On the Charles Kennedy celebrity news, this, to me, smells of a right-wing coup for control of the party. I have blogged about it

here, suggesting that it is a move to force the membership to accept the Orange Book lot, and thus have them seize the infrastructure of the party.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_po...ics/ 4587448.stm

Squander Two and Helen Mirren. A formidable coalition.

Goan yersels!

I don't see why his sudden unavailability is an issue. According to TheyWorkForYou (http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/george_galloway/ bethnal_green_and_bow) George...

Has spoken in 4 debates since the General Election — 556th out of 646 MPs.

Has received answers to 4 written questions since the General Election — 450th out of 646 MPs.

Has attended 15% of votes in parliament — 634th out of 645 MPs.

Oh, yes: certainly he was already a crap MP. But he might argue that none of those votes or debates were relevant to his interests or his constituents -- and considering the amount of time wasted on bullshit by Parliament, he might even have a point. Now he can't even use that defense.

Me and Helen are like that, we are.

Also, Galloway's crap debating, voting and attendance record was well established long before the 2005 general election, so anyone who voted for him in Bethnal Green because they wanted an assidous constituency MP has only got themselves to blame for not doing their homework.

It's not as though this was a closely-guarded secret either - I seem to remember it being mentioned rather a lot during the campaign.

That's why I mentioned the part of the world he really cares about. So maybe those of his constituents who voted for him care more about the Middle East than their own home and don't care how often he votes in Parliament as long as he makes plenty of VIP trips to Syria to tell Assad how wonderful he is. Fair enough, if that's what they want. He's still failing them now.

> he might argue that none of those votes or debates were relevant to his interests or his constituents

Sometimes, yeah. But as the papers are very keen to point out, the vote on terrorism legislation was very much within his interests, and instead of voting he was in Ireland presenting some ego-fest or other.

Here's a Q, Mr Two

If the Orange Book mob get control of the LibDems and push them in a far-right, free market liberal direction, probably under Mark Oaten, would you vote for them?

The second comment in this thread is the first time I've ever heard of the Orange Book people, whoever they are, so I'm hardly qualified to say. For all I know, they advocate hitting popes with monkeys. Which, come to think of it, I might be tempted to vote for.