Charles Kennedy about to make a personal statement..

[bundle]

..about his alleged alcohol problem

Message withdrawn

I like him too. I didn't vote for him, but I do like him.

The stress from his job and a new baby must be immense. I think if he has a serious problem which he is having difficulty controlling then he should stand down for the sake of his marriage and his son.

When we had WFTC credit prbs we wrote to our MP, and all the party leaders- he was the only one to bother replying. I sympathise with him, and whilst I can't imagine him running the country after this I do wish him well. He's brave to admit to it.

And as I'm a lib dem member, better wait for the candidate stuff to arrive! Not that I ever hear from them... why is that?

Surely half the MP's in the house of commons have drink problems to one degree or another? The only difference is Kennedy has been hounded by people in his party and the media and the climate has changed. Once upon a time, nobody would have breathed a word about this in public. Thatcher was a prolific whiskey drinker, by all accounts. And Churchill managed to win the war with a serious alcohol problem. Hic.

Apparantly his former Press Officer was going to do an interview with ITN news, which forced Kennedy to get in first with his admission.

Pretty disgraceful behaviour from his PO if that's true. This is a terrible thing to deal with and for me it's on a par with outing gay men who aren't ready to be outed.

Cannot believe CK is the only MP to have a drink problem...

Was saying the other night that there's a way things go in politics - whisperings, followed by revelations, followed by statements, protestations of no resignation, resignation. Just a shame when it's someone decent that is on the receiving end of it, IMO.

Just read his statement on the libdem site

Really unfortunate the way this had to happen IMO.

Mark Oaten and Sir Menzies claim they won't stand, so is it just Simon Hughes (is that his name?) then?

poor Charles Kennedy, I do hope he manages to sort himself out. He and his family deserve better. He was such a nice change after creepy Paddy Ashdown.

LOL. I agree about Paddy, but DH lived in his constituency until we moved in together (1998), and he swears that he was wonderful, I guess that's what counts.

PA was Godfather to one of my good friends and I met him at her funeral, as well as being my MP for most of my life. He teased us about there being weed in our roll up ciggarettes as I recall. Slightly off beat perhaps, but not creepy.