The news that Lembit is interested in running for Mayor has produced a flurry of comment online from Liberal Democrats (such as Andrew Reeves’s piece) so over to you: what do you think?
Subscribe
-
Follow @LibDemVoice on Twitter
-
Like us on Facebook
-
Subscribe to our feed
-
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Most Read
Search
Op-eds
-
Beware asking ‘What next for Syria?’ (Jonathan Brown)
-
Shadows over Damascus: The unravelling of a regime (Mo Waqas)
-
Syrians are free at last (Jonathan Brown)
-
Tom Arms’ World Review (Tom Arms)
-
A longer read: Lib Dem MPs are right about “Tractor Tax” (John Jewers)
Rediscovering the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway
North London's expanse
West End Ward Tuesday Surgeries #dundeewestend
Big brother state
Recent Comments
David Allen
Farmers do hard and vital work, and get hit by many difficulties and uncertainties. So should we: (1). Create good support systems for farming incomes whic...
Ahmad
What comes next is HTS will raise conflicts with Israel as planed by both, so Israel can expand into Damascus to be like Ghazah and the US will handle north Syr...
Matthew Radmore
Roland 10th Dec '24 - 3:46pm Unfortunately, it does seem Israel is taking advantage of the situation… with it taking “temporary control” of demilitarized...- Matthew Radmore
Thank you for this important and shocking read. The whole civilised world, if their is anything civilised left should, only support Syrians at their request ... 
tom arms
@John McHugo. Yes, and I am one of those whose Christian beliefs have shaped his liberal values. But I also am a staunch believer in the separation of church an...
80 Comments
Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should Lembit Opik stand for Mayor. He is a total embarrassment – we need the Liberals to be taken seriously, not laughed out of the race. If only Vince Cable didn’t already have a job…
In a word, no. Anyway, I thought Boris Johnson was our candidate?!
Lembit Opik, as in former MP and now would-be stand-up comedian?
Are things really that bad? I’d rather not see us put up a candidate!
NO NO NO. Loses a seat which has been Liberal since 1880 (apart from 1979), dodgy expenses claims, no judgement whatsoever.
And idle. He has 1900 followers on twitter – last tweet January. No need to bother during the election then.
Self indulgent tosser.
Summed up by his interview on breakfast TB this morning:
“What a great media opportunity for [the press] if you have three colourful characters running for mayor.”
basically, I’m against.
No. He’s a publicity-seeking fool. His constituency voted him out, why would London vote him in?
Lembit would not be my preferred candidate at the best of times, but with us in coalition with the Tories nationally, we particularly need a candidate who contrasts with Boris, not one who is Borisesque.
Awful idea – make him Ambassador to the Asteroid Belt.
It’s a pity that Susan Kramer is available, but I think she would be an excellent candidate, having done it once and got exposure as a London MP since.
No thank you 🙂 Things are bad enough without making them worse.
Lembit losing his seat was both predictable (if not to Lembit) and painful, but a bit like when the Lib Dems won control of Liverpool and it was seen as a Labour gain.
Could someone post the Lib Dem first prefs for the Mayoral elections and london assemby. Haven’t they gone down each election ?
Under no circumstances should Lembit Opik stand as our candidate.
I think either Susan Kramer or Simon Hughes should stand again.
Lembit may be a bad politician, and yes I agree he should not be the candidate and should consider stepping back from politics for good, but as someone who knows him, he is not a fool, a tosser or any of the other things people within the party have called him. He has a big heart and cares deeply about people. Yes he lost a safe seat, yes it was his fault, but he is a fundamentally good human being, and we owe it to him at least not to take him apart.
I still want Caroline to stand, and Lembit needs to wake up and smell the coffee.
Yeah why not!?
We currently have a joke Mayor in Boris – why on earth not have a joke Mayor in Lembit?
Actually Lembit’s already got my vote – mainly because he’s not Boris!
No.
Firstly we need a realistic stargety for the London elections. This means accepting that in the Mayoral contest we start third and will get squeezed and that, for us, it is about gaining Assembly seats and re-building the party’s strength on the ground.
Secondly we need a credible Mayoral candidate who accepts, understands and will work with that strategy.
Lembit has great strengths but they do not fit this role.
No. I agree with Neil on strategy and Lembit’s simply not the right person to be representing the Lib Dems in that sort of high profile role.
I think the above comments have some very valid points, needless to say I don’t think he would make a good candidate.
Putting up someone who now goes under the description of “stand-up comedian” is just asking for it and I think gives the residents of London the impression we aren’t serious.
I would like to see Caroline Pidgeon as our 2012 candidate for May of London.
Susan or Caroline – Boris is a clown, Ken is a has-been tribalist. Having a competant woman would be a good contrast. And they both understand that it’s not all about them, it’s about assembly seats.
Go Lembit Go – repeated until the Voice allows a short post.
Draft Caroline P please – a campaigner and a Londoner
Considering how badly we did in London in May, the one thing which is definitely not required is a celebrity candidate (and Lembit falls into that category, I’m afraid). We need someone capable of helping to rebuild our campaigning ability across the capital, who will put in the hard graft in the non-glamorous part of being a candidate but is also capable of inspiring people.
The only good thing about this announcement is that it shows Lembit’s not interested in standing in Montgomery again, so they can get on with finding a decent candidate to replace him.
Given his last two elections saw him lose on the safest Lib Dem seats in the country and get hammered in the Presidential election, is he going for the trifecta of trying to sink us to 4th place or lower in London?
Caroline Pidgeon has been a great help in our borough, amongst other things campaigning for proper disabled access at Harrow and Stanmore Stations. She is smart, sensible and savvy … I wouldn’t just support her candidacy for Mayor I would go and wear out shoe leather, knock on doors and receive a 1000 paper cuts stuffing envelopes on her behalf : )
@Nick – you make a very good point about us now being able to move to get a good new PPC in Montgomery.
I am not sure about Susan Kramer – she lost the mayoral election before, then lost in Richmond. Too easy for the other parties to portray her as a loser. The ‘save Kingston hospital’ campaign was at the least ill judged and she must bear some responsibility for that.
@Mark P or anyone – what is the timetable for selecting the Lib Dem candidate?
@Nick -“The only good thing about this announcement is that it shows Lembit’s not interested in standing in Montgomery again, so they can get on with finding a decent candidate to replace him.”
But how can they? We don’t know what the boundaries are gonna be, or even when they’ll be decided. The seat may well not exist. Whats the advice for local parties on this? Particulalry in seats like Montgomeryshire when we need to select at the very earliest possbile moment.
As long as we have a directly elected Mayor of London, rather than an elected authority which appoints a leader, there will be un unhealthy and unhelpful focus on personalities and a consequential tendency for high-profile egotists to put themselves forward or be sought out by the party machines.
I don’t think Lembit would make a good Mayor of London, but I don’t think the post should exist.
Nay, Nay thrice Nay!
I think Lembit is getting a disproportionate amount of stick here. I find him good value. And experience tells us that London likes a character. Although whether it will feel that way after having put up with Boris for a term is another question.
Like virtually everyone else, my answer is no.
I do not know how I would advise Lembit for him to make a comeback in politics. He has just lost a safe Lib Dem seat, he has a massive image problem.
There are plenty of (unpaid) jobs that need doing within the Liberal Democrats. There is scope for him to win back the affections of the Liberal Democrat membership. But any public facing role would be that much harder.
I am trying to think if there is any politician who has made a comeback after the kind of setbacks Lembit has had. I can’t think of any.
He can stand for the Official Monster Raving Loony Party.
Tony Greaves
No, please no…..there is no way I would lift a finger to campaign for him; he is beyond a joke and his political career is clearly finished.
That said, given the London Region’s track record of incompetence and interference, doubtless someone from the Regional Party is out there right now inviting him to stand ..
Ian, if you think London Region is “incompetent”, then why don’t you stand for their executive and put it right?
London Region is run by volunteers and we should be very grateful for the work they do.
I am not aware that they are in any way incompetent. What they do need is a membership with a positive attitude who want to make it work.
Caroline Pidgen, I guess. Bridget Fox?
Caroline Pidgeon or Meral Ece would be excellent choices for London mayor. I wouldn’t nominate that clown Öpik for council ratcatcher.
Lembit is a nice chap. I’m angry at him for losing Montgomeryshire, though.
I think he should spend the next five years out of politics, trying to grow up a little. I can’t really criticise him for being eccentric (I’m well known within the Aberystwyth University Liberal Democrats as the same) but I can for not having that much common sense. Stuff like showing up to local party gatherings with his celeb girlfriend in tow. So I think he should just get a sensible partner or something.
For the record, I’m looking forward to regaining Monty from the Tories in five years.
Lembit Opik, as a well known face, is the only chance an LD candidate will have as london mayor. Simon is great but (IMHO) cannot compete with Boris’s charisma and Ken’s oratory skills and natural leadership, Susan just isn’t well-known enough. Lembit is no more of a joke than Boris was (a manifesto based on banning bendy buses, for goodness sake!), and what happened to him?
I think its telling that people inside the LDs don’t want him in, yet he’s one of few LD MPs (prior to the recent election) that has entered the public consciousness, rightly or wrongly.
The choice is between worthy but dull coming third again or taking a risk with someone like Lembit. The election is about personality not politics. It up to the Lib Dems to decide whether they fight a principled, but entirely pointless political campaign or hold their noses and compete for power in what is, in reality, a celebrity contest.
Neither Susan nor Caroline would improve on third place despite being extremely able and hard working. Lembit might pull it off, not least because far more Londoners have actually heard of him.
Boris is highly entertaining, but nobody at City Hall takes any notice of him. Ken’s officers are working on a ‘what would Ken do?’ basis awaiting his return. Whether, if elected, Lembit would have any influence on officers is a different question.
Lembit’s problems started with a vicious personal attack on him by his former partner published by the “Daily Mail” (surprise, surprise). From there, it was down hill all the way. I think Lembit is both a committed Liberal Democrat and a decent man, and I believe that eccentric mavericks have a useful role to play in politics. What Lembit lacks is good judgment. I think his constituents might have tolerated his very public private life if he hadn’t made the fateful decsion to write for David Sullivan’s “Daily Sport”.
There are two lessons to be learned:
(1) Politicians should never forget that old adage, “when in a hole, stop digging”. Lembit added to the damage, when he should have drawn a line beneath it.
(2) There need to be mechanisms in place that enable the leadership to deal with MPs who go off on frolics of their own. Nick Clegg sat back and watched Lembit go to pieces. Why?
I am of the opinion that whoever we select, we’re unlikely to “win” in terms of getting a mayor elected. Not this time, distance to climb is far too great.
But if we put up a serious candidate that knows how to run an effective campaign, who concentrates on the objective of building party support across London, especially including development areas where the local party isn’t perhaps as effective, then we can substantially improve first preference standings and regain the list seats we lost last time.
Putting up Caroline, who’d also need to be top of the list, would show we were serious about governance in London, she’d be able to fight both Ken and Boris on their record, having been watching closely for years, and can build up the list vote instead of seeing it decline.
Getting the LD assembly position up has to be the main priority of the campaign, without a strong presence on the assembly we’ve no real chance of winning regardless of candidate, putting up a candidate independent of the assembly campaign and ignoring the importance of that campaign will hurt us, again.
Build the London party, put up a candidate from the top of the list, and push for more LD AMs. That’s the only way to run the campaign.
OK, something in the LDV CSS has made it look like the top paragraph there is me, it’s not, I’m quoting Bill to respond to him. I’ll go back to blockquotes, but [q cite=””] is in the allowed list 🙁
Have we not had enough to put up with over the last few months, already?
Whatever we think – looks like it is on.
http://www.lembit4london.co.uk/
@Dom intersting, it was registered on 2 June by someone who has chosen to hide their name.
Perhaps one of the ‘senior mp’s’ he claism have asked him to stand
I have a lot of time for Lembit but the party has never managed to direct all his energy and passion towards something constructive. He’s like the kid in class with ADHD who could do brilliant thongs if he’d just sit still.
The London strategy will require a mayoral candidate who will slot into an overall plan and not go off on an ego trip. I’m not sure that’s Lembit.
Incidentally, the plan is certainly to develop the party and gain list votes, rather than allowing the campaign to be all about the mayoral candidate again.
I’ve already commented on Andrew’s blog. Based solely on my personal experience of the 2 men in question, I’d far rather have Lembit as my candidate than Simon Hughes. It’s sad to see this level of personal abuse being directed at someone who’s worked for at least 20 years for the party.
Ignoring Lembit strikes me as classic Liberal self-sabotage. Use his media profile.
He lost his seat because he was up against a local former Assembly Member who stood on the rather pointed basis of “I would be a full-time MP for Montgomeryshire.”
If you live in rural Wales, you want someone who is focussed on rural Wales, not partying with celebrities and Lembit was deemed, fairly or unfairly, to have taken his eye off his constituents.
Seems in London, what they want is Personalities. If not Lembit, is there no famous actor or mountain climber or something who can be persuaded? 😉
How quickly history gets rewritten. His constituency boundaries were changed to include a lot more Tory voters. He never had much of a chance, and it was the boundaries commission that voted him out. Nobody thought it was a safe seat after the boundary changes.
STV would put a stop to that sort of gerrymandering.
@Andrew Suffield
“How quickly history gets rewritten. His constituency boundaries were changed to include a lot more Tory voters. He never had much of a chance, and it was the boundaries commission that voted him out. Nobody thought it was a safe seat after the boundary changes.”
In this election it had exactly the same boundaries with which we came home safe as houses in the 2007 Assembly Election, and the constituency changes were not actually horrificly bad for us anyway, certainly it was still notionally Lib Dem by a rural country mile. Sorry but thems are facts.
“Lembit has great strengths but they do not fit this role.”
Disagree. Lembit has great weaknesses, but they do not disqualify him from this role. He would stand a real chance. No other Lib Dem would stand a chance, not even Vince. Of course Lembit would act the fool. But he could do the job – in fact he might be very good at it.
We should ask him to run as an independent candidate, who we will not oppose. That would mean taking party politics out of the Mayoralty, which should be popular. It would also mean that the candidate takes his own responsibility for the success of his campaign.
I would like Lembit to stand because he is the only candidate we are likely to put up who has a chance, at least, of winning. Some say that its risky to back Lembit but I believe that we need a candidate who is well known and we need to fashion that candidate into something that resonates with the public. We will definitely lose the mayoral election with a candidate without public recognition. Lembit is a risk but there is a possibility at least that we can build a campaign around him that could win. I don’t believe that there is any other candidate that we have who is likely to stand for whom that is the case.
We should not forget that Lembit has worked hard for the party in the past for example producing training videos for the party. He has also spoken at many events and raised money for Lib Dem groups across the country. Behind the public persona there is a serious politician who has worked in the background in the Northern Ireland peace process and has a commitment to the Liberal Democrats and to the values of freedom and fairness that are at the heart of our party.
Lembit is a Lib Dem through and through – he is one of us. He has served the party over many years. Maybe he needs to change to secure the backing of Lib Dems in London. I believe, however, that we should listen to what he is proposing and fashion a campaign around the talent that we have and not seek to press gang someone else into standing who thinks that they will lose.
Ed Joyce
Andrew Suffield, while I agree on the merits of STV, Polling Report has the notional 2005 results taking boundary changes into account as:
Lembit lost a 22.5% majority. You say history is getting rewritten, I didn’t see anyone disputing those figures in the run up to.
@Dom
“he is a fundamentally good human being, and we owe it to him at least not to take him apart.”
Well said.
And I too agree he should not be the candidate.
It will ultimately come down to what the London membership decide in a selection vote.
As I said above, Lembit has strengths and weaknesses and we all know what each
of them is. In addition, there is already an agreed electoral strategy for London which all the candidates we select for the various elected positions at City Hall will have to agree to work to. If Lembit can then he can.
Can I just ask that we all remember that stuff we say now might find its way onto a Tory or Labour leaflet if Lembit DOES end up as our candidate. Those of you posting that Lembit is a liability or an embarassment might inadvertently become one yourselves!
Finally, as someone on the London Region exec I feel sure that anyone from either Lembit’s or any other prospective candidate’s team would be welcome to get in touch and find out what is going on.
@Andrew Suffield : Lembit had a notional 2005 majority of 7,048 on new boundaries, compared to an actual 2005 majority of 7,173 – so nothing in it. The fact is you have to be seriously bad to lose that sort of majority even in a poor year.
Lembit as Mayoral candidate – NO.
We are not going to win, or even come a good second. The only sensible course is to use the election strategically and have the mayoral candidate as top of the list to try to boost list vote and get an extra GLAM elected. I’d certainly be happy if Caroline ran, or Susan if she wants to do it and become a GLAM.
Lembit Opik is a joke, and not a funny one. London needs someone who knows the city, not a Welsh Farmer. Simon Hughes for Mayor!!!
Sam – if lembit was a welsh farmer, then he’d probably still be the MP for montgomeryshire.
Again, he’s not a joke, he’s a good human being, but he should not be our candidate, nor for his own sake, seek the selection.
Once again, can I appeal for a bit of self-confidence, or at least not giving up before we even know who will be on the other teams. Theres nearly 2 years to go & alot can happen in that time, its not impossible that both Ken & Oona might stand, for example.
The point about the London Mayor is that its more like a temporary Dictatorship, the rules are not those of ordinary politics. To stand any chance you have to be a household name before the campaign even starts & you must have a “larger than life” personality. Its no good putting up a Fred Bloggs, they must already be “Fred”.
I can only think of 2 possible candidates, Simon & Lembit. Simon is already doing a vital job & in any case has stood for the job too many times already, If we are serious that leaves Lembit.
To those who are saying Lembit would be a credible candidate, just answer me this. Why should anyone in London vote for someone who has been voted out from his rural Welsh seat because too many of his constituents felt he wasn’t working hard enough for them?
If people in London want a comedian as Mayor, they’ve already got one in the form of Boris.
And if this was anything other than a massive ego trip for Lembit, he would have launched his campaign by giving a substantial vision of what he would want to achieve as Mayor. Instead, he’s focusing on it as a personality contest.
No.
(I was told “Your comment was a bit too short. Please go back and try again.”, so I have.)
I’d like to see Susan Kramer or Julia Goldsworthy standing – Julia possibly has the higher public profile.
Bernard
Lembit has sort of laid out his vision for London, to make it the freest city in the west.
It is a very a very expensive city so having some more free things would be good for
Londoners and tourists alike.
Lembit is a bit ethnic so he would have a better understanding of this cosmopolitan city
where half of the “ethnic minorities” live.
London is a bit of a cheeky place, I don’t want to go into details here,it could embarrass
a lot of people.
Make London crime free,drugs free,pollution free and unemployment free and it could be
a nice place to live.
To stand any chance you have to be a household name before the campaign even starts & you must have a “larger than life” personality. Its no good putting up a Fred Bloggs, they must already be “Fred”.
I can only think of 2 possible candidates, Simon & Lembit. Simon is already doing a vital job & in any case has stood for the job too many times already, If we are serious that leaves Lembit.
I’ve already said that we don’t need a celebrity candidate, but if we were to go down that route, why not give Colin Firth a ring to see what he’s doing? Or Baroness Benjamin of The Round Window? Would those not be better choices than a failed politician and D-list celebrity like Lembit?
No thanks, no Lembit. That seems to be a clear majority verdict. People want him to do Community Service, but not as Mayor of London.
To all those of you dissing Lembit on the grounds of him being a media / publicity “whore” for lack of a better term, had you not considered that may well be just what we need? Also, Lembit isn’t just brilliant when you put him in front of a camera, he’s a superb orator, highly intelligent, highly capable and he’s also very likeable person, especially on the doorstep and of course during his personal favorite, pub canvassing. He may have represented a Welsh constituency, but let us also not forget that Lembit’s spent about half the time since he was elected in London, afterall, he was an MP.
Lembit would be a superb candidate for London Mayor and there’s probably not many LibDems with a much higher name, or face recognition, within London, Wales or elsewhere. And I think Boris Johnson proves that a politician doesn’t have to be 110% serious to get elected. We could do a lot worse than Lembit Opik.
Lembit has a self-obsessed and ultimately destructive personality, as is clear from both his political and personal lives. I cannot see what possible good could come out of his standing as our candidate for London Mayor, we would simply line ourselves up for months of ridicule, a lot of internal unease, and by a poorer than usual result
No he shouldn’t. If you leave all the character flaws and inability to one side your still left with a man who lost one of the safest seats in the country by a fair margin. NO NO NO NO.
Re the result in Montgomeryshire. I think it’s a little excessive to suggest this was entirely down to Lembit. Yes the Lib Dems carried the constituency in the 2007 Assembly election but it was with a majority of 1,979 or 8.9%. However on the list vote the situation was reversed with the Conservatives “winning” with a majority of 2080. As Nick Bourne was always likely to hold his top seat, the effective Conservative candidate being voted for was Glyn Davies.
Montgomeryshire was not quite the “Liberal forever (except when the association forgets to campaign)” of legend *, but rather a rather personalist constituency where successive Liberal candidates had had the luck of timing and opponents.
(* The legend isn’t quite true either as the seat was out of Liberal hands between 1931 & 1942 when the sitting MP went Liberal National before returning. Before 1880 it had been Pittite/Tory/Conservative since at least the days of Pitt.)
I’m actually a big fan of Boris, and his celebrity status is very different to Lembit Opik; Boris reached the Stephen Fry class of celebrity.
Frankly I think David Laws could make a brilliant Mayor, I don’t think he’d win until his reputation was rebuilt and Boris leaves to try for prime minister but in the mean time he’d make things interesting.
His biggest weakness is that his desire to stand is entirely motivated by personal reasons, most particularly his addiction to publicity-seeking which he seems to have picked up mixing with various low-level celebs, and not in the least by political reasons. He would be there for himself and not for us.
It is only a matter of time (in all seriousness) before he signs up to appear on Celeb Big Brother, the last resort for the fame-addicted. Really it’s quite sad.
Anyone But Lembit!
Mayor of London! No, are you mad!! Why do you think he was thrown out of Parliament? Let him if anyone will employ him.
Absolutely not. Not only is he a laughing stock and victim of the biggest swing in the last election he was a welsh MP – what exactly is his claim to be Mayor of London?
1st preference Simon
2nd preference Ken
Boris out!
I should clarify that I agree Lembit is a very decent man and a true Liberal but it’s hard to argue that he was a good MP/politician.
To everyone saying the mayoral election is about personality rather than politics I would suggest this is not a good thing! I think we have to be realistic that we have not got a hope of winning this election in the next several cycles. We should be concentrating on getting a good, serious, local candidate (Simon or Susan) to run a principled fight and enhance our profile in the GLA and general elections. Hopefully our second preference votes will send Boris packing as a bonus.
@DavePage I don’t think Julia would run, I hope to see her name back on Camborne, Redruth & Hayle ballot paper!
Firstly le me say that the critisisms that any LIBERAL democrat make of a man (or a women ) who chooses to go out with and perhaps fall in love with glamerous attractive partners is either in a state of jealously or has forgotten their liberal principals. Every snide comment about him going out with a ‘cheeky girl’ or a model seems to be trying to say that pop singers or models are somehow not suitable partners.
Lembit has lost his way in the last few years politically but those who say he is without talent or judgement have an increadibly short memory. Before he was even an MP he was more than capeable of turning im[portant conference policy debates , and being able to win over a majority of party members (as an outsider ) for his welsh seat in a well contested contest shows that when on form he can have an exteremely effective ‘popular’ touch .
Properly chanelled he could be a very effective candidate perhaps more so than any of the alternatives.
You may or may not agree (and if you dont that is fine) but some of the comments i’ve been reading here have been wholly out of propoion and bordinging on childish spite.
Lembit has lost his way in the last few years period. He only wants the attention, and it’s not our role to give it to him.
We shouldn’t even dream about granting a leadership role to a maverick whose core beliefs are so manifestly at odds with the centre-left moral principles we have steadfastly maintained for generations. Oh, hang on, have we done that already?
I thought this from ‘Flock Together ‘ sums the situation up:
“Lembit Opik and the rest of the Lembit 4 London team will be gathering at the Three Stags at 67-69, Kennington Rd, London, London, SE1 7PZ at 7.00pm on Monday 26th July. We will be having an informal drink to discuss the mayoral campaign. If you want to come along you can just turn up and look for Lembit but it would be helpful if you could e-mail [email protected] just so that we have a rough idea of the numbers. This will be a Liberal Drinks style event where you come along and buy your own beers. Lembit will not be with us tonight but we will be going ahead as planned. The new Lembit4London leaflet has been designed and we will be discussing it. We also plan to hold another meeting with Lembit in attendance on Monday 6th September. Details will be on Flock Together.”
basically the meeting was arranged for his supporters and now he cant be bothered to turn up.
Truly useless
The campaign team has been holding meetings once a month in the Three Stags. That was the third, and we have another booked in September. Lembit has always attended these to date. The July event was to discuss the new leaflet and Lembit was in Liverpool so we needed to run the meeting to get feedback.
Lembit has been really effective in getting the campaign into the media and Paddy Power now has the Lib Dems at 12-1 for mayor. The party would not be in such a strong position in the mayoral race if it were not for Lembit throwing his hat into the ring. He is great fun to work with, and there is an enthusiastic team backing him. The party needs to make use of the assets that it has if it is to succeed.
Ed Joyce
I wonder if Lembit taking a job with an Iranian TV station may not be terribly helpful to him if he does want to be our candidate for mayor. http://bit.ly/aNzgfg