The not to groom a successor? Because it home rule. In fact I threatened Guardian, and they gave him a meant that his whole agenda – the to vote against the bill, because very hard time. (I went to one ‘Project’ – disappeared after he we had campaigned for devo- of their lunches in the autumn stepped down. lution, it was in our manifesto; of 2005; there were about eight MC: David Steel didn’t groom there was absolutely no reason or ten people around the table, a successor, and neither did Jo why the legislation shouldn’t be and I never got to eat my sand- Grimond. And it was the British introduced without a referen- wich! It was unlimited inbound people that made Paddy’s agenda dum. The heavies were put on fire for an hour and a half or so, disappear when they gave Blair me; Roy [Jenkins] was detailed really hard pounding.) When he a majority of 160. Although, to ring me up and say, ‘You may came back, not surprisingly he right up until November 1998, not like this, but sometimes in took some account of that and when Paddy decided to step politics you’ve got to do things then decided he would go on the down, Blair was still talking in you don’t like, and the rela- march. When he rang me up to terms of replacing Gavin Strang tionship between us and the say, ‘Look, I’m going to do this’, and David Clark [ministers in Labour Party is very important then I said, ‘Well, I wouldn’t Blair’s first Cabinet] with Lib- to the ultimate achievement of have done it, but if that’s your eral Democrats – I heard some of the home rule legislation, and decision then it’s got to be the this from David Clark, who’s a you would be being extremely right decision.’ I wasn’t the only friend of mine. They got wind unhelpful if you were to vote person to feel concerned about of it and there was a real mobi- It was in against.’ Roy could always move the anti-American nature of lisation against it in the Labour me in the direction he thought I thing; I believe Shirley [Wil- Party, to the extent that Blair foreign should go. liams] was concerned as well. would have found it impossi- So, whoever had been leader, Q: You generally express your ble to do. This was against the affairs that I think there would inevita- view of Charles’s leadership in terms backdrop of the Joint Cabinet bly have been a parting of the of sympathy for his drink problem. Committee. Robin Cook and I we made the ways. And of course Iraq was But were you not frustrated by his became firm friends, we got on Joint Cabinet the determining issue, the straw inertia and variable performance? like a house on fire – stemming that would have broken the MC: Well, I say that in the from the Scott Inquiry into arms Committee camel’s back. So, if it had been book. I think I say that he irri- to Iraq in 1996, when Robin my responsibility then I would tated me, and I have no doubt and I had combined our forces work per- have attempted to have kept the that I irritated him. It was a great because we were covering it for non-doctrinaire, centre-left alli- contrast to Paddy. But if he were our respective parties. It was in haps better ance together – but I believe that here, he would say, ‘But look at foreign affairs that we made the than any- Blair’s political movement across the results’ – the progress made in JCC work perhaps better than the spectrum would have made 2001 and then again in 2005. The anywhere else. where else. that increasingly difficult, and figures speak for themselves.

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 41 campbell as leader

Q: Do you think he might have the job. But that was not how understandable determination to resigned or been forced out if it hadn’t interpreted it. give the impression that Charles been for the ? It is possible to Q: In the book, you quote Sue was right on top of things. argue that the war saved his leader- Lawley, when you were on Desert Q: You describe the 2005 elec- ship, because it gave him an agenda Island Discs later in 2004, as claim- tion as a missed opportunity. Do you to follow without him having to come ing that you had suggested that you think it was the manifesto launch up with one himself. should be installed as leader without that poisoned everything? MC: The Iraq war did give a contest if Charles should resign. MC: That’s a strong state- Charles a platform, and it gave MC: She asked me whether it ment, but there’s no doubt it had the party definition and dis- was true, as the newspapers had an effect. tinctiveness. Could we have said, that I’d been asked to act as Q: In the book you mention expected to continue to make a caretaker leader after Charles’s Labour and the Lib Dems coordinat- the sort of progress we did in stomach problem during the ing attacks on the Conservatives in 2005 if there hadn’t been an Budget statement – well, that the 2005 election. It was fairly com- Iraq war? Probably not – but we wasn’t true. There was a huge mon knowledge that that happened can’t be sure. Also, the thing to amount of gossip at the time, but in 1997 and 2001, but more surpris- remember is that the affection I never thought that if Charles ing, I think, that it was still going with which the public regarded stepped down at any stage there on in 2005. Can you say any more Charles was more than mirrored wouldn’t be a contest, because about this? in the party. it was clear to me, whatever MC: It wasn’t as close as it had Q: Do you think Charles should the circumstances, that Simon been in 2001, and certainly not have gone ahead with his abortive Hughes would be running – he as close as it had been in 1997. It press conference in 2003 and stood felt he had come close the previ- was more of a non-aggression down in order to seek treatment for ous time. pact rather than an alliance; that alcoholism? Q: What do you think caused the was my understanding. MC: It must have been very, problems at the manifesto launch in Q: So that brings us to Charles’s very difficult for him. He had April 2005, when Kennedy struggled resignation in January 2006. You clearly crossed a psychologi- to explain the details of the party’s say that you watched his statement cal barrier, but then drew back. policy on local income tax? on 5th January (when he stood down, It’s easy to be critical after the MC: It was on the Monday of but stated that he intended to be a event, but he was wrestling that week when Sarah [Charles’s candidate for the leadership, to clear with demons. As I understood I never wife] went into labour. I can’t the air) with ‘quiet admiration’. Did it, what he was going to say was: remember where Charles was, you not think, however, that call- ‘Look, I’ve got this problem; six thought that but I was put on standby, and I ing a leadership election when he months off to sort it out; Ming was immediately told: you’re knew that his main rivals – you and Campbell, he’ll be in charge; if Charles ‘Charles’ for tomorrow – that Simon Hughes – had already said but after six months I’ll be back, stepped was Tuesday – and also for they would not stand against him sharp as a tack.’ It could have Wednesday. And I went to Bris- was dishonest? worked. down at any tol, to help Stephen [Williams, MC: I just thought to myself, Q: You say you were quoted by the successful candidate for Bris- this is not going to work. We The Guardian after the Southport stage there tol West], and then up to help are going to be back in the same conference in spring 2004 as ‘ruling [successful candidate difficulty. nothing in and nothing out’. Is that wouldn’t be for Westmorland & Lonsdale]. Q: Charles said in the same what you said? If so, what did you a contest, The decision was taken that the statement that he had resolved his mean by it? manifesto launch, which had drink problem. Did you really think MC: This was after the lobby because it been arranged for the Wednes- he had at the time? lunch. We’d had the Budget day, clearly had to be cancelled. MC: I heard what he said. and PMQs [which Charles was clear to Now the question was: did you had missed], and I was being me, what- do it on the Thursday or the Fri- hounded; I felt I had to say day? If you did it on Friday, then Leadership something. If it was serious and ever the cir- you got the Saturday papers, Q: Why did you decide to stand Charles was going to go, then which were not as good for press for the leadership, having not stood where was the leadership going cumstances, coverage. If you waited until the seven years earlier? to be? It’s a kind of a stock phrase following Monday, then nearly a MC: A lot of these young which people use on all sorts of that Simon week had elapsed and we would people, the new MPs, had been occasions, and I thought it would be well behind the other two biting my ear ever since Novem- do enough to make it clear that Hughes parties. And so, the decision ber 2005. I was concerned about if there was a problem we could would be was taken to do it on the Thurs- them because they were full of deal with it, but not so strong as day. In the end that was really hope and expectation and deter- to suggest that I was gunning for running. the only day; and there was an mination. They had fought like

42 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 campbell as leader hell to win their seats, and I felt way. Lib Dem policy-making is Q: What did written about that up until that a kind of obligation towards like an oil tanker: it takes you point. Can you explain? them. I was criticised, I know, a while to stop it and get it to you think you MC: There was a constant for my response [after Charles turn. I did run with the envi- could offer? refrain about age; you will resigned] in saying ‘I’m going to ronmental stuff as hard as I pos- remember the cartoons. I’d be a candidate’, but it seemed to sibly could, but I had largely MC: Stabil- begun to get the measure of me that someone had to – there inherited a policy agenda. And Prime Minister’s Questions, had to be some continuum. I it had within it a series of major ity, and though I had had some sticky was nervous at the idea that a changes. I went straight into moments at the beginning. But vacancy had arisen and no one the post offices issue; then we continuity. there was this constant refrain, was going to say that they were had dropping the 50p top tax and it was not helped by careless going to be running to fill that rate in September 2006, and talk among Liberal Democrat vacancy on a permanent basis. then we had Trident at the fol- colleagues in both the Lords and There are those who say I should lowing spring conference, and the Commons. And that’s as far have waited, but you have to then we followed that up with as I’m going to go on that, for make these judgments based on the big tax stuff last September. the moment. what you feel; I thought it was My job, in the beginning, was Q: Do you think there was a the right thing to do. to see through the policy ini- consistent attempt to undermine you Q: What did you think you could tiatives which had begun under from within the party? offer? Charles’s leadership. Once that MC: My position was not M C: S t a b i l i t y, a n d was done I would have created helped by ill-judged comments continuity. an agenda of my own. from colleagues in both the Q: What were the main themes Q: Dropping the commitment to Commons and the Lords. of your leadership campaign? What the 50 pence top tax rate was a major Q: Do you think the criticisms of did you try to put over? change. Why do you think it was you over your age were really cover MC: The environment was right to do that? for criticisms of other aspects of your enormously important – so I MC: It was against aspiration, leadership? gave up my Jaguar! Taxation. it discouraged ambition – and MC: Stories have a natural Opportunity – using myself as it didn’t produce huge sums of life; if the story doesn’t move an illustration; you know, the money. I was at a lunch the other on, then it dies – but if someone fact that I’d had three lives and day with some businessmen, and is foolish enough to open their been lucky to do so. Liberal- one of them was asking me about mouth, then they simply give ism internationally as much as tax and claimed we were a high the story legs and it does not domestically. tax party. I said, ‘Under my lead- die. The relationship between Q: In the book, you describe the ership we dropped the 50p rate.’ the party and the leader is now tasks you set yourself after the local And there was a kind of ripple much, much more in the public’s elections in 2006: ‘First, I had to put around the table. I thought 50p eye than it ever was before. the party back on an even keel after had served its purpose, and from Q: Your resignation seemed to the traumas of Charles’s resignation my point of view, it was a break come very suddenly, but in the book and the leadership election; second, I with the past. you say you’d been thinking about it had to make the party more profes- What was fascinating was the for some time. When did you start sional in its outlook; and, third, to way the party took to it. I was thinking about it? ensure we would be ready for a gen- worried about the conference MC: As soon as Brown said: eral election whenever it might come.’ debate, because the 50p com- ‘No election’. When we heard These are all essentially organisa- mitment was iconic to some. the news, Elspeth said immedi- tional – did you have any aims as I thought that people would ately: can you take it for another regards the policy or ideology of the feel determined to hold on to two years? That was the point at party? it whatever the circumstances. which I said to myself, ‘Well, if MC: I had inherited a policy But, to my surprise, we won the she’s begun to ask that question, agenda under way, of course – debate very convincingly. Dur- then other people are going to remember, Charles had estab- ing the debate Paddy came up ask that question.’ lished the Tax Commission. I to me and said, ‘I’ve sat here on Q: Your resignation statement inherited the issue of the post many, many occasions, quaking mentioned the need for radical revi- offices [part-privatisation of at the outcome of some debate sion of the party’s internal structures. Royal Mail], which we dealt or other, and I can tell you now, What did you mean by that? with in Harrogate [the spring you’re going to win this.’ MC: I was really trying to Lib Dem conference in March Q: Moving on to March 2007, lay a trail for whoever came 2006], two days after I was in the book you mention Elspeth after me. I spent a lot of time at elected. The ‘Meeting the saying to that you were the Policy Committee. Archy Challenge’ exercise was under going through hell. You hadn’t really [Kirkwood] used to say to me

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 43 campbell as leader it was time well invested, but I by Asquith, so there was a kind of obsessions about appearance began to feel that the Lib Dem of a symmetry about leading and style and all the rest of it, the leader is like the opposite of the the party from the constitu- camera angle for the Lib Dem harlot, with responsibility but ency from which Asquith led the leader is really rotten; it makes without power. You carry the party. I just wish that one or two you look as if you are squint. can for everything, but you don’t people were still around. My Q: Michael White wrote in his have the authority to deal with parents would have been proud review of your book in The Guard- everything. Now, I know these of that. I would have valued Roy ian that you lacked the ‘killer might be thought to be illiberal Jenkins’s advice, and I think he instinct that makes the difference at reactions, but the process does would have been instrumen- the very top’. Do you think that’s a not need to be obsessively liberal tal in dealing with some of the fair assessment? in order to achieve liberal objec- more loquacious elements in the MC: No, I don’t. I’ve said this tives. People used liberalism party. before but it’s true, all the things as a shield for indiscipline; you Q: What did you try to achieve I’ve ever done in my life involve would go to these meetings and but failed to? And what do you wish winning or losing: you win people would say, ‘I didn’t join you had done but didn’t? your race or you lose it, you win this party to …’, and your heart MC: We are in a period of your case or you lose it, you win would sink. And yet, I have to enormous change, which I don’t your seat or you lose it. I have a be fair about this, on the issues I think people understand. We competitive edge, and, well, let wanted to make my own – like have a group of highly talented, me put it this way, if by killer the 50p rate, environmental tax- highly motivated new Mem- instinct he means lack of scru- ation, Trident – I got my own bers of Parliament who’ve never ple, then that’s not something to way, but it did take an awful lot really known anything but suc- which I would aspire. of effort. I used to say, ‘People cess since 1997. But some of the Q: In the author’s note in your in this party would rather beat rest of us were around in the days autobiography, you say that you the platform at the conference when the party was down to six count your life ‘as one of experience than beat the Tories at the bal- MPs – I remember 1970, when not achievement’. That seems an lot box.’ David Steel nearly lost his seat – odd statement given what you have Q: What were your main achieve- and in 1992, we got only twenty. achieved – can you say what you ments in your career as leader? I began to The tide comes in and the tide meant by it? MC: Well, I think I did the goes out, and the trick is to be MC: I’ve been enormously things I was expected to do. I feel that able to survive both – not to be lucky. There’s a little bit at the steadied the ship after Charles’s swept away by the tide com- end of the book, after I resigned resignation. And if you remem- the Lib Dem ing in, and certainly not to be which sums it up: ber, the leadership campaign leader is like dragged under by the tide going itself was rather more colourful out. It’s two years away, the next My principal emotions were than one might have expected, the oppo- election; things could change frustration and irritation. The and we had to get through that. completely before then. three tasks I had set myself I did start the process, I think, site of the I got Prime Minister’s Ques- when I became leader had all of asking the party to smarten tions right in the end, because been achieved but the post- itself up: meetings started on harlot, with we did a huge amount of work ponement of the election had time, we reached conclusions; at responsibil- at it. It was hard to do that from robbed me of the chance to the Shadow Cabinet I would let the beginning; we were pitch- show just how far I had taken everyone speak, but we’d reach a ity but with- forked straight in. What people the party. I also felt a sense of conclusion at the end of it. And forget – and I noticed someone perspective: I had run in an we were ready for the general out power. making the point on behalf of Olympic final, pleased a case election. That was the one thing Nick [Clegg] the other day – is as a QC in the , that we had to get sorted, and we You carry that first of all you get only two become an MP after an eleven- did. We were ready for it, and the can for questions, so recovery, if you year campaign, overcome can- if it had been called, my own get one not quite right, is much cer, been knighted for services programme was already 80 per everything, more difficult than if you get six to parliament, and led the party cent written. The manifesto was [like the Leader of the Opposi- of Asquith and Lloyd George. agreed – I did eight hours in the but you don’t tion]. Second, there’s nowhere It was indeed a long way from chair that day! – and we came out to put anything, and if you 19 Park Road, . with a manifesto upon which we have the notice, if you look straight at could have legitimately fought Cameron, he reads; he reads an So that’s really what I feel – I just the election. So, I would regard authority enormous amount [resting his feel I’ve been enormously lucky; that as an achievement. to deal with notes on the despatch box]. Also I can think of all sorts of people And then, personally – part the camera angle doesn’t help – more talented than me who’ve of my seat had been represented everything. it’s a small thing, but in this age never had the opportunity.

44 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008