According to Mark Oaten’s campaign manager:
“It was Mark’s declaration that he was going to stand that ensured there was a contest. The others came in after him. It was he that ensured there was a choice for the membership.”
Yes, we know Oaten was first off the starting blocks. But then, he’d been planning the campaign for months, so it was hardly a surprise. But if Oaten hadn’t stood on the Tuesday, then the other two would have almost certainly have done a couple of days later. And that isn’t to mention the fact that both John Hemming and Phil Willis had declared an intention to be stalking horses to guarantee a contest.
Lembit: you’ve done so badly over the past week at least in part due to your habit of repeatedly over-egging the pudding. At least bow out graciously now rather than trying to pretend you’ve made some kind of monumental breakthrough.
I’m sorry to have to say this, but Lembit Opik is looking increasingly like a figure of fun these days.
Backing Oaten so publicly was a very bad move. Exploiting sympathy for Kennedy was an even worse mistake, because it damages the Party.
(By the way. The “O” has an umlaut. Estonian has vowel harmony, so individual words and their agglutinated suffixes can only have all front vowels or all back vowels.)
Like this Ö?
Let’s not kick’em when they are down. I think Mark Oaten has added something to the election. And he has stood down with better grace than one might have feared.
alt+0214. There you go. Bit of a pain on some laptops mind…
Or Macs.
alt-u then O on a Mac.