Monday, September 17, 2007

Good Bye Mike German

It becomes increasingly clear to me that Mike German has learned to read the writing on the wall. I have no doubt that he is going to announce his retirement from the leadership of the Lib Dem Assembly group. The irony for me is that I have always thought Mike to be a very able man - even if unelectable. And I've never been absolutely sure why. All he needs now to finalise his decision to retire is the unwavering support of Lembit Opik.

This is very bad news for Eleanor Burnham and Peter Black (assuming Peter wants to be the leader - of which I am not convinced). If Mike stands down, it opens the door for the very capable Jenny Randerson and the 'Rainbow' killer, Kirsty Williams. Its very early days, and reading the Lib Dems is like betting on plastic duck racing - but I'm going to take a punt on Jenny. In the interests of fairness, I should add that we should be deeply grateful to the Lib Dems for allowing its membership the opportunity to express a view on the leadership of their party. Its rather old fashioned to be quite so democratic. Who knows - it may be catching.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

i thought you were predicting elenor burnham to win a few days ago

Anonymous said...

And less people forget. its thanks to Mike German and of course Jenny Randerson that Cardiff has a Lib Dem administration! Just ashame that their sucessors have rather screwed it up!

Glyn Davies said...

Anon - that was I thougt Mike German was going to try to hang on. Its a new game now - and Eleanor's chance has gone.

morgan hen - I thought the welsh translation on morgan the old would be 'hen morgan' rather than 'morgan hen'. I agree that things seem to have been screwed up - but we differ about whether or not this is a shame. Except for the screwing up of the 'Rainbow' which I did think a great shame for Wales and Welsh politics.

Dr. Christopher Wood said...

I was rather hopeful that Peter Black would take over the reins. Would make a good entry in his bio - last leader of the Welsh Lib Dems. ;-)

I know Peter Black would reply that the Lib-Dems have been written off before and yet they are still around.

Yes, but not as a serious party. Ming probably best summed up where the Lib-Dems are going witht that "toilet picture" showing Ming pointing at a toilet bowl.

http://timesnews.typepad.com/news/images/2007/09/17/mingtoilet.jpg

Glyn Davies said...

Christopher - I'm a fan of Ming's. He seems to me to be a genuinne sort of fellow in the wrong job. He was unlucky with the toilet photograph. We can all be made to look stupid by a sharp camaraman and cynical journalist. Ming was making a fair point.