Lib Dem Non-Battles

Fellow blogger, Peter Black must have resolved to increase the number of visitors to his site. Today's post is an absolute cracker- which is why I'm drawing your attention to it. You will be able to judge for yourself what sort of atmosphere there must have been in the Assembly's Lib Dem Group over the last few months.

Personally, I can't quite follow Peter's logic. He wanted a leadership contest so that there would be a debate about policy. Now, he wasn't too fussed who took on Mike German, the current leader, as long as there was a contest. Peter even told us he would stand himself to ensure this happened, and it seems he had the support of another AM (Mick Bates perhaps) which would have enabled him to do so. But it then seems that the other four Lib Dem AMs said that they would scupper this plan by allowing Peter to assume leadership of the Group and of the Party in Wales without a contest at all. Must admit that I'd have said "Thank you very much, suckers" - but we're not all the same. He could then have initiated the debate that he wanted. But no, this would have been far too straight forward. Peter wanted a fight - so he didn't go for it. He just let Mike German carry on (for a specified,though flexible period of time). The great man can now stand down 'in his own time'. I realise that this will all be entirely logical within the complicated mechanism which passes for the Lib Dem mind. But I would be grateful if any of my readers can have a crack at explaining the logic behind it to me. We should all thank Peter for letting us know all about it though.