Ageism Conspires Against Ming

Published on Mon 22nd Oct 2007

Following the announcement of Ming Campbell's resignation, the Lib Dems will be electing - under one member one vote - a new leader. I had the privilege of working with Ming on speech writing as well as on my science brief. He was a real gentleman and thoroughly good but tough bloke. I ran up against on a couple of policy issues and he was always very decisive and also pretty uncompromising.

While we have dipped in the polls that was not - in my view - the reason why Ming resigned. The problem that he saw no way of effectively improving the situation while there was so much media speculation over his leadership. The real reason for this was not - if we all honest - any question of his health or abilities. He was a former Olympic athlete and top barrister who had consistently got it right on issues like Iraq, Climate Change and the threat to our civil liberties. The real reason was the innate and unpleasant ageism - little short of prejudice - prevalent in the media and the political classes. Commentators would often say that Ming was too old to lead, without ever being able to point to any infirmity or frailty that was evident. They would never say that Paul Boateng was too black to be the first ethnic minority cabinet minister, or that David Blunkett was too disabled to be Home Secretary. Racism and prejudice against the disabled is unacceptable. Why isn't it as unacceptable for newspapers to print cartoon implying that old people are frail (zimmers always in the sketch) or demented (forgetfulness jokes). Ming would have out-sprinted most of those scribblers and was much sharper than most of his younger political foes.

Senior citizens should be outraged at the media message that David Cameron is a better leader than Ming because he is younger. Mr Cameron supported sending our troops to an ill-fated and often fatal mission to Iraq on the basis of gung-ho support for George Bush and the alleged fight for freedom. Older, wiser heads thought better of it. After all with age comes wisdom and that experience should command respect.

It looks as though all the candidates lining up for the leadership election are the same age. They will not be arguing that they are whiter, maler, fitter, or younger than one another. They will be talking about the challenges facing the country - to protect our environment, save our public services and protect our troops. They will also be talking about how to make Britain a fairer country. Fair for rich or poor. Fair for black or white. Fair young and especially for the older.