I am a regular on the Party’s famous “rubber chicken” circuit. I have a peroration which never fails to bring my audience to life. I list two or three of our Shadow Cabinet and their virtues and then I say “And of course, in Ming Campbell we have the Foreign Secretary the Prime Minister wishes he had.” Like all good political knock about it plays well because the audience know it to be true. Ming passes with flying colours what is so often the killer question for a Party Leader at election time; “Can you see X on the steps of 10 Downing Street ready to take responsibility for Government?”

I have known Ming Campbell since we were sent together to canvass a very rough end of Bootle in the Crosby by-election over twenty years ago. He showed the same grit and determination then which still makes my athletics mad elder brother refer to him as “Menzies Campbell the sprinter” and which made him fight and fight and fight again to secure his seat in Parliament.

Add to those personal characteristics an experience and command of Parliament and the trust of his Parliamentary colleagues and you will understand why I believe that Ming is uniquely placed to give us the leadership and credibility we need now whilst at the same time bringing on the richest crop of new parliamentary talent enjoyed by any Party in recent years.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 6th, 2006 at 4:30 pm and is filed under Blog, Endorsement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.