Just as Charles Kennedy had started to rebuild his political career, apparently his erstwhile friends (“senior party insiders”) have briefed Greg Hurst a reporter from The Times, who has written a book about him.  Not only does the book helpfully flesh out those damaging rumours that leaked and led to Mr Kennedy’s resignation, young Turks such as Heather Teather[1], Edward Davey[2] and Norman Lamb[3] who had been tipped as future leaders and high flyers of the Party, are stitched up to look like Brutus and the Gang.  Implausibly, Sir Menzies Campbell is cleared of any complicity in Charles Kennedy's political assassination.

The Sunday Times reports today that,

“A string of senior Liberal Democrats have provided material for the book, which is expected to reveal embarrassing details of Kennedy’s long battle with alcoholism...”

Well, I suppose that whilst you are ensuring that Charlie Boy’s comeback stalls, you might as well stymie some of your future leadership-challenge opponents as well. This is not going to be taken well by those who are “done down”.  In a parliamentary party as small as that of the Liberal Democrats, by a process of elimination it will not be difficult to deduce the members of the cabal who have been plotting since before the fall of Charles Kennedy. When Sir Menzies is unceremoniously ditched as party leader in a year or two’s time, the next Liberal Democrat leadership contest is not going to be a teddy bears’ picnic.