It appears that 21st Century Liberal Mark Oaten is about to announce his withdrawal from the Liberal Democrat leadership election.
It appears that only Lembit Opik of his parliamentary colleagues is supporting him. His non-existant internet presence has be noted by a number of bloggers and of all the candidates his has been the most low key campaign.
As he was the second candidate to declare his intention to stand it may be that Mark was only answering activists call for there to be an election not a coronation, unfortunately as the field grew he may have realised that neither an election or coronation would come his way at this time.
He is going to be making a statement at 3:30 no doubt there will be more comments to follow after we hear what he says.
Off topic, but what do you make of Arbuthnott:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.arbuthnottcommission.gov.uk/docs/Final%20Report/Low%20Res%20Arbuthnott%20Print.pdf
I see on page 78 they write:
"In addition to referring to existing studies, we commissioned two pieces of original research. The first was by Dr Jonathan Bradbury (University of Swansea) and Dr Meg Russell (University College London) on “The local work of Scottish MPs and MSPs: Effects of non-coterminous boundaries and AMS”. "
That wouldn't be the same Dr Meg Russell who's a Labour activist in Islington South by any chance??