It's easy to look to extremes like Christian Fundamentalists or Boko Haram, but there is a bloody big Elephant that politicians and many many others ignore rather well - more and more young people don't see the point of nation state democracy. Whether it be multi-national businesses that have normalised criminally or morally corrupt practices, leaders of institutions more inclined to put their own interests ahead of those they actually serve, or politicians who scurry their way around Westminster Village dreaming of their directorships... So when we mourn the death of a Westminster good guy, it's hard not to think how sad he must have felt. A man acclaimed for his integrity and principal, in a palace, city, country, union, world - where he was close enough to smell the **** that tainted it all. Enough to drive any good man to drink.
All I would add to my OP is that he was also a pricipled politician, almost an oxymoron these days. Thanks to all posters on this thread, when I started it I wondered if I possibly overstepped the mark to a point but I am gratified by the generous warmth of remarks and feel content that the topic was very much in bounds. Cheers folks, he was really someone special.
No I never thought that it was overstepping the mark. The vast majority of politicians when they go are met with mixed reviews. People wanted to dance on Thatcher's grave and no doubt when Blair goes it will be the same,although personally despite the one obvious big mistake I think he meant well. Cameron will I think be seen as a political pygmy,a smarmy PR man. Charles Kennedy though was a bit different. I have not seen a bad word written or said about him. That may be to an extent because he never wielded power of any real sort but there must have been something about him to have achieved that.
Not buying the eulogising of a bloke who was a pisshead. Yes he was right about Iraq, but at the end of the day he was selfish enough to leave a ten year old son behind by drinking himself to death. Before you say it's an illness, it wasn't an illness when he started drinking and at that point he had a choice.
I take your point but everyone has a choice until the addiction takes hold. Early on its a conscious choice and a matter of will power.
Living where I do I have an awful lot of knowledge of all types of addiction, it is definitely not self-inflicted and it definitely is an illness!
As someone with an addictive personality trait I know that it would be easy to become addicted to things various. I accept some are more prone to addiction than others but there has to be some self control and responsibility on the individual when anything (alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, shopping, posting on forums) first becomes a problem.
It's a slippery slope though, and those on it don't realize it until they're snowballing down it out of control... Having said that, I've learned to embrace my addictive personality.
I fully accept its a slippy slope and some will fall. But everything in life starts as a choice I won't hold up as some sort of hero anyone who throws away the gifts they are given. George Best, Gazza, Alex Higgins what a fecking waste of a talent. I would add smokers and fat cnuts to that list. How many fat furkers do you see in mobility scooters, and how many are in the scooter only because of their bulk.
Cheers Cruyff, I read in Mater's rag today that the SNP turned particularly nasty in his constituency and coupled with the then death of his father it all came too much and he went over the edge. In answer to Chippy, I appreciate the point about addiction and you don't become an alcoholic or indeed fat overnight, my point all along was that Charles Kennedy was a genuinely good person who acted and spoke up for what he believed in and he was not in any way pompous or arrogant but had the rare ability to put his point across without acrimony but with humour and a wink. He was obviously a fallable character and maybe that was part of his charm, it was certainly contributory to his demise. I guess the irony is that it was often said he was the only politician who the general public felt they could have a drink with, maybe there were too many of them!
Did you see the Charles Kennedy/Jeremy Clarkson spat on HIGNFY? The oaf ended up with egg on his face.
