Rumours sweeping Westminster that there's to be a statement in the hour about Menzies Campbell's future as Lib Dem Leader. More soon.
UPDATE 18.35: He's gone. And the press conference is being led by Simon Hughes and Vince Cable, who is to act as interim leader. The process for electing a new leader will be announced tomorrow.
Both have just exited stage left, refusing to answer questions of "Did you wield the dagger?". Given Campbell's role in Charles Kennedy's eventual departure as Lib Dem leader, it reinforces the proverb that 'you can build a throne of bayonets, but you can't sit on it for long'.
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I posted this on the Herald site on
Calls for unity as pressure mounts on Brown
But I think it's worth repeating.
Ming's gone because he didn't have any policies or direction to give to his party. Probably too Scottish for the English electorate as well.
The polls were going south for the Lib-Dems too.
Does this remind you of somebody?
Brown's a lame duck as much as Ming was, the election fiasco didn't wound him, it just confirmed he was flightless.
I keep bringing up his missing week after the Scottish elections when he had a sulk/maddie/depressive episode but it's very important.
He wasn't the leader of the party at that time, it was Blair, and the UK media didn't make a great thing of it but he still took it very badly.
Now after the election rumours fiasco, he's made a mess of it in the full glare of the UK press, the polls are going south and there's nowhere to hide. All he can parrot is vision, I've got a vision and deny it was the polls that stopped the election in its tracks. His mental state won't be too good at the moment.
I suspect that a lot of middle ranking Brownites are metaphorically ditching the Brown lapel pins and casting around for the next leader to fall in behind. There's nothing a politician on the make can smell faster than failure.
There must be a lot of Labour party members, MSP's and MP's thinking, if the Lib-Dems can ditch a leader that fast why can't Labour?
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