It’s too soon to go back to business as usual.

Obviously, coverage about Charles Kennedy will continue to dominate today. We have been sent some pieces by people close to him and we will be publishing them as well as covering tributes from Vince and Danny. There will also be a session of tributes in the House of Commons this afternoon which we will want to report on, too. Please continue to share your comments and memories and, if you haven’t already, sign the party’s Book of Condolence. 

I owe a massive debt of thanks to Paul Walter who kept things going on here yesterday while I was out and about. I’m sure you’ll agree that he did a great job, sharing some fantastic photographs, videos and bringing in a bit of Bowie too.

Many people have shared Steve Bell’s beautiful cartoon tribute:

cartoonists sometimes capture the moment. #emotional .Steve Bell on Charles Kennedy – cartoon http://t.co/1KDmkGZypu

— Thomas prag (@radiothos) June 3, 2015

We should also remember that today is the fourth anniversary of the passing of our great colleague and friend Andrew Reeves. On that awful day in 2011, Mark Pack shared his memories.

Andrew had a long career in the party, including working for Vince Cable in Twickenham and Lynne Featherstone in Hornsey & Wood Green and stewarding at party conferences, before becoming the party’s Deputy Director for Scotland. Andrew was always one of the happiest and kindest people on the campaigns I worked with him on, and never let the occasional inevitable moments of stress or tension sour personal friendships. He had also in recent years become a keen runner for charity.

Three disparate memories stick in my mind about Andrew. One was the middle of a local election campaign when due to a farcical breakdown in communications he was inside a locked building out of touch and I had to get some urgent information to him. The solution? Remotely logging in to one of the printers in the building and printing out a letter to him. It caught him a bit unawares when a printer sprung to life and churned out a piece of paper starting ‘Dear Andrew…’
The second was Andrew’s improbably ability to keep his shirts perfectly ironed all through the day. No matter how many tips I asked him to pass on, my shirts have never got even close to his levels of sartorial elegance.

The third was the pleasure of attending his civic partnership just a few months ago, and the chance to meet for the first time his long-term partner Roger. (See Andrew’s lovely post here.) Andrew was always very good at keeping work and private lives separate, so much so that several of using going were joking in advance whether or not Roger really existed…

There is one very happy occasion today, though. It’s the Golden Jubilee of Michael Moore, our brilliant former MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk. While a Cabinet Minister, Mike contributed regularly to this site and his moderate, intelligent contributions to the debate on Scotland’s future were always constructive. We hope he has a very happy day and wish him well for the future.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social