Charles Kennedy

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charles Kennedy (2005)

Charles Peter Kennedy (born November 25, 1959 in Inverness , † June 1, 2015 in Fort William (Highland) ) was from August 9, 1999 to January 7, 2006 the chairman of the Liberal Democrats , the third largest party in Great Britain . In the general election on May 5, 2005 , he stood against incumbent Prime Minister Tony Blair of the Labor Party and the chairman of the Conservative Party , Michael Howard . Despite winning votes and seats for his party, he did not succeed in preventing another absolute majority for the Labor Party. Its Liberal Democrats remained the third largest party within the British party landscape. Kennedy resigned on January 7, 2006 after coming under pressure for publicly admitting his drinking problems.

Life

Kennedy came from a Roman Catholic Scottish family and attended Lochaber High School in Fort William . He then studied political science and philosophy at the University of Glasgow . There he began to be politically active. There he was president of the Glasgow University Union and came into the limelight, as this was the last organization of its kind to not allow women as members; Reluctantly, after strong public pressure, he had this regulation abolished. A short time later he became a member of the social democratic party SDP .

He then worked as a journalist for the BBC Highland and after some time received a Fulbright Research Fellowship , which brought him to Indiana University in the United States .

Political career

While he was still in the US, Kennedy was nominated by his party as a candidate for the apparently hopeless constituency of Ross, Cromarty and Skye. Contrary to his own expectations (he had already flown back to the USA by plane before the polling stations closed) , he won this in the elections of 1983 against his conservative rival Hamish Gray - Minister in Margaret Thatcher's cabinet - and moved at the age of only 23 years as the youngest MP in the lower house . He defended his seat in four other general election. He gave up his academic career for it.

At the end of the 1980s, the SDP and the Liberals, who had previously formed an alliance, united to form a new party, which was initially called the Social and Liberal Democratic Party and was later renamed Liberal Democrats . He held various functions in parliament for the party. He was also party chairman from 1990 to 1994.

politics

After Paddy Ashdown's resignation , Charles Kennedy was elected as the new chairman of the Liberal Democrats on August 9, 1999, with three opposing candidates. Compared to his predecessor, Kennedy is said to have a rather reserved management style. Even if he was occasionally dismissed as a lightweight, opinion polls gave him a positive rating as a party leader and potential prime minister among many British people. In contrast to his predecessor, he kept his distance from the Labor Party and its “New Labor” party course. In the meantime, he ended joint discussions between both parties.

Kennedy, too, strove for his party's breakthrough and rise to become the second strongest force in parliament. In the first general election under his leadership, the Liberal Democrats gained 1.5 percentage points of the vote and gained 18.5 percent and 52 parliamentary seats. Because of the British electoral system, the Liberal Democrats are focusing their strategy on winning high-potential constituencies, especially those held by the Conservatives. But his party is also trying to profit from the votes of dissatisfied Labor supporters, especially those who opposed the Iraq war , of which he was one of the most prominent opponents. His party was successful in several by-elections to the lower house.

In the general election on May 5, 2005, he managed to increase his party's share of the vote by more than three percentage points and to win some seats for the Liberal Democrats. Still, his party was clearly lagging behind the Labor Party and the Conservative Tories as the third force in the UK political system. The goal of government participation could not be achieved because of the renewed absolute majority of the Labor Party under Prime Minister Tony Blair.

On January 7, 2006, Kennedy announced that he would no longer run for chairmanship in the upcoming new elections after coming under pressure from within the party for his admission that he had alcohol problems. While Kennedy received overwhelming support from the media and the party base, his party's lower house deputies moved away from him. He was succeeded by Sir Walter Menzies Campbell , who had known Kennedy's alcohol problem since 2003 and had tried, together with other party members, to persuade him to seek treatment.

In 2010, Kennedy voted against a coalition with the Conservatives in the British House of Commons, because despite his distance from the Labor Party, he saw them as the preferred partner in a left-of-center coalition.

In the 2015 general election , Kennedy lost his Scottish constituency of Ross, Skye and Lochaber , which he had held for the Liberal Democrats for 30 years, to his opponent Ian Blackford of the Scottish National Party .

Private life

Charles Kennedy married Sarah Gurling in July 2002, from whom he divorced in 2010. In 2005 their son was born.

Alcohol problems were suspected behind reports of Kennedy's poor health during the Iraq and budget debates in 2003, but this turned out to be largely unfounded. To forestall further speculation, Kennedy admitted at a press conference on January 5, 2006 that he had been on alcohol withdrawal for 18 months.

He was the main carer of his father, who died in April 2015 at the age of 88. His father's health had prevented Kennedy from campaigning for the 2015 general election.

Charles Kennedy died on June 1, 2015 at the age of 55 at his family home in Scotland. On June 3, MEPs from the House of Commons held a memorial service to remember their deceased colleague. The family announced on June 5 that the cause of death was profuse bleeding, ultimately caused by chronic alcohol consumption. The family took this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped Kennedy in his efforts to control his alcoholism. The funeral service took place on June 12th in Caol, near Fort William. Kennedy was then buried in the family grave in the Clunes Cemetery on Loch Lochy .

Web links

Commons : Charles Kennedy  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Brian Wheeler: The Charles Kennedy story. March 20, 2016, accessed March 20, 2016 .
  2. ^ A b Alex Hunt, Brian Wheeler: The Charles Kennedy Story. BBC News, June 2, 2015, accessed June 2, 2015 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e Nicholas Watt, Libby Brooks, Severin Carrell: Charles Kennedy, former leader of Liberal Democrats, dies aged 55 . In: The Guardian , June 2, 2015, accessed June 2, 2015.
  4. ↑ Jürgen Krönig: Job killer alcohol . Die Zeit , January 11, 2006
  5. ^ Menzies Campbell : How drink destroyed Charles Kennedy, by Menzies Campbell . Evening Standard , February 23, 2008
  6. ↑ Election results shocks: The big name losers. BBC News, May 8, 2015, accessed May 8, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Frances Perraudin: MPs pay tribute to Charles Kennedy in the House of Commons , The Guardian , June 3, 2015, accessed June 13, 2015.
  8. ^ Severin Carrell: Charles Kennedy death caused by alcoholism, family says . The Guardian , June 5, 2015, accessed June 5, 2015.
  9. ↑ Libby Brooks: "You were one of us": 500 mourners attend Charles Kennedy's funeral , The Guardian , June 12, 2015, accessed June 13, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Kennedy, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kennedy, Charles Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician, Member of the House of Commons, Chairman of the British Liberal Democrats
DATE OF BIRTH November 25, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Inverness , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH June 1, 2015
Place of death Fort William