The Curse of Opik
He backed Charlie Kennedy until the bitter end. He backed Mark Oaten until the shit hit the fan. Who will the political strategist and great modern liberal thinker Lembit Opik back next?The prospect of his support is un-nerving all the campaign teams.
24 comments:
You can guarantee that, whoever Lembit does give his backing to, he will soon be seen standing behind them every time the TV cameras are around and pretending that he's always supported them.
You're right, we're all waiting to see who he gives the thumbs-up to next......
Similar sentiments on our campaign website: http://hughes4leader.blogspot.com/
I thought he had come out as backing Huhne? maybe i'm wrong...
Never mind that shit. Reggie and Ronnie live!
See page 10 of The Times.
Sorry, make that page 10 of The Telegraph
That said, it was page 11 of today's Times which carried this, from Hugo Rifkind:
"Poor Lembit Opik. He backed Charles Kennedy, his former leader, and then he came out, so to speak, behind Mark Oaten. Where now? Will anybody risk having this leadership Jonah onboard?"
Great minds and all that.
Any chance of his backing Hughes next?
I had him as my Idiot of the Week two weeks ago! Citation - Awarded for services to sinking ships.
That in January 2006, just moments after Mr Kennedy had admitted to his severe drink problem, Lembit proceeded to stick up for Mr Kennedy and, on live TV, proclaim such things as:
"Charles has been extremely brave to admit this problem to the country...he should remain as leader..."
"He is the victim of this condition..."
"He has never lied about this in the past, except when he denied it whilst he was in self denial..."
and the coup de grace -
"Charles has done some amazing things for the party..imagine what he can do without this problem..."
Such colossal lack of judgement leaves one breathless.
I know Lembit well enough to call him, and had been tempted to ask him to consider Cameron's offer to cross the floor, but I am not so sure now. I think the Flip Flops can keep him.
Lembit, please stop this nonsense. You have shown admirable loyalty, but its over and you are now starting to look more crazy than your lunatic leader and that is an astonishing feat.
http://baileyblogspot.blogspot.com/2006/01/idiot-of-week.html
I realise the post of (unpaid) sub-editor is always on offer to pedants (and no, thank you) but can anyone please clarify whether Lembit should be Ôpik, Öpik, Øpik or O'pik?
We'll know soon enough who he's backing, but who would want him?
Campbell, I guess, might want him, if only to defuse some of the acrimony over CK's departure. If Opik really believes Ming was behind the plot, then there's no way he could back him. Ergo, if he does back him, it must mean the CK faction think Ming is in the clear.
Huhne might want Opik on board to show his support goes wider than the 2005 intake of MPs, but I can't see Opik backing him for that very reason. Here is a man who once entertained hopes of succeeding Kennedy himself. He will surely regard Huhne as an upstart.
I suppose by a process of elimination this must mean Opik will back Hughes, but you never really know with Lembit, so I could be totally wrong.
It's Öpik. His grandfather was the Estonian astronomer Ernst Öpik, who first hypothesised the existence of a cloud of comets at the very edge of the Solar System.
Unfortunately the idea was pretty much ignored at the time and only came to prominence some years later when it was independently proposed by Jan Oort. Today it is usually called the Oort cloud.
From what I hear it sounds like Ming would be the obvious next choice for Öpik.
Guido,
I laughed out loud at this post. You're a cruel but very bastard. Opik is a prize numpty.
(A person who never has or never will have a fucing clue what he is doing).
Great work, don't let the shits get you down like the unfortunate Mr Oaten.
sorry that should read... a very FUNNY bastard!
Wasn't this in yesterday's evening standard?
you pinching material from the dead tree press these days guido?
;)
Recess Monkey
And it was in The Times diary as well.
I'm off my form. As slow as the Tree Slaughterers ...
I may have to become an Indy columnist.
And it was on my blog yesterday too, unprompted by any report or even overheard rumour
Andrew Marr had it on Sunday AM, so only 48 hours behind the times. Behold the power of the blog, eh?
To be fair to Lembit; he was on the Daily Politics today taking the piss out of himself for "the Opik curse". Neil was trying to get his next choice out of him but he would not reveal. He even hinted he would endorse no one else lest they fall under his dark curse. I gained a bit of respect for the guy after his performance.
Lembit is a mate of mine. Clearly he has been through the mill a bit recently and his hopes that loyalty to Kennedy and then backing Oaten would get him the promotion he wants have been dashed - though ironically the post-leadership reshuffle and Oaten's demise may yet give him another chance.
He will never be seen as the political heavyweight of the party but in his defence he does have a very good talent for connecting with ordinary members, ordinary voters and non-voters alike.
Lib Dem support can be a fickle thing. I bumped into Jeremy Browne MP, spokesman for Ming in the summer who indicated that come a Lib Dem leadership election that he'd vote for someone like David Laws
Ah Jeremy Browne, the man known in the lobby as PBS, for reasons I couldn't possibly go into here.
Anagram of Lembit opik
I love bot MP.
All makes sense now.
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