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Charles Kennedy

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Sad news. Likeable, sociable, capable, but dogged by demons. Compared with many politicians he seemed [to borrow a much puzzled-over pop lyric] human rather than dancer.

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  1. Very shocking. An extremely competent politician who had one fatal weakness. They will probably stop taking the piss out of him on Have I Got News For You because of his illness. It will always get you in the end.

  4. One of the few politicians capable of appearing human – witty as well, which is even rarer. In the light of his successors as Lib Dem leader, he looks even more impressive.

  7. He convinced me to vote LibDem in 2001, the year before I emigrated.

    He was, so far as I could tell, a man with well defined principles who would nonetheless listen and actively debate people who didn’t share his own view.
    He voted against the coalition, but then behaved entirely decently after the vote had taken place.

    Politicians such as he are becoming less and less common, and the (what seems) genuine cross party sympathy seems indicative of that fact. He will, I think, be much missed. I do – and prior to this, did – wonder: Charles Kennedy and John Smith. What could have been.

    • Charles Kennedy and John Smith, when will we see their like again.

      Desperately sad news, I didn’t agree with his politics but he was a decent sort and we can ill afford to lose conviction politicians when there are so many bland careerists cluttering up the debating chambers for their benefit, not ours. RIP

  8. He was a great speaker. I once had 15 seconds to brief him between his car and the shelter for the homeless he was opening. He remember every name, fact and stat I gave him, and wove them into a funny, charming and moving speech. On the way out he asked “Was that okay?” as if he didn’t already know the answer. Such a loss.

  10. In the 90s I stepped into the garage by Greatcoats Place, off Victoria St to pay for petrol. As I opened the door, the chap in front of me let out a roar of ‘ Bollocks!.’ Mr Kennedy ( for it was he) had forgotten his wallet & couldn’t scrape together the shrapnel to buy his tabs. I bunged him the 35p or so needed to make up the amount for which he beamed at me & called me a Gent.
    I could count on one hand the politicians I’d do that for.
    He was a mensch, rare in his trade.

  11. Desperately sad news. He was an extremely talented, warm and likeable fellow. I had hoped he would retain his seat, so that he could still believe he had a purpose in life. His father died weeks ago which, I presume, could only have accelerated his downward spiral. Alcoholism will take everything from you – your family, friends, career, dignity and, finally, your life. It wants you isolated so it can kill you.

  12. He was the one lost MP in the great SNP purge I hoped would hang on: desperately upset he lost that seat, cos I know also how respected and able a local constituency fella he was too. I went to a conference at Highland Hospice a few years back, in Inverness. He was the keynote speaker at the dinner, giving an effortlessly both witty and moving speech. He was sober and acknowledged his struggles therewith to the largely medical audience, most of whom were hoovering up the redstuff like no tomorrow, arguably a little unsubtly, but it phased him not a bit, and he stayed chatting for a good while afterwards. Decent cove.

    • I also wish he had been the LibDem to keep his seat rather than the one that did. I then hoped he would stand for the Holyrood – we need people like him in that building.

      A huge loss.

  13. I was introduced to him once, dutifully in line. I had heard he was a Bowie fan and I remonstrated with him over his choice of favourite, Station To Station. At the time, I prefered Low. He put up a very good argument. Nowadays, I wonder if he was right all along. Seemed a very personable chap.

    • Those hateful comments in full:

      Salmond told the BBC: “Yes, he was an extremely generous human being. I have had one or two, but not many, people who had a bad word to say about Charles, and that’s very rare in politics.

      “In terms of the independence referendum, I don’t think his heart was in the Better Together campaign. His heart would have been in a pro-European campaign, that’s a campaign that Charles would have engaged in heart and soul. That is something he absolutely believed in. He was an interesting, complex character, but above all an outstanding communicator. But a fine human being.”

      Seriously? That’s the best you got?

      I really do find it extremely distasteful that some people’s irrational hatred of the SNP, and Salmond in particular, leads them to use a good man’s untimely death to take cheap political shots.

      He’s not even fucking cold yet.

  15. It’s very unfortunate. I bumped into him once or twice during his spells as rector at my university. He was always very warm and welcoming.

    He was re-elected in 2011 after the whole Lib Dem student fees thing. I think that’s a pretty good demonstration of his personal popularity.

    • Styrofoam! Good lord! I presumed you’d decided everyone here but me was too senile in their fuddy-duddy ways and had abandoned us for a much younger, hipper crowd! Welcome back!

      (ex Sting Ono, btw. Now going under a far sillier and more sinister moniker, as you can see).

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