Charles Kennedy, former leader of the Lib Dems I did not vote for the Coalition

Birmingham’s the place to be today Sunday 16th May 2010.

That’s where the Special Lib Dem conference will take place to consider the events of the last few days and the party’s sudden marriage to the Tories. (Norman Tebbit says ‘marry in haste, repent at leisure), sorry, couldn’t resist saying that!

This meeting I suppose is the grassroots element of the famous ‘triple lock’ where members will be allowed to vote on the current arrangements with the Conservative Party.

I’ve researched the background to this situation a little and the chances of a negative vote affecting the outcome look like somewhere near zero.

Many, Lib Dems have major reservations about getting into bed with the tories and surprisingly Charles Kennedy, former leader until 2006 has gone public saying that he did not vote for the alliance.

Former party leaders and ex prime ministers normally leave the Commons or, for the few that do hang on they generally sit quietly in the background to avoid any suggestion of sour grapes. Mind you the Lib Dems have had so many leaders lately that I suppose they cannot afford to let any of them leave the House.

Charles did go on a little bit further to say that:

The coalition arrangements challenged his political compass

He had assumed before all the negotiations that there would be a progressive coalition

He was attending today’s conference but there was no opportunity to unpick the alliance, this is a done deal

Charles hasn’t just said this, he has written an article in today’s Observer about it all, he has developed his thinking a bit too. He now thinks that:

There was no chance of a Labour-led alliance, as it was “unworkable”

Now although I have concentrated on Charles, another former leader is in the mix. Paddy Ashdown has expressed his concerns about the coalition also.

All of the above mark you, has happened before the Special conference even starts.

Now, either former leaders of the Lib Dem party don’t feel constrained by any obligation to let the current leadership operate without the benefit of back-seat drivers. Or, the concerns about the future of the Lib Dems are so serious that normal conventions have been abandoned.

I suspect the latter.

Charles himself, has expressed the worries that many of the grassroots feel, he says today that:

He has concerns that the Lib Dems would be swallowed up by the Tories.

And, dear reader although I am not a lib dem myself I think that the Liberal brand is in danger of extinction in the United Kingdom…