Anders Hanson

Iain Dale is running a poll to find the Lib Dem MP of the year. Whilst I feel a certain loyalty to Nick Clegg and feel I should vote for him as my (sort of) employer and local MP, the one I would want to vote for is Charles Kennedy, for two reasons:

• His resignation at the start of 2006 has changed the party’s year completely. We all probably knew what 2006 would bring under Charles. After all, we’d had five years of him already. But his going moved us in to the unknown. The change of leadership has brought a bit more energy within the party in terms of its policy making and campaigns. This may, or may not, be as a result of Ming’s leadership. But what I really mean is that this great upheaval has meant that members seem to be debating the general future and electoral success of the party more readily. Not in a secretive, plotting kind of way. But in a more uncertain “who knows what the future may hold?” kind of way. And no one really knows the answer to that question.
• Charles’ poor performance in his farewell speech at the party’s autumn conference cemented Ming as leader within the party and to the media. The arguments about whether the MPs should have got a rid of Charles and whether Ming was a suitable replacement were finished.

There are strong arguments for a number of other MPs getting the title. But in my view, Charles has had the biggest impact on the party this year.

IAIN DALE