New Leader, New Book

I loved every minute of the nine vote, even if a second preference, to months of the mayoral campaign. I support a Liberal Democrat for the was blessed with a small but amazing first time. We won four seats in the team, from Ashley Lumsden, who was Greater London Assembly and born to be a campaign manager, to because of the calibre of our candi- Charlotte Barraclough, who had dates they are influencing events well never done media until she aban- beyond their numbers, effectively doned a round-the-world trip to run holding the balance of power. my press operation. My son Jonathan There will never be an election like dropped out of university (temporar- this again. Next time it will be a short ily) to be my minder, and student campaign with limited appearances, interns became the backbone of our more conventional and, I suspect, less operations. Brian Orrell and the filled with surprises. Livingstone will London Region Liberal Democrats, try to remain Mayor until he is carried MPs and peers led by Ed Davey and out feet first. Norris and I will almost Conrad Russell, were stalwarts. The certainly both run again. I doubt that Assembly candidates were dedicated next time anyone will bother to write and we owe a lot to those who a book about the campaign. flogged their guts out knowing that But as the events of last year fade in they themselves would not win. We the memory, I confess I am glad used the campaign to build a London- Nightmare was written, to remind me resources to advertise and get around wide awareness of Liberal Democrats that it really did happen and was not the press focus on the other parties and and our policies. Local parties turned just a dream. their scandals. At the end of the out across the capital and we did campaign, the May Day riots, with no indeed cover every one of its high Susan Kramer was the Liberal Democrat effort on the Tories’ part, had the effect streets. Many Londoners used their candidate in the first London mayoral race. of pushing anti-Livingstone votes into the Norris camp on an implied ‘law and order’ association. I believe that those events finally settled the out- come of the election. New leader, new book If there was one surprise above others in the mayoral campaign, it was the emergence of a London political Charles Kennedy: The Future of Politics identity. When I began on the cam- (HarperCollins, 2000; 255pp.) paign trail in August, the hustings Reviewed by Duncan Brack showed candidates to be all over the place, both in defining the problems and the solutions. Candidates behaved ow times change. Paddy was full of ideas, some half-baked, pretty true to party. By May, the core Ashdown had to struggle to find many sensible, some already party manifestos looked amazingly similar H a publisher for his first book as leader, policy, some not. In policy terms and indeed quite clearly recognisable Citizen’s Britain. Twelve years later, (though not in strategy), it described to anyone following the policies of the Charles Kennedy’s first book is an agenda which Ashdown stuck to, London Region Liberal Democrats as produced by a mainstream publisher pretty much, for the following ten far back as . The pressure of the in glossy hardback – tribute, of course, years of his leadership. hustings, sometimes three or four a day, to the strength and relevance of the The Future of Politics does not need to had forced common sense and conver- party that Ashdown built and establish the party in the public mind. It gence and in terms of the policy Kennedy inherited. is aimed instead to define Kennedy as a debate it was a clear Liberal Democrat Ye the purpose of these two books man with a policy prospectus, some- win. A strange bonding also developed was and is rather different. Citizen’s thing which neither his own back- among the candidates, with the Britain was a (reasonably successful) ground as TV light entertainment’s possible exception of Dobson. No-one attempt to put the third party, at the favourite politician, nor his uninspiring was naive, but it must have been close time disappearing in the opinion polls leadership campaign, managed to do. to the sense of shared suffering experi- to within the statistical margin of error Does it succeed? Yes and no. enced by hostages. Certainly we could of zero, and its leader, on the policy Unlike Citizen’s Britain, it contains give each other’s set speeches and map – to reassert the Liberal strength as almost no new ideas. It is an explana- Norris to this day claims that he once a party of imagination and invention. It tion, mostly coherent and lucid, of the gave mine and I his. 28 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 29 Winter 2000–01 communicate a message, and what this law in (not , as the book book does is to put over the Liberal says); not paying enough attention to Democrat agenda in a well-written and the environment as a major campaign- accessible way. The policy proposals are ing issue for the Alliance; and not interspersed with personal anecdotes protesting enough at the British and reminiscences which make them police’s suppression of demonstrations enjoyable to read, and Kennedy’s turn of against Chinese President Jiang phrase is occasionally brilliant (as in ‘the Zemin’s visit in ). What other political map is like a water bed – apply party leader would approach his task pressure in one area and you will get a with such humility? reaction somewhere else’). Some Charles Kennedy, of course, still has sections – particularly the case for the much to prove. Next year’s anticipated Euro – are excellent. election campaign, and particularly the My favourite part of all is the TV debates between the leaders, will opening paragraphs of the conclusion, put to the test the extent to which he where Kennedy lists the four things he really believes and understands every- has got most seriously wrong since thing that’s in this book, as well as his entering parliament in (for your ability to communicate it. But The information: not opposing the estab- Future of Politics is not a bad start at all. lishment of the Child Support Agency; party’s existing policy position; indeed, trying to minimise attention to the Duncan Brack was Policy Director of the those of us more familiar than we conference vote in favour of a Royal Liberal Democrats –, and is Editor of would like to be with party policy Commission on the reform of drugs the Journal of Liberal Democrat History. papers will recognise many proposals and even, on occasion, entire paragraphs lifted verbatim from other sources. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with this – after all, it would be rather alarming to find that your new More mirage than vision leader didn’t go along with the vast bulk of party policy – but it would be Garry Tregidga: The Liberal Party in South-West nice to find the occasional new idea. Britain since 1918: Political Decline, Dormancy and The only one I could spot in the Rebirth (University of Exeter Press, 2000; 281pp.) entire book was a commitment to all- women shortlists and ‘zipping’ for Reviewed by John Howe parliamentary selections, a position which I was certainly not aware Kennedy held, and one that it would o those who joined the Liberal limited – but only a limited – recovery be quite nice seeing him do some- TParty in the s or s, the in ? Why did the party decline for thing about. There are also, unfortu- West Country was the promised land, two decades thereafter but not die? And nately, too many mistakes – carbon or rather the land of promise. Fading why did the series of revivals from monoxide, for example, is not the memories of triumphs in the twenties onwards achieve no significant parlia- main global greenhouse gas (it’s were reinforced by the contemporary mentary success until ? carbon dioxide, an entirely different view of the Liberals as the party of the To answer these questions substance), and the UK’s target under Celtic fringe; then Torrington in Tregidga has amassed impressive the Kyoto Protocol is a .% reduc- and North Devon in created the evidence. He has read extensively in tion in greenhouse emissions, not vision of a Liberal heartland from which the local press, which continued to .%. The logic is not always coherent, the party might expand. But the vision provide good reports of meetings, for example over fuel taxes, a point proved a mirage, and even in fewer speeches and party events with picked up when the launch of the than half of the West Country seats fell editorial comment reflecting local book coincided with the first wave of to the Liberal Democrats. opinions. The personal papers of the fuel tax protests; and overall the book Garry Tregidga’s book examines the regional party leaders, notably the has not been well edited. background to these events with four Aclands and the Foots, have been But on the other hand… no-one successive questions. Why did the thoroughly reviewed, and the rel- expected Kennedy to be an ideas man, Liberal Party achieve a triumph in the evant national collections are cited – and there are other qualities which south-west in almost equalling the for example Sir Archibald Sinclair’s party leaders can display. Kennedy’s landslide? Why was it wiped out papers seem particularly useful for great strength lies in his ability to only ten months later yet then made a the years just before when Journal of Liberal Democrat History 29 Winter 2000–01 29.

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