Charles Kennedy Out

The vultures got what they wanted: UK Liberal Democrat leader, Charles Kennedy, quit his post amid a drinking scandal.

His fellow partisans were not happy with his history-breaking record election results for the party, and were impatient about getting more by adopting a more conventional, less charismatic candidate. The most likely guy is Sir Menzies Campbell, a politician from a previous generation of liberal thinkers.

And the intraparty civil war over social liberal vs. economic liberal (in the british sense) will continue, much more publicly now that a figure who could best keep both wings at bay is now no longer in the way.