A living cliche?

So Simon Hughes is elected President of the LibDems. I, as I announced on this blog, would have supported the ebullient Lembit Opik had I been eligible, but I fear that this is a retrogressive step for the LibDems with the ambitious Hughes now Kennedy's 'right-hand man'. I can't see his leadership ambitions leaving him pulling precisely the same way as Kennedy. More to the point I suspect this reveals a lot about the views of the actual members of the LibDems. From a Conservative/Labour perspective this is good news. For politics, in not seeing the promotion of Lembit, it is bad news.

Just perusing the BBC website, my opinion of the opportunistic failed London Mayoral candidate (who famously announced he was the only one who could beat Livingstone: what a laugh!) plummeted even further. The man is a living, walking cliche! Every sentence he comes out with sounds almost David Brent-esque (the manager from BBC comedy The Office). Surely this is an attack the two major parties could deploy very successfully? You heard it here first. Here are just some of them:

• Taking his cue from the British Olympic teams' success in Athens, Mr Hughes has said he is "going for gold".
• Modern democracy is no a longer a matter of died-in-the-wool party loyalty, it is a more of an "a la carte" experience, he suggests.
• "You can eat in the Conservative restaurant, the Labour restaurant or the Liberal Democrat restaurant - but you are not always going to want the same meal.
  "When we are in the restaurant - we can chose things that are Lib Dem or whatever but there are different dishes. You will want different things in the summer from in the winter." What? So the fact the LibDems have done well in only summer by-elections doesn't bode so well for a snap autumn election?
• "We really are not going to buy into this "big brother" ID card society".
• "The Tories and Labour are in the Premiership when it comes to resources. We are a First Division Club. One of our jobs will be to identify a list of the sort of people who are likely to support us."
• "If we are going to be in government we have to be seen as the fashionable, the coming the arriving as the next thing".

Wow. At least he knows the power of the 'soundbite'. Perhaps he should look at the limitations too..

Finally, I'm also not sure he quite meant to let us in on the secret that the LibDems aren't ready for Government but, this...

"I am not saying it will happen but I think, if we do well next year, then we could be ready to be in government for the following election."

...did make me chuckle! Even if we don't have Lembit, at least politics should be a little more entertaining now.