Liberalism gone mad...

It's a big day for the Liberals. As a result of the leader being too old and past it (or at least, that's the truth if you believe the popular tabloids) he's resigned. This is a big shame for politics; Ming was certainly a character leading his party - more interesting and far less grey than many of his colleagues or political front-bench opponents.

So what is happening at the Liberal Party? They've not had a good leader since Gladstone, it would seem. They're not electable, their place in British politics has been squeezed by moves to the centre from both Labour and Tory ranks, and their vote has suffered. On Radio 5 today it there was some lively discussion about the reasons why Ming felt this a good time to stand down; bad results in the recent local elections, and ongoing struggle in opinion polls seems to have been the prime causes. With Gordon Browns insistance that we don't now need a general election (since the Conservative popularity has picked up significantly) for ages, hacks looking for a good story have focussed, as always, on the real meat of the political process, the age of the Liberal leader rather than his policies. The irony is that Ming is a former athelete, and even today is far fitter physically than these journalists, most of whom are many years his junior. Surely it cant be right, then, to allow agism to determine fitness for political office rather than ability.

But then we have the slow realisation that journalists have been attacking Ming over his age because, by and large, his policies have been pretty sound, and even more than that - the Liberal party has for years been coming up with policies that have been slowly adopted by the big boys of political field. The Liberal chairman, Simon Grey-Bloke-In-Grey-Suit, speaking on Simon Mayo's radio programme was espousing the position of his party over green issues and European issues which have now been accepted into mainstream politics as the way forward.

Liberal Party anonymity is higher now than ever. The two leading candidates for the post are utterly anonymous to all but the Liberal parlimentary party and the party's root and grass activists. Mind you, I cant say I'd heard of any of the last lot of candidates for the Tory leadership either at this stage. I really hope they can bring back that Kennedy guy - you know, the fat bloke in the yellow tie. He was always an entertaining politician, and would certainly brighten up a typically boring house of commons debate. I liked him.

The biggest irony, however, is not that the candidates are so grey; it is that they will never occupy any position of political power in the modern political climate. We're set solidly in two party politics in Britain, this makes the position of the third political party pretty much an irrelevance.