For just a year, I had the great honour of knowing Charles Kennedy. Through the most tumultuous times in Scottish politics, it was a pleasure to be by his side and to share in his insight.
In the short time I knew Charles, we only scratched the surface as he toldthe most wonderful anecdotes and yet I know I’ll be retelling a great many of them and talking about the time I spent with him for the rest of my lifetime. CK would always say that we, his team, were far keener than he to point out in literature his 32 years of service yet when travelling around the constituency there was no hiding from that long record of delivery. In every town we visited, there was living proof that in the Highlands, everybody knows somebody Charles helped.
On what Charles dubbed “the night of long sgian dubhs” of 7th/8th May at around 1.30am I made the short journey from the count to Charles’ hotel to confirm what he had already surmised, we had lost. He was more prepared than I, having watched majority after majority washed away by the SNP Tsunami. It was, he said, easier to go on a night in which so many others had fallen. Charles took defeat with all the good grace you would expect from a man of his standing. Before the public declaration, he congratulated his successor and enjoyed some snatched moments of somewhat dark humour with the Highland Lib Dem team.
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Pennsylvania's Kids for Cash Scandal shows the danger of the profit motive in the juvenile justice system
Conservative councillor joins Lib Dems in Cannock Chase
The AI world and some fallacies about it
Yet another government makes a mess of local government reform
Front Street looking great
Should the Reform UK leadership take responsibility for violence at their conference?
David Raw 
Katharine Pindar 
David Evans 
Mick Taylor 
Jana 