Talk:Charles Kennedy

Untitled

Some Liberal Democrat appears to be consistently editing this page to ensure it contains no links to anybody who has anything critical to say about Kennedy. What are they afraid of?

Anybody knows if he has any relationship with Ted Kennedy or not?!

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Have I got for news for you - Is this the correct title? -- Zoe

Yup. Not sure on the capitalization, so I figured best go all lowercase as per Wikipedia policy. IIRC on the opening sequence it's all in caps. It's a very popular programme in the UK. I would recommend it but I doubt non-brits would get much of the jokes -- Tarquin

there's no question mark: see http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/profiles/angus_deayton.shtml

But "FOR news FOR you"? -- Zoe

You're right, the first FOR is incorrect, I've fixed the page. --Imran

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How would people feel about moving this to Charles Kennedy, which is currently vacant?

I've been twenty pages deep on a Google search for "charles kennedy" and the vast majority of pages are about this man. Two other Charles Kennedys who might be of interest to Wikipedia eventually are:

• Pte Charles Thomas Kennedy VC (1876-1907), British soldier, Boer War hero.
• Charles Kennedy (1923-1997), British economist.

Does anybody know of any more? --rbrwr

PS: for the moment, I've made Charles Kennedy a redirect here --rbrwr

I've added a small disambig page, just for completeness. I suspect a couple more will turn up, in the fullness of time. Shimgray 21:22, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

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Any way we can get a picture that doesn't look like a shot taken of a criminal through a grainy security video?

{{LibDem}} would be perfect here. --SPUI (talk) 18:57, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Irish?

Can anyone supply a reference as to his "Irish" roots? Kennedy is both Scottish and Irish in origin. The only possible clue I see to Irish ancestry is his religion, but even that is highly dubious for any number of reasons. --MacRusgail 00:15, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

Certainly no shortage of soft-spoken Scottish Catholics in that end of the world anyway... The edit summaries when the cat was added -

(cur) (last) 10:58, 22 October 2005 Arniep (the irish british category is for people of irish descent in Great Britain, Kennedy is Catholic, his gf Irish)

(cur) (last) 06:55, 22 October 2005 Mpntod (He's Scots - not Irish.)

(cur) (last) 18:43, 21 October 2005 Arniep (added irish brit cat)

I confess I'm a bit baffled as to how that equates to Irish... there's some discussion on User talk:Arniep about it, which suggests it's being used in an "American" style - a grandparent, a great-grandparent, who was Irish. The problem is that this doesn't map to conventional British usage very well - outside a couple of reasonably tightly defined communities, ethnicity / background in this regard is generally not noted by the second generation. (he said, speaking as a first-generation Scot) Shimgray | talk | 12:13, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

There was already a discussion at cfd where objections to the American usage were raised, it was agreed that I change the category to xxx of Irish descent (which I am going to do shortly). Arniep 14:08, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

Also, some people appear to be jumping to the conclusion that he has Irish ancestry because he's a Catholic, but he comes from the Highlands, where there are some pockets of indigenous non-Irish Catholics. PatGallacher 12:20, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

Kennedys inclusion in this category was an error. I had presumed that most Scottish Catholics were of Irish descent, and combined with the Kennedy name, this had leant me towards being more confidant to include him in this category. However now knowing that there are both indigenous Catholics and Kennedys in the highlands, it seems likely he is not of Irish descent. I did state that his gfather was Irish, but this was a mistake (it was Jack McConnells gfather). Arniep 14:08, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

GUU

I feel I should comment on some unsourced material, now removed but not by me, about Kennedy's comments on the mixing of Glasgow University Union. If all Kennedy is saying is that he did not have the power to take major decisions single-handed then he is right, but as president of the board around that time he must have had some serious influence. It could be interesting if he gave a detailed account of goings-on on the GUU board around that time, but will he do so? PatGallacher 16:57, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

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SDP

"one of only five MPs to support the merge[r]". If memory serves there were only 8, of whom three (David Owen, John Cartwright and Rosie Barnes) opposed the merger and, briefly, formed a breakaway SDP that, funded by Sainsbury, continued for a short time. Open to correction. 195.72.169.116 14:19, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

• The 1987 election left just five SDP MPs. Kennedy was the only one to support the merger from the outset, with Robert McClennan only coming round later on. Owen, Cartwright and Barnes opposed it to the end of their careers. Timrollpickering 14:23, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

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Leadership

I've changed description of leadership election: it is not a proportional representation system for the rather obvious reason that an election with a single winner cannot be held under proportional representation (it's actually Alternative Vote). Flagboy 23:30, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

He is still the leader

He will be the leader until a new one is elected. He's just not standing for re-election.

No, he said he was standing down with immediate effect. (PS: Please remember to sign your messages with four tildes: ~~~~.) --Whouk (talk) 15:23, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Menzies Campbell is now Acting Leader Po8crg 21:11, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

And how much does he drink, when he is not giving unattributable briefings from under a stone? See also eBay item 5654448675.

LOL! (I've put the direct link in in case this is UK only.) Timrollpickering 01:55, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

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Did Paxman apologise?

This source says that he didn't:

[1]

I'm going to re-edit the story. --JASpencer 18:22, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Alcohol treatment announcement cause of leadership crisis?

• That's what this article states. But I am fairly sure there was a leadership crisis already. He decided to announce he had had alcohol treatment to stop it from being leaked to the press first. He felt this might happen because of the leadership trouble and that it would be very politically damaging if it did. rst20xx 20:29, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

• A Kennedy is a drunk? Shocking. Kalmia 03:34, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Yeah I'm right. Proof:[2]. Gonna do a rewrite. rst20xx 12:31, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

His Question Time appearance, 12th March 2015 was obviously affected by alcohol. Who is going to add that he has not yet conquered his problem?Fletcherbrian (talk) 05:15, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

We need a reliable source before we can add something like that on a biography of a living person. SamWilson989 (talk) 07:42, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

GUU

"GUU was the last all-male student union in the world"

Very funny. Cross-country comparisons are hard to do, but this is a social thing right? Some sort of big students' club... at my university (Utrecht University, the Netherlands) the oldest and most respected students' club is still all-male, as hard as it may seem to believe. So I'll make it 'last all-male student union in the UK'... Renke 23:29, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

POV

This page is far too much led by recent events and churlish political interjections presumably added by supporters of other parties when it should be a fair evaluation of Kennedy's longer career in which his downfall receives coverage but does not completely dominate the article. Once things calm down it needs a considered and neutral rewrite from top to bottom.--Alberdi 03:09, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Unfortunately that's faute de mieux for Wikipedia - it tends to be recent events that bring people to pages, and naturally while all the details are fresh in the mind, they tend to get added to the page. Whereas it's much less likely that someone will dig out the details of what Charles Kennedy did during the debate over the merger of the SDP and the Liberals, details which are not well covered in online sources, nor about his long career in Parliament before becoming Lib Dem leader. Hence the article looks unbalanced. Of course members of other parties are welcome to contribute, so long as they do so in a NPOV way (ahem). David | Talk 15:46, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Category:People of Irish descent in Great Britain

An IP address has been going round numerous articles putting them in Category:People of Irish descent in Great Britain and/or Category:Irish-Scots, often with zero mention of this in the article itself.

There is no such information about CK in this article, and as far as I am aware he is of the Scottish Kennedys, not the Irish ones. --Mais oui! 08:20, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

I dug out this from 2002: "He describes himself nowadays as 'a Christian of Catholic disposition' but doesn't go to Mass" ([3]). I think this excludes him from the Catholic categories, which as I undrestand it is meant for practising Catholics. --Guinnog 11:37, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Sorry but this still means he is a catholic, regardless of his church attendance status. This (media) article is also 6 years out of date! --Kayd00 20:51, 27 February 2008

Trust politicians to attempt to debase a useful tool (Wikipedia) for their own ends.

Shame on you all.

Bug

There's some sort of bug involving <ref> and </ref> in the citation at the end of the resignation section - I had a go at fixing it (I'm an Uncyclopedia admin) but am unfamiliar with citations, so having previewed my changes (I didn't save them) and made matters worse I decided it might be best to highlight here and hope someone notices...! 94.197.168.62 (talk) 16:20, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Name

So if his parents were Mary and Ian Campbell, how did he end up with the name "Kennedy"?--ukexpat (talk) 14:28, 3 June 2015 (UTC)

Just an editing mistake, I think - [4] - this source says Kennedy. I've corrected it. Ghmyrtle (talk) 14:58, 3 June 2015 (UTC)

Cause of death?

Cause of death? 23:32, 3 June 2015 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.198.207.81 (talk)

unknown at present – SchroCat (talk) 05:59, 4 June 2015 (UTC)

Our treatment of the alleged initial post mortem results doesn't seem to be acceptable. Neither The Mirror nor the Daily Record are great sources, they are (or were) stablemates and they are using words such as "reportedly" (each supporting each other?). That more tests have been ordered is a quoted statement from Police Scotland, which is fine but also perfectly normal - happens all the time, as with umpteen deaths in my own family. I'd just wait until the PM results are actually announced or else find a decent source such as the BBC, which has not in fact carried the story, as far as I can see. We are not a news site and do not need to offer a blow-by-blow account. - Sitush (talk) 09:20, 5 June 2015 (UTC)

quite right. There is no need for this--_nonsense ferret 12:01, 5 June 2015 (UTC)

I've trimmed the final sentence. The "sudden and non-suspicious" quote appears in other more reliable sources so I've left it in (and will try and find something to replace the extant source) and replaced the source with something reliable. - SchroCat (talk) 12:11, 5 June 2015 (UTC)

Perhaps we should ask his "secret lover"? Martinevans123 (talk) 12:20, 5 June 2015 (UTC)

Edward Snowden

Was he really succeeded as Chancellor by Edward Snowden the American National Security Agency leaker as the link currently indicates? Somehow, I doubt it. 2600:1004:B144:5853:AD78:66A8:F731:730A (talk) 03:49, 9 June 2015 (UTC)

Not as Chancellor, but as Rector of Glasgow University. Ghmyrtle (talk) 06:49, 9 June 2015 (UTC)

Early political career

This could use some expansion and fact checking if anyone has the books to hand. In particular:

• At what point did Kennedy join the SDP? And was he someone who had associated with social democratic tendencies pre 1981, did he consciously opt for the SDP over the Liberals in the Alliance or was he one of many new recruits who were really joining "the Alliance" and became members of whichever party was locally dominant and/or had the local nomination?
• Currently the article implies his position on the SDP-Liberal merger was due to Liberal activists in his seat but the sole source is the memoirs of David Owen, who opposed the merger completely. From recollection Owen's memoirs basically argued that Kennedy and Maclennan were MPs for historically Liberal seats whereas Owen, Cartwright and Barnes had broken new ground with the new politics of the SDP - and this informed each's approach to the merger.
  • (Of course many a Liberal activist of the era disputes the idea that Rosie Barnes won her seat as anything other than the candidate supported by the Liberal by-election machine.)
• What was Kennedy's position on the detail of the merger, the subsequent battles over aspects of the merged party (especially the name row) and then the Ashdown era debate about where the Lib Dems should be politically positioned?
• The article suggests Kennedy only became a party spokesperson some six years after first being elected which seems astonishing given the small number of Alliance MPs (to the point that the notion of a front and back bench becomes absurd) let alone the tiny SDP contingent and also the need in 1988 to give the merger credibility with as strong an ex SDP showing as possible. Historic lists of third party spokespersons are rare but surely he was doing something for the SDP/SLD in this period?
• There's also not too much about his heavy media appearances - next to Paddy Ashdown and perhaps Simon Hughes (the only London Lib Dem MP at the time who also had some studios in his constituency) Kennedy was by far the most well-known Lib Dem MP who could be found on all manner of chat and panel shows, not just HIGNFY.

Timrollpickering (talk) 21:04, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

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breaching smoking ban

In the "personal life" section, it mentions his breaching the smoking ban. Whilst the media usually does not hesitate to give significant coverage when legislators break the law, I am finding no sign that the media continued to dwell on this incident after the immediate reporting of it. This is understandable given that the incident (reported 6th July 2007) was only a few days after the ban came into force (1st July 2007), and did not result in any legal action. So considering the rather transitory coverage it got, it seems like a slightly odd detail to mention in juxtaposition with the significant events in the "personal life" section: his marriage, divorce, and the death of his father. Should we get rid of it? --Money money tickle parsnip (talk) 18:15, 14 June 2017 (UTC)

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