Sir Menzies Campbell has resigned as leader of the Liberal Democrats, "with immediate effect".

Senior Lib Dems Vincent Cable and Simon Hughes made the announcement, saying the party owed Sir Menzies "a huge debt of gratitude".

Deputy leader Mr Cable will take over as acting leader for now - a leadership timetable will be announced on Tuesday.

Mr Hughes said Sir Menzies had taken the decision in the "interests of the party and of Liberal Democracy".

Sir Menzies was not present when the announcement was made.

No reason given??

Listening to Newsnight about it at the moment... reasons given: "questions about his leadership were getting in the way of getting the party's message across" - wouldn't mind betting that he's just got too pissed off with the media only caring about his age (66) and always asking "are the falling opinion polls 'cause you're too old?"

If Brown had decided to go for a quick election, he'd probably have stayed on; but he's probably got an eye on two years plus, and that age will be even more of an issue as time goes by.

That's so weird...  In America, age issues are the opposite for politicians.  For example, John Edwards is often seen as too young to be president.  We tend to favor older people as our leaders.

Whatever the case, the Lib Dems are about the only party in the U.K. that I can identify with, other than the Greens.

Whatever the case, the Lib Dems are about the only party in the U.K. that I can identify with, other than the Greens.
something similar seems to have happened in the UK as has happened here -- labor has moved to the right and called it the "center," and meanwhile the tories are so far right it's, like, freaky.

True dat...  and we have a so-called "liberal media."

Whatever the case, Canada still seems to have its head on straight.  Harper might be a conservative, but he's a lot more rational than most of the American and British varieties.

and meanwhile the tories are so far right it's, like, freaky.


Your definition of right and mine are very different then.

If they were here in the U.S they'd be a centrist party.

Labor is essentially at the exact same point as the Conservative Party, one has moved to the right and one has moved to the middle, I'll leave it to you to guess.

I heard that Vincent Cable is now the Liberal Democrat leader. What political parties are there in Britain?

I heard that Vincent Cable is now the Liberal Democrat leader. What political parties are there in Britain?
Vincent Cable is the Acting Leader till the new leader has been chosen or voted in.

The political parties that have seats in Parliament are:

Labour
Conservative
Liberal
Scottish National Party
Plaid Cymru
Ulster Unionist Party
Social Democratic and Labour Party
Ulster Democratic Unionist Party
Sinn Fein
Respect - The Unity Coalition
Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern

I heard that Vincent Cable is now the Liberal Democrat leader. What political parties are there in Britain?

Vince Cable has taken over as acting leader until an election has been held.

British political parties:
Mainstream:
Conservatives (aka Tories) - "the right wing" - still probably close to the communist party than they are to the Democrats in the US
Labour - what used to be left wing, but is economically pretty much at the other end of the scale now
Liberal Democrats - used to be the centre ground of British politics, but probably more left-wing than the Labour party is now.  Screwed by the electoral system: usually polling about 20% of the vote, but rarely getting more than 5-7% of MPs.

Others:
SNP - the Scottish Nationalists.  A Scottish separatist party, currently with their highest ever support in Scotland.  Not 'cause the Scots want separation, but 'cause they're pissed off with the Labour party (traditionally the strongest party in Scotland)
Plaid Cymru - the Welsh Nationalists

Very minor parties:
The Green Party
Respect (George Galloway's ego-vehicle)
UKIP - the UK Independence Party
BNP - the "We're not racists, honestly" British National Party
The Official Monster Raving Looney Party - unfortunately not a serious contender.  Has the best policies of any political party, ever.


...I see t'other Phil has got there first.. but I'll post this anyway :)

Nominations are open for the running of the leader of Liberal Party and so far no names have come forward.

Vincent Cable is the Acting Leader till the new leader has been chosen or voted in.

The political parties that have seats in Parliament are:

Labour
Conservative
Liberal
Scottish National Party
Plaid Cymru
Ulster Unionist Party
Social Democratic and Labour Party
Ulster Democratic Unionist Party
Sinn Fein
Respect - The Unity Coalition
Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern


I love this.  The USA tries to convince itself that it is the most democratic of countries, but we have two parties that sound just like each other.  They are both corrupt and one hand washes the other.  I would love it if there were even 3 or 4.

It's not as good as it looks: for >99% of this country's history, one party has had an overall majority, so all the rest are basically there to make up the numbers (and believe me, most of them *do* make up the numbers)

Respect is a one-horse-party who rode to power criticizing MPs for amongst other things not spending enough time in Parliament... since then, Galloway has barely been seen in the House.

The Kidderminster doctor who stood on a "Don't close our hospital" ticket has realized that as an independent MP the amount of power he has to stop anything happening is a big round zilch.

The LibDems are a very strong party in local politics, but have little real influence on the national scale.  However much they'd like to think otherwise.
UUP/UUUP/SDLP are all religious-community aligned Northern Irish parties (I'm sure I've been on enough of a rant in the past about my views on what happens when you get party politics and religion overlapping, so I won't go any further)

Plaid Cymru/SNP are Welsh/Scots parochial parties - they do fairly well at Welsh and Scottish assemblies, but have no real power at Westminster whatsoever.

Sinn Fein won't take their seats in Westminster as they refuse to swear an oath of loyalty to the Queen

Former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has told the BBC it is "highly unlikely" that he will seek to succeed Sir Menzies Campbell in the job.

I liked Charles Kennedy's comment to Clive Anderson about what they have in common: "Earlier in our lives, we both spent some time at the bar."

Anyway, I wrote this to mark Ming's passing...

I liked Charles Kennedy's comment to Clive Anderson about what they have in common: "Earlier in our lives, we both spent some time at the bar."

Anyway, I wrote this to mark Ming's passing...
Excellent sir