In my absence from the blogosphere, it would appear there has been fevered discussion about who should be the next Lib Dem President, with most people appearing to favour pretty much anyone but Simon Hughes. See Alex Wilcock and Liberal Review.
One name I haven’t seen mentioned much is David Rendel, yet he would appear to be superbly qualified (leaving aside Alex’s rule that it must be a woman): a non-parliamentarian (ex to be precise) with a good profile, and one who has been on both the FE and the FFAC this past year meaning that, unlike Simon, he wouldn’t start his tenure not having the first clue about how the party does its internal business.
The new Lib Dem Voice – which I’ve also only just become aware of – has a poll on the subject. Drop in and add your view. Well done to Rob Fenwick for setting this up.
I wouldn’t say it was an absolute rule that the candidate must be a woman, and all other things being equal I think he’d make an excellent President – nice chap, and, as you say, superbly qualified.
However, in terms of making an impact regarding diversity, when I suggested I’d have difficulty being persuaded to vote for yet another man over 60, a man of 57 who looks older than his years and has even less hair than Simon wasn’t quite the change I had in mind… It’s not exactly ‘Reflecting Britain’, is it? Or was that just a PR stunt for the Leadership contest?
(Clicks on site)
It evidently was.
I agree with Alex – David would be a very good choice but he doesn’t exactly appeal to a different constituency from Ming and Vice. Plus, he’s been reselected to fight Newbury so his time is probably better spent concentrating on the constituency.
Erm, Vice? Freudian slip. Ming and Vince.
I don’t disagree with any of that and if you look you’ll notice I was careful not to explicitly endorse him. I’m just suggesting that David is a) well qualified and b) well positioned to actually beat Simon. Find me a non-token woman to stand and I’ll support her (I voted for Susan Kramer on LibDemVoice) but in lieu of her emerging (she didn’t in 2004) then David would probably make an excellent Plan B.
In terms of Reflecting Britain being a “PR stunt” – tad harsh that since I was doing it in my spare time and out of my own pocket (whose PR are you claiming I was doing?) – there have been multiple times when I’ve considered starting the website up and either turning it into a networking site to encourage candidates or a tool for bashing the leadership with. But I haven’t had time to do the former, and I’ve – just – been persuaded not to do the latter by my more diplomatic friends. If you want to take it off my hands and do something more with it, drop me an email.
David would make an excellent Party President, howvere as PPC for Newbury he should be far too busy to do it just now!
Sorry, James, that was a little catty.
Perhaps just a message on there to say it’s been discontinued and why, perhaps with the same offer you’ve just made, might make it look better. I do peer at it from time to time…
Happy to oblige – http://reflectingbritain.org.uk/2006/09/11/reflecting-britain-update/