It’s been a while since our first thank you to the bloggers backing Ming.

Thanks to the hard work of the Pigeon Post blog, here’s an updated list of the bloggers who’ve said that they are backing Ming. There’s been an encouraging, and sharp, increase in support over the last week.

• Simon Radford
  

  Principle and policy can and should trump populism. Only someone like Ming has the authority to restructure our policy accordingly.

• James’s Cabinet of Curiosities:
  

  Sir Menzies has the experience, and the respect in parliament to really put Bliar/Brown and ‘Dave’ in their places. As well as take the party on to further electoral success. He comes across as a warm and friendly bloke as well, definitely another ‘real human being’.

• Owen Griffiths, Tinned Spam:
  

  His adherence to the center – anti authoritarian – left is appealing; and rings with what I understand liberalism to be. Consistently on policy he rang true.

• David Walker
  

  Which leadership candidate can most confidently be trusted to lead a principled and united party in the next General Election – and earn more votes, more Members, more power in the land?

  I believe that person is Ming.

• John Hemming MP
  

  There were two particular parts of his speech which were clearly distinct from the other two candidates.

  Firstly, he made it clear that we should be a campaigning party raising issues from a local to national level.

  Secondly, he talked about the 1.6 Million families waiting for housing and the 700,000 empty homes.

• Rob Knight, author of the excellent Liberal Review:
  

  I believe that when voting for a leader, I should vote for the person most likely to stand up for the principles that I believe in. Of all three of the candidates, Ming Campbell is the most consistent in doing this. Much has been made of his “gravitas” and, although I think this can be exaggerated, I think he has the credibility to ask serious questions of the government.

• Stephen Tall, A Liberal Goes A Long Way
  

  I like his definition of leadership: “I believe in leading not following; setting goals and objectives; shaping events not being shaped by them; taking responsibility and discharging it; being both candid and confident; neither dictatorial nor prescriptive, but consultative and committed.”

• Steve Travis
  

  Ming is most in touch with the issues that matter to the electorate.

• Cicero’s Songs:
  

  This is a man with the intelligence and knowledge to make a great Prime Minister.

• Phil Grant at John Bright’s Body
  

  Ming’s ability to communicate liberalism clearly and calmly has impressed me more has the contest has progressed.

• Dave Smithson is the first of our bloggers to be photographed with Ming:
  

  I am backing Ming to win the race, even if it is a marathon and not a sprint!!

• Joe Otten
  

  Not policy, but values, conviction, gravitas, these are what matter. Because Ming doesn’t reflect the interests of a section of the party’s activists, he is the more uniting force. He shows the greater consistency of message, the better support and the more character. This is why it has to be Ming.

• Iain Sharpe, Eaten by missionaries
  

  He gets my vote for a number of reasons. He is a good liberal – sound on civil liberties and the core liberal issues, and the least collectivist of the three candidates. The policy direction he sets out shows that he has a wider political worldview than just foreign affairs and that he is willing to embrace the ideas put forward by some of the younger members of the parliamentary party.

• Simon Mollan at Inner West
  

  Any assessment of the candidates in this election has to judge how they will go down in the urban areas and regions within which we hope there will be an orange revolution of sorts. This means Scotland and the North; and it means Ming.

• Mary Reid on Read My Day:
  

  Ming Campbell is the candidate who is best placed to unite the party and give strong leadership. He is the only one who is described by the media as a statesman, and perhaps what we need now is some gravitas.

• Andy Darley, And Then He Said…
  

  There is one failing a leader of the third party cannot have – they cannot be dull.

• Chris Ward:
  

  Ming was one of the first senior politicians I ever met, and he is one of the very few that left a lasting impression. As the press so rightly say, “he never walks, he strides”. Ming commands respect from all sides of the political spectrum, and he has the knowledge, the experience, the gravitas, and I insist on this next one, the youth to take our party further than we ever have been before.

• Colin Ross:
  

  Unsurprisingly, as my background is in campaigns, I am interested in which candidate will help us win the most votes and seats and for me that is Sir Menzies.

• Dave Radcliffe is another person photographed with Ming:
  

  As you can see from the photo, I’m literally behind Ming [I’m the black clad bloke on the right]

• Sally at Sally’s Journal:
  

  He opened his mouth and I fell in love. He could make me laugh. He could make me cry. He could move me with a personal anecdote, or inspire me with a broad vision. He filled me full of hope, hope that had been squeezed out of me over the last lean years. Hope that people could make a difference in politics. Hope that the changes that labour have made that grieve me to the core could still be overthrown with the right government. Hope that he would do what was unpopular for the sake of doing what was right. Hope that there were people who still believed in what was Good, and that the Liberal Democrat party was a place to find them…

• Peter on the Apollo Project:
  

  All the candidates have said things I agree with. But more than anyone else, Ming offers the whole Liberal agenda. For a Lib Dem breakthrough, a Ming is the thing!

If you are a blogger backing Ming, you can download a button from this site. Please post a comment if you would like to be included on this list.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006 at 11:46 am and is filed under Blog. 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.