Menzies Campbell
Sir Walter Menzies Campbell,
CBE,
QC (born
22 May 1941,
Glasgow), also known as
Ming Campbell, is a
British politician. He is the
Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for
North East Fife and was elected leader of the Liberal Democrat party on
2 March 2006.
"
Menzies" is pronounced
MING-iss (
IPA: ), the "z" being a transliteration of the
yogh originally included in the name.
Menzies Campbell was educated at
Hillhead High School, Glasgow, and the
University of Glasgow, graduating
MA and
LL.B. Campbell's contemporaries at the
University of Glasgow included
Lord Irvine, the former
Lord Chancellor,
Donald Dewar and
John Smith, who attempted to recruit him for the
Labour Party. He was elected President of the
Glasgow University Union and later received a scholarship to
Stanford University,
California.
A successful
sprinter at University, he competed for the
Great Britain and Northern Ireland team in the
200 m at the
1964 Summer Olympics in
Tokyo and captained the
Scotland team at the
1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in
Kingston, Jamaica. He also captained the UK athletics team in 1965 and 1966, and held the
British 100 metres record from 1967 to 1974. At one time he was known as "the fastest white man on the planet".
He qualified as an
advocate before he became a politician. He was admitted to the
Faculty of Advocates in 1968 and became a
Queen's Counsel in 1982.
Campbell married
Elspeth, Lady Suttie, daughter of Major General
Roy Urquhart, in June 1970. They have no children. [
1]
He became chairman of the Scottish Liberals in
1975, and was a candidate at various
general elections between 1974 and 1983. After three failed attempts, he was finally elected as Member of Parliament, for
North East Fife, in 1987. He was made the Liberal Democrat chief spokesman on foreign affairs and defence in 1992, and he has served as a Shadow
Foreign Secretary since the Liberal Democrats decided to operate a
Shadow Cabinet in 1997. He considered standing as a candidate to replace
Paddy Ashdown as party leader in
the 1999 leadership election but ultimately decided against. He later said that he regretted that decision "for about 10 minutes a day". He was also spoken of as a candidate for
Speaker when
Betty Boothroyd stood down in 2000.
He was diagnosed with
non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a form of
cancer, in 2002 and underwent a course of intensive
chemotherapy before going on to make a full recovery.
Campbell replaced
Alan Beith as
deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats in February 2003 and on occasion had to act as a stand-in Leader of the party. He took over in the general election campaign for three days from
12 April 2005 when
Charles Kennedy took
paternity leave.
In his role as Shadow Foreign Secretary, Sir Menzies Campbell was prominent in the Liberal Democrat opposition to the
2003 Iraq War, repeatedly arguing that the British government should publish the
Attorney General's secret advice on the war's legality and criticising
Tony Blair's seemingly one-sided support for
President Bush. Unsympathetic towards what he terms the "visceral
anti-Americanism" of some in the
anti-war movement, Campbell has noted that:
"For more than 60 years we have been engaged in an intimate and rewarding relationship with the United States … Our two countries are bound together historically by common values and experience. But our relationship should be one of mature partnership, not one of undue deference." [
2]
After
7 January 2006 he was the interim Leader following Kennedy's resignation, before winning the subsequent leadership contest. Despite his relatively advanced age compared to the leaders of the other two main parties,
Tony Blair and
David Cameron, he started as the front-runner in the
2006 leadership election, backed by more than a third of Lib Dem MPs and party notables such as
David Steel,
Shirley Williams and
Paddy Ashdown. As the race drew on it appeared that
Chris Huhne, initially the outsider, was rapidly gaining support and became favourite with the
bookmakers[
3], but Campbell went on to win with 57% of the second round votes.
On the
2nd March 2006 Campbell was declared leader of the
Liberal Democrats after winning the
leadership election. The election was carried out using the
Single Transferable Vote method. The first round votes placed him well in the lead at 23,264 to Chris Huhne's 16,691 and
Simon Hughes' 12,081. Simon Hughes was accordingly eliminated and his second preference votes were split between the two remaining candidates. The final result was Sir Menzies Campbell 29,697, Chris Huhne 21,628 on a 72% turnout of the membership.[
4]
Despite his own relative age, Sir Menzies has promoted many talented younger MPs within his
Liberal Democrat Frontbench Team including former MEP
Nick Clegg as Shadow Home Secretary and 26 year old
Jo Swinson as Shadow Secretary of State for
Scotland.
Early in Campbell's leadership, the Liberal Democrats won the
Dunfermline and West Fife seat from Labour in a by-election. This was viewed as a major victory for Sir Menzies and as a particular blow for Labour
Chancellor Gordon Brown, who lives in the constituency, represents the
adjacent seat, and featured prominently in Labour's by-election campaign.
However, some questions were raised over Sir Menzies' early performances at the weekly
Prime Minister's Questions [
5], leading him to declare himself "perfectly confident" that he can fulfil the role of party leader.[
6] Since then, his performances have improved significantly, although this has occured alongside a shift in the political debate away from social policy issues and towards "classic liberal issues" such as civil liberties, human rights and foreign policy. These included the controversy over the US practice of "
extraordinary rendition"[
7], the case of the
NatWest Three [
8], and the
conflict in Lebanon [
9]
Polls published in July 2006 claimed that twice as many voters would prefer to see Charles Kennedy as Leader than Sir Menzies, leading to some further criticism of Campbell's leadership.[
10] Kennedy has however dismissed rumours that he is considering challenging for the leadership as "fanciful". [
11]
Sir Menzies Campbell's political beliefs can be summarised as those of a moderate
social liberal. Unlike
Simon Hughes, his erstwhile leadership rival, Campbell's views on the appropriate role of the state in the economy are limited to correcting
market failures and funding essential
public services: influenced by Shadow Chancellor
Vincent Cable and Shadow Environment Secretary
Chris Huhne, Campbell has promoted radical policies to shift taxation away from ‘
goods such as employment and towards ‘bads such as pollution, through a revenue-neutral restructuring of the tax system that maintains the current tax burden whilst lifting two-million low-paid individuals out of
income tax altogether.[
12]
Campbell's primary area of interest is acknowledged to be foreign policy: he strongly supports multilateral institutions such as the
European Union and the
United Nations, though argues that the former must reform to become more democratic and the latter must develop new mechanisms for dealing with humanitarian crises [
13]. He has also been critical of the "disproportionate military action" employed by the
Israeli Defence Force in
Gaza and in
Lebanon, contending that Israel's tactics exacerbate existing tensions and lead to
human rights abuses.[
14] Though a supporter of US-UK cooperation, Campbell has argued that the current
Bush-
Blair relationship is one-sided and has been pursued at the expense of Britain's standing in other international institutions.
Although never going so far as to advocate direct
affirmative action policies (such as Labour's all-woman shortlists), Campbell has stressed the need for the Liberal Democrats to provide extra support for female, disabled and ethnic minority candidates seeking to contest winnable seats.[
15] Despite their support for anti-discrimination legislation and their defence of the rights of immigrants and refugees, the party has only ever had a single non-white MP in the House of Commons (
Parmjit Singh Gill).
Campbell was appointed
CBE in the 1987
New Years Honours List; he became a
Privy Counsellor in the 1998 New Year Honours; and he was awarded a
knighthood in the 2004 New Year Honours for "services to
Parliament".
He has
honorary degrees from
Glasgow and
Strathclyde universities. He was the only person nominated to succeed Sir
Kenneth Dover after he retired as
Chancellor of
St Andrews University on
1 January 2006, so took office immediately after nominations closed on
9 January 2006. He was installed as Chancellor on the
22 April 2006, at which time he also received the honorary degree of
Doctor of Laws.
*
Liberal Democrat Frontbench Team*
Ming Campbell MP - Ming Campbell's website
*
The Campbell Campaign - Ming Campbell's campaign to lead the Liberal Democrats
*
Rt Hon Sir Menzies Campbell CBE QC MP profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
*
Sir Menzies Campbell MP (
Guardian Unlimited Politics,
Ask Aristotle)
*
Menzies Campbell MP (from
TheyWorkForYou.com)
*
Menzies Campbell MP voting record (from
The Public Whip)
*
Open Directory Project - Menzies Campbell directory category
*
1999 New Year Honours (
BBC News,
31 December,
1998)
*
Campbell abandons Lib Dem race (
BBC News,
27 May,
1999)
*
Review of 1999: Menzies Campbell (
BBC News,
30 December,
1999)
*
Who will replace the Speaker? (
BBC News,
17 July,
2000)
*
Cancer treatment for Lib Dem Campbell (
BBC News,
22 November,
2002)
*
Lib Dems elect deputy leader (
BBC News,
12 February,
2003)
*
Campbell heads political honours (
BBC News,
31 December,
2003)
*
Cartoon by
Steve Bell dubs him "
Ming the Merciless" (
The Guardian,
16 December 2005*
Steve Bell's cartoon expressing concern for Campbell's leaning to the right. 03/03/2006.
*
Menzies Campbell profile (
BBC News,
2 March,
2006)
*
Ashdown gives Sir Menzies backing (
BBC News,
9 January 2006)
*
What to call Ming's backers? Mignons? Mingites?
Mongos?
Mingers? (
BBC News,
9 January 2006)
*
Why is Menzies pronounced Mingis? (
BBC News,
10 January 2006)
*
Sir Menzies Campbell MP elected new Chancellor of the University of St Andrews. (
University of St Andrews Press Office,
11 January 2006)
*http://www.campbellcampaign.org/
