All about Ming
Trawling through my archives I have just unearthed an interview I did five years ago with the former Olympic runner who Jeffrey Archer still calls “skipper” and who admits to having “a rather nasty competitive streak which I've only now begun to realise”. He says he is not obsessed by politics but “obsessed by sport” and attacks “professional politicians” who “don't have enough time to go fishing or listen to music or to go travelling”
This is Sir Menzies Campbell – the acting leader of the Lib Dems and the favourite to take over full time from Charles Kennedy. In this interview, he also explained that he hadn’t run for the leadership against Mr Kennedy in 1999 because “if you can't say of the leadership of a political party 'do you really want to do it?', and give an affirmative answer to that, then you shouldn't do it at all. And to some extent my attitude was perhaps influenced by the fact that I was very close to David Steel. He's a close personal friend and I'm close to Paddy Ashdown …and I've seen the kind of demands that leadership of the third political party in the United Kingdom makes.”
Remember when you read this that Sir Ming was talking to me in September 2000 on ý News 24 (credit please, fellow journalists!)
Ming the Olympic runner
CAMPBELL
In 1948 my mother, who was extremely keen on sport, made me sit down and listen to the radio. I was aged seven at the time. And we were listening to the 1948 Olympic Games and I remember Fanny Blankers-Koen, Bill Mankerville, people like that and it made an enormous impression upon me and I determined in that kind of school boy way that one has, that my ambition was some day to run in the Olympic Games
ROBINSON
And of course you did in Tokyo in '64, how did it feel when you got there?
CAMPBELL
Scared stiff. I was thinking about this, the other day because as you rightly say as the Olympics approach every time, I still get that tingling at the back of neck. And I remember running in the Olympic relay final - thirty two of us - and my overwhelming emotion was on of being absolutely scared out of my wits in case I dropped the baton. Or did something that in some way reflected badly on the team or myself. We didn’t win a medal, but we established a new United Kingdom record for the four by hundred metres, and I was very satisfied by that.
ROBINSON
Now for a while you ran the British Athletics team I think you [above left] were in charge. Is it true Jeffrey Archer [above right] who was on your team used to call you "skip"?
CAMPBELL
I was captain of the British Athletics team two years, in 1965 and 1966 and Jeffrey Archer was - choosing my words with some care - as ebullient then as he is now. He never called me "skipper" in those days, but he now rather makes a point of calling me "skipper", whenever he sees me in public. It's the kind of deferential insolence of our time I think.
ROBINSON
Do you believe that Ming Campbell when he ran at the Olympics, had the same drive, the same obsessive nature or were you slightly different. Did you see it as just that, games, not a life, not a career?
CAMPBELL
I saw it, for the period in which I was involved as the single most important thing in my life and I devoted all of my energy and all of my commitment to it. I was never very, I was never much of an artist, I was pretty much an artisan. I mean I got where I got by a lot of brute strength and a lot of hard work. And I have this rather touching ability still that the way you get anywhere is by hard work. Perhaps it's the Scottish Protestant work ethic at play, in my personality, but for the period in which I was at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964, thirty six years ago, then I felt wholly committed to that and I don't think it's any different. Where I was different was that when the Games came to an end, and indeed when my athletics career came to an end, I had the great good fortune to have other, two other careers, one in the Law and one in politics. So I was very fortunate in that sense.
ROBINSON
Now you've chosen a whole series of competitive careers, and I assume you like to win in all of them.
CAMPBELL
Yes I hadn't acknowledged that freely until quite recently when I drew to my own attention the fact that you win or lose races, if you are an advocate, a Scottish equivalent of a barrister, you win or lose your case and if you want to be a Member of Parliament you win or lose your seat. And indeed every night you win or lose the vote. So somewhere underneath my personality there's a rather nasty competitive streak which I've only now begun too realise.
Why he didn’t run for the leadership against Charles Kennedy in ‘99
CAMPBELL
I couldn’t satisfy myself that I was bound to win, but then you can never do that in an Olympic final. You have to make a judgement. I made a judgement as to whether the qualities which I possessed and the way in which I would have wanted to lead the party, had I been the leader, were likely to be acceptable to the membership of the Party at that time, and I formed a judgement after careful consideration that probably the Party, if I can put it this way, wasn't ready for me.
ROBINSON
Was it a point of lifestyle because it's known that you enjoy a life outside of politics. You talk about your life outside politics. You feel that, to use that word obsessive again, that modern politics requires people to be obsessive.
CAMPBELL
People often say to me "are you obsessed by politics?" and I say "no, I'm obsessed by sport". I mean I watch the most ridiculous sport on television at three o'clock in the morning simply because it's sport. I don't do the same for politics. I think we've got to a stage when we've got professional politicians, in the sense that they are wholly committed to the House of Commons and to their constituencies and to their ministries, if they become ministers, and I suspect that as a result they are less good at all, in all three of these roles, because they don't have enough time to go fishing or listen to music or to go travelling or things of that nature. There's a remark I think made by a famous er Jamaican philosopher
who said, "what do they know of cricket that only cricket know?", and I think that you can plagiarise that to some extent and say "what do they know of politics that only politics know?" . If all you know is about politics, then I suspect that your ability to exercise good judgement, to put things in proper perspective is likely to be limited by that.
I asked myself, eventually, the question, do you really want to do this job. And if you can't say of the leadership of a political party "do you really want to do it?", and give an affirmative answer to that, then you shouldn't do it at all. And to some extent my attitude was perhaps influenced by the fact that I was very close to David Steel. He's a close personal friend and I'm close to Paddy Ashdown who became, who has become a close personal friend and I've seen the kind of demands that leadership of the third political party in the United Kingdom makes. And I decided, twelve months ago, that for that and a number of other reasons that seemed important at the time, I wasn't going to put my hat in the ring.
ROBINSON
Regrets?
CAMPBELL
For about ten minutes every day and then common sense kicks in.
On co-operation with Labour - controversial at the time the interview was recorded in 2000 and again now
CAMPBELL
I've got three principles that I put in play every time there's any question of co operation. . First, is it consistent with Liberal Democrat principle. Second, does it help us to achieve Liberal Democrat policies and to influence the Government, and third, is it in the interests of the people of the United Kingdom. So long as a policy proposal satisfies these three criteria, then in my view it's something that Liberal Democrats should be prepared to discuss with the Government. First, is it consistent with Liberal Democrat principle. Second, does it help us to achieve Liberal Democrat policies and to influence the Government, and third, is it in the interests of the people of the United Kingdom.
So long as a policy proposal satisfies these three criteria, then in my view it's something that Liberal Democrats should be prepared to discuss with the Government.
I'm 
Comments
One thing that shocks me and is why Oaten and Campbell should not run is that they would not stand against Kennedy - no doubt the view that whoever holds the bloody knife does not have the crown for long if at all.
On top of that the over half to three quarters of Lib Dem MPs who responded to surveys and not directly to tell their 'leader' to go is shocking.
Surely Campbell and the so called leadership should have been telling everyone to stay schtum as they performed the Lib Dem equivalent of 'the men in grey suits'. Not a bit of it public bloodletting and pressure in the media.
No one can surely positively vote for this shower or anyone near their current leadership again?
The "famous Jamaican philosopher" was Rudyard Kipling, who said "What do they know of England, who only England know?"
Of course, ý staff aren't struggling with Menzies Campbell's name at all - that's why the photos of him as an athlete on this blog are labelled 'Sirming' ;).
I suggest "Minglis" for followers of Ming Campbell.
Do you not think that Sir Ming should become the "Michael Howard" of the Lib Dems - hold the office for a set period (say till the next conference) until such time as the equivalent "Cameron/Davis" characters show themselves ?
After all, the drive for a new leader was not driven by political requirements as such; if not for Kennedy's personal failing, there would probably be no need for a change.
Having Campbell as a fixed-term caretaker will permit the Lib Dems to function in Parliament, while allowing the succession to jockey for position in the run-up.
I'm a little confused as to why media pundits have not considered Lembit Opik as a possible leadership contender. As I understand it he hasn't ruled himself out, only stating previously that he would not 'run against Charles'. Since the resignation of Charles Kennedy, Lembit Opik has been extolling his virtuous support for Kennedy and condemning conspirators who brought him down on every news channel that would listen. It seems to me that this is a man hedging his bets on the support of party members as reward for standing by Kennedy at the time of his unceremonial ousting.
The key consideration in any political party cooperating with another is "which of my policies am I going to get through?" Sir Menzies has for many years been consistent in his response to this - I recall a public meeting during the 1992 election campaign when this question was asked, and Ming's response was along the lines of "I want to see Liberal Democrat policies enacted, and I will do what I need to get this done." The Scottish Lib Dems have been incredibly successful in this since 1998 - something approaching 75% of the policies outlined in the manifesto for the 2003 Scottish elections are either in the Partnership Agreement, in the process of being enacted, or have been enacted. Ming's position reiterates that - and I do think that if the best wasy to get Lib Dem policies enacted was to support Tory measures (though not a government) then we should do this.