The history of Britain is great because men of principle looked at the status quo and said ‘screw it, I’m going to do the right thing anyway.’ Charlie Kennedy was of that ilk and he was so very alone. Modern politics is full of the career minded, weak pragmatists and rationalisers masquerading as ideologues. No wonder he was seen as something different and stood out from the crowd.

As is widely reported today Charles Kennedy was a man beset by demons. But still he was a thoroughly decent politician who in the beautiful words of Tony Benn, said what he meant and meant what he said. The fact that what he said sounded so damn reasonable was a reflection of the man himself. Proof that a career politician is not necessarily a bad thing.

Those whom the gods love die young

The disastrous election result for the Lib Dems is put into stark focus today as we consider what is being said about this man from the Scottish Highlands seconded by parliament for the last 32 years. We are told that this man was a man of achievement. We are reminded of his opposition to the Iraq War and the swelling of Lib Dem MPs in the House of Commons as a result. In commemoration of the man I am going to say something very honest. Those achievements count for nothing today.

The fact that we say his opposition to the Iraq war was an achievement says a lot about politics today. That we can call sticking to your principles an achievement just shows us how flaccid our representatives can be when it comes to the important issues. Sectarian violence in Iraq is as high as ever. Even today there is a debate about whether we need to send boots in on the ground to support the Iraqi government. What sort of achievement is this? Apart from a lesson to us all that the winner, no matter how wrong, takes all. We can honour Charles Kennedy’s decision to stand up for what he felt was right but we should not call it an achievement.

It was on the back of such a stand that I voted for the Liberal Democrats and they obtained their highest ever representation of MPs in the Commons. In a truly British sense they had won the argument, grafted in their constituencies and been rewarded for it. It took Nick Clegg less than two terms to neutralise (and then some) this genuine achievement. All those gains have been destroyed. The Lib Dems cannot conceive of having anywhere near the same number of MPs as they had under Charles Kennedy in the near future. And let’s not forget that at the time 62 seats was seen as a bit of a failure. Some people expected the Liberal Democrats to really put the cat amongst the pigeons and get closer to 100.

It is a sad day. It was tragic irony that the Liberal Democrat who did not vote for the coalition, was immensely popular, and left the party in a very healthy state lost his seat in the last General Election while the man widely responsible for that catastrophic result kept his seat. We lost other good ones too, Vince Cable and Simon Hughes both survived the coalition with integrity but not the election.

So today another good ‘un went. It’s the bastards who remain bullet proof and life goes on. But it shows we can still do it, we can still be great, there are some people who look at the odds and say screw it, I’m going to do the right thing anyway. Charlie Kennedy was one of those and this country is all the poorer for his loss.