When Charles Kennedy died last week, alone in his Fort William home, the shock and sadness was felt far beyond his party.
When Charles Kennedy died last week, alone in his Fort William home, the shock and sadness was felt far beyond his party. More than a warm, amiable and likeable man, more than an extraordinarily capable politician before illness hollowed him out, he was that rare animal, a genuine liberal. The lower case is deliberate.
Kennedy was entirely without the meanness of spirit and crippling manifestations of partisanship which so often blur the line between conviction and tribalism. His principles were steady and this integrity, combined with wit, enabled him to deal fairly with those who disagreed with him and with whom he disagreed. He did not see any reason to insult or denigrate nor to trim his sails to the wind of personal advantage. Standing against the Iraq war and standing – almost alone – against his party’s 2010 coalition with the Conservatives, he threw into clear relief the Liberal Democrats’ shift to the right. He was far more statist than the majority of his party, but remained publicly loyal, difficult though this must sometimes have been. And there will be many who will blame him for that.
But perhaps that is because, along with his deep respect for the differences of democrats, Charles Kennedy had a larger vision and identity than that of the apparatchik. He described himself as “A Highlander, a Scot, British and European”. Small politics finds it difficult to deal with that which overleaps its narrow palisades and few of its practitioners are capable of embracing the liberation that offers – for themselves and for those they represent.
At his best, Kennedy showed what a politician can and should be. Intelligent, principled, without malice and with no inclination to pomposity or clever-dickery, he was as at ease with the real world where voters live as he was on the couch of a chat-show. It would be idle to expect all parliamentarians to be like him. But in an age of machine politicians, he was both an inspiration and a way-post. We need more with his spirit and grace.
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© Jill Segger is an Associate Director of Ekklesia with particular involvement in editorial issues. She is a freelance writer who contributes to the Church Times, Catholic Herald, Tribune, Reform and The Friend, among other publications. Jill is an active Quaker. See: http://www.journalistdirectory.com/journalist/TQig/Jill-Segger You can follow Jill on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/quakerpen