• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Charles Kennedy dead

MikeG

Now. Do it now.
MikeG
Joined
Sep 22, 2012
Messages
24,804
Location
UK
BBC

One of the more interesting politicians of the last 30 years, in my view.
 
Seeing your post, I looked at BBC news - only 55 - too young.
 
The way it's being reported, the consensus is that he succumbed to the effects of his alcoholism. I cannot imagine the stress of being and MP and a party leader adding the pressure of combating alcoholism on top of that must have been excruciating.

Like so many LibDems, he seemed to be a decent sort of person who appeared to be intelligent, thoughtful and self-deprecating.
 
The Don said:
The way it's being reported, the consensus is that he succumbed to the effects of his alcoholism. I cannot imagine the stress of being and MP and a party leader adding the pressure of combating alcoholism on top of that must have been excruciating.

Like so many LibDems, he seemed to be a decent sort of person who appeared to be intelligent, thoughtful and self-deprecating.
Click to expand...
He was a decent man. His opposition to the Iraq War and to the coalition with the Tories was admirable. Now his seat is lost and his party has been effectively obliterated. He deserved better than that, and he will be remembered for better than that, because the responsibility for that disaster was not his.
 
SusanB-M1 said:
Seeing your post, I looked at BBC news - only 55 - too young.
Click to expand...

Speaking as someone of the same age, tragically young.

From Alistair Campbell.

Charles Kennedy was a lovely man, and a highly talented politician. These are the kind of words that always flow when public figures die, often because people feel they have to say those things, and rightly they are flowing thick and fast today as we mourn an important public figure, and a little bit of hypocrisy from political foes is allowed. But when I say that Charles was a lovely man and a talented politician, I mean it with all my heart.
...
He was great company, sober or drinking. He had a fine political mind and a real commitment to public service. He was not bitter about his ousting as leader and nor, though he disagreed often with what his party did in coalition with the Tories, did he ever wander down the rentaquote oppositionitis route. He was a man of real talent and real principle.

Despite the occasional blip when the drink interfered, he was a terrific communicator and a fine orator. He spoke fluent human, because he had humanity in every vein and every cell. Above all, he was a doting dad of his son, whose loss is going to be greater than for any of us, and who will be reminded of his father every time he looks in the mirror and sees his red hair and cheeky smile coming back. And he was a very good friend. I just wish that we, his friends, had been able to help him more, and that he was still with us today, adding a bit of light to an increasingly gloomy political landscape.
Click to expand...
 
The Don said:
The way it's being reported, the consensus is that he succumbed to the effects of his alcoholism..........
Click to expand...

I dunno. I get the feeling that they're all hinting that he committed suicide. One assumes that drink would have played a part in that if it turns out to be true.
 
MikeG said:
I dunno. I get the feeling that they're all hinting that he committed suicide. One assumes that drink would have played a part in that if it turns out to be true.
Click to expand...

I haven't seen any hints that suicide is suspected, rather that Kennedy appears to have become ill from alcohol abuse. Many of the pictures of him in the news feeds show him looking unwell IMHO.

He seemed like one of the most noble politicians around though if that's not damning with faint praise.
 
Blimey, that one came out of the left field. I was watching something on the Guardian's website earlier today and wondered why a video of him speaking at a 2003 anti-war rally was top of the list, but never figured it was due to this.
 
'No suspicious circumstances' is generally a code for not suicide (and not murder/manslaughter either).
 
Agatha said:
'No suspicious circumstances' is generally a code for not suicide
Click to expand...

I'm not so sure about that. I'm pretty sure that I've seen the phrase used in cases that did seem to be suicide (here, for example). In the case of Kennedy, the police (or someone) do seem to have ruled it out explicitly.

Police are not treating his death as suspicious and a source told MailOnline he may have collapsed and died after a night of drinking but there is no evidence to suggest it was suicide.
Click to expand...
 
Agatha said:
'No suspicious circumstances' is generally a code for not suicide (and not murder/manslaughter either).
Click to expand...
Here's an Australian comment on the expression.
MANY lives have ended only to be marked in print with the sad and empty epitaph 'police said there were no suspicious circumstances'. That phrase, the journalistic euphemism for suicide, may fade away with the release today of the Australian Press Council's first comprehensive guidelines for reporting on the issue.
Click to expand...
 
I knew someone (also sadly passed away) who used to sometimes get the sleeper with him from Fort William to London. Apparently drink would be had in great quantity.
 
I didn't realise (or I'd forgotten) that he had a young child; poor wee boy.
 
Seems that, like my alcoholic late best friend, it was an alcohol-related haemorrhage.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33025795

Former Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy died of a major haemorrhage linked to alcoholism, his family have said.

Mr Kennedy, who led the party between 1999 and 2006, died at his home in Fort William on Monday aged 55.

Following a post-mortem examination, his family issued a statement saying his unexpected death was "a consequence of his battle with alcoholism".
Click to expand...
 
So those who were speculating that he might have killed himself were sort of right. But only in the sense that hundreds of thousands of people kill themselves every year.
 
The Daily Fail has restarted it's anti SNP hate fest today, claiming activists hounded him to drink again. It's getting very predictable.
 
Architect said:
The Daily Fail has restarted it's anti SNP hate fest today, claiming activists hounded him to drink again ...
Click to expand...
By winning his seat from him in a general election, in which they won almost every seat in the country?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom