Well, we all knew that was going to be the case, so I wrote this a few minutes ago, and hit 'publish' when the confirmation came through. Poor Caron Lindsay had to go through the motions of preparing an alternative "Stormin' Norman is leader" post for Lib Dem Voice, just to look even-handed and non-presumptuous.
UPDATE : Here are the full results -
Tim Farron 56.5%
Norman Lamb 43.5%
Turnout 56%
I find that quite interesting, because even though Farron is clearly the right choice (Lamb simply doesn't have the right personal qualities to get the Lib Dems back into the game), it wasn't an overwhelming victory by any means. This is a result with "DIVIDED PARTY" stamped all over it. The Orange Bookers will be sulking for some time - and then they'll either start plotting, or defect to the Tories.
Your guess is as good as mine. Never heard of him.
ReplyDeleteI thought wee Wullie was the leader?
ReplyDeleteMaybe i'm getting confused with the Monster Raving Loony Party?
We Wullie's only the Holyrood leader, where they have just five MSPs. This election was for the leader of the big, strong, grown-up Westminster party where they have - eight MPs.
Delete"The orange bookers will be sulking for quite some time"
ReplyDeleteNot so James. Clegg's ostrich faction at the top of lib dem HQ knew the game was up for their continuinty Clegg candidate Lamb for quite some time. Their inevitable inept attempt at dirty tricks against Farron were about as competent as Carmichaels and just didn't work.
Faced with that the most 'interesting' (I know LOL) thing to occur in their leadership contest happened a few days ago with Clegg which passed unnoticed by most. (as will this leadership contest as a whole to be fair) Clegg gave an interview in which he proved yet again why he was the most incompetent party leader in modern politics. Aside from his usual delusional spin of complete denial and idiocy, he DID drop quite the bombshell into the lib dems which proves that Clegg's ostrich faction have no intention of letting go of power at the top of lib dem HQ. Namely that he won't be seeking a job in Brussels or elsewhere.
Clegg said he intends to stay right where he is making sure Farron doesn't do the obvious and necessary thing of ridding lib dem Hq of Clegg's idiot cheerleeaders.
Needless to say the chances of Farron convincing the public the lib dems have changed are vanishingly remote with the utterly toxic Clegg hanging around reminding the voters why they can't be trusted.
So the lib dems won't just have the self-confessed liar and smearer Carmichael reminding scottish voters why they can't be trusted. Even more amusingly, they also face the prospect of Clegg hanging around like a bad smell making sure Farron doesn't get rid of all the orange booker yellow tories Clegg appointed at the top of the lib dems in lib dem HQ.
Not exactly ideal conditions from which to launch any kind of coherent or believable 'fightback'. To say the least. ;-)
Fair enough, they did the right thing (although Clegg hanging around is a serious problem). Now if only Labour could elect Jeremy Corbyn, we just may get some serious opposition to austerity organised. :)
ReplyDeleteThis prompted me to look up what (if anything ) the local Lib-Dem biggie ex-MP Danny Alexander was up to. He wrote a piece in the New Statesman yesterday entitled:
ReplyDeleteDanny Alexander: the Lib Dems and Labour must avoid becoming a soggy Syriza in sandals. Occupying the centre ground is no guarantee of electoral success, but vacating it is a sure precursor of failure.
I get the impression Clegg is not the only one who will be hanging around.
Poor Tim!
Yup. Very apposite post bjsalba.
DeleteSaw that myself and it's yet more proof that Cegg and his ostrich faction knew their man was beaten so Clegg gave wee Danny a call to go on the 'offensive' straight away against Farron.
If any of this sounds famliar it should. Clegg's ostrich faction are as prone to dirty tricks and spin as the Blairites precisely because they modelled themselves on the Sainted Tony. The brutal facts of their triangulation on the tories causing them to be annihilated by the voter will bother them no more than it ever does the Blairites. The yellow book neo-liberal agenda is all that matters to the westminster establishment and if the voter doesn't like then too fucking bad. They'll just keep right on trying and ignore the evidence and common sense.
So James is 100% correct about the plotting and it's already begun. Like the Blair Brown wars it promises to get uglier and far more personal the longer it goes on.
Incidentally, anyone feeling sorry for BBC Scotland?
ReplyDeleteTories quick of the mark to "Take tough decisions about the BBC's future".
BBC Scotland should be fine right? After all the message was "Better Together".
#Lackofsympathy
Tim Farron seems to have that "nice, respectable neighbour" look about him, a bit like Willie Rennie. You could imagine him as a Church of England vicar, chairman of the local Rotary Club or the friendly and attentive family doctor.
ReplyDeleteAs with willie rennie you can be mislead by looks and positions say the vicar of freckleton, the chairman of accra rotary, http://www.anorak.co.uk/392472/in-pictures-2/rotary-club-of-accra-legon-hatches-cunning-plot-to-murder-all-the-countrys-drivers.html/ or dr harold shipman :(
DeleteRennie was used by Carmichael to spread the lies and smears about Nicola which he stil hasn't apologised for. So even if Rennie hadn't presided over the near extinction and utter humiliation of the lib dems in scotland for year after year after year after year - which he most certainly has - he's hardly the ideal case to use for the honesty and trustworthiness of lib dems.
DeleteFor that matter Farron has said some staggeringly stupid things about scottish politics which were little more than the kind of dumb as fuck things a Pouter or westminster bubble tory tabloid would say.
So, if we're being honest, the lib dem's hilariously low turnout leadership election had all the gravitas and consequence of an employee of the month award at a struggling paperclip supply office branch.
"So, if we're being honest, the lib dem's hilariously low turnout leadership election had all the gravitas and consequence of an employee of the month award at a struggling paperclip supply office branch."
DeleteThat one gave me a bit of a chuckle!
Didn't Stewart Hosie get elected on 55%?
DeleteYep. Lib Dem members have as much interest in who their leader is as SNP members do in their deputy leader.
DeleteIn fairness, though, at least the LDs actually release the figures, unlike a certain other lot we could mention.
My point was more that this level seems to be around the ballpark for this kind of thing unless it's a 'hot' contest for whatever reason.
DeleteAS leadership election in 2004 was 80%, for example. I don't think 50-60 is unusual when nobody is kicking lumps out of each other, and Farron/Lamb has been pretty tame.
Menzies Campbell was elected on a 72% turnout, and I don't recall that election being especially exciting or vituperative. Clegg had 64%. Cameron 78%. Which leadership contests do you have in mind that were in the 56% ballpark?
DeleteThey were? That's a good point, maybe I'm being overly kind to Farron & Lamb.
DeleteOnly 56% of his own party even bothered to vote on the new leader. Why should the rest of us even bother if they can't motivate a decent number of their own members to get involved?
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised you've not heard of him, after his desperate, attention-seeking attack on the SNP. He said, "They are doing the worst and darkest things that people suspect nationalists to be in favour of anywhere in the world."
ReplyDeleteThat really takes him deep into the dark heart of zoomer territory. I wonder if he's found Jim Murphy yet.
The horror...
I've read that now. What is he smoking?
ReplyDeleteOn GMS today, Farron was doing ok, saying the right things........until the Carmichael question.
ReplyDeleteThen it was the same old guff we have heard from every signle LibDem politician that has been challenged on the Carmichael issue ("give him another chance blah blah blah"), all refusing to acknowledge that the electorate also deserve another chance, and that a by-election would give Carmichael and the people another chance. He did not have to call for his head, only to persuade him to step down and stand for re-election. The irony is, IMO, that if Carmichael has shown courage and remorse and stepped down quickly, he could have scrapped back in. Now he has put his party at risk of extinction in Scotland.
Disappointed, but hardly surprised. I've heard enough already, Mr Farron. Thank you, and goodbye.
I actually half-expected Farron to call for Carmichael to stand down and run in a by-election. That would've caught the SNP by surprise, made Farron look more of a decent cove than his predecessor, and there'd be a good chance Carmichael would be re-elected, starting the new leader off with a big success. Too late now.
DeleteHmmm. I think the Lib Dems would have a chance of holding Orkney & Shetland in a by-election, but not with Carmichael as the candidate.
DeleteTo my mind Tim Farron is not off to an auspicious start.
ReplyDeleteT me the best summation comes from Peter A Bell on
http://www.scoop.it/t/politics-scotland New Lib Dem leader backs Alistair Carmichael over Sturgeon memo leak
He said:
Carmichael's apology is due, not to Farron and his tawdry party, but to the voters of Orkney and Shetland and the people of Scotland. It is not for Farron to accept Carmichael's apology on their behalf. In fact, it is damned impertinent of him to presume to do so. An impertinence that is only aggravated by his insistence that those who decline to accept that apology are not "decent people".
Yup
Tim Farron believes in God. I suspect he'll need Him.
ReplyDelete