Tuesday 16 October 2007

A slightly eccentric theory about Ming's leadership

It occurred to me today that perhaps Ming's Leadership didn't last as it broke the sequence of Scot, non Scot Leaders we have had back as far as 1935. The list is as follows:
Archibald Sinclair - Scot
Clement Davies - non Scot
Jo Grimond - Scot
Jeremy Thorpe - non Scot
David Steel - Scot
Paddy Ashdown - non Scot
Charles Kennedy - Scot
Menzies Campbell - Scot
perhaps if the last Leadership campaign had lasted a couple of weeks more Chris Huhne would now be Leader and the sequence and fates would be appeased! No comments suggesting that there have been too many Scottish leaders and apologies to former SDP members for omitting their leaders from the list.

2 comments:

Tristan said...

If I were to be more eccentric then perhaps I would suggest that the breaking of this pattern represents the breaking out of the lamentable state the party has been in and out of during those years...

Of course your pattern was broken by Grimond's brief second leadership after Thorpe resigned, but since that was not an elected leadership but an emergency one it could easily be discounted.

Tim Roll-Pickering said...

The theory is broken as Jo Grimond was a caretaker post Rinkagate leader for two months between Thorpe and Steel. So there have already been two Scots in succession.