Ming Campbell’s comments today show that some Liberal Democrats do believe in Fox
hunting. Responding to Fox’s speech in Washington yesterday and his remark that Britain would be among the last to leave Afghanistan, Campbell told the Daily Politics that the “intervention was unhelpful, indeed the government
thought it was unhelpful.” “It would have been better if these remarks had not been made.”
Dr Fox’s allies are less than pleased by Ming’s grandstanding. They take the not unreasonable view that the Secretary of State for Defence has every right to express his views on a war that this country is fighting without being second guessed by a backbencher from the junior Coalition partner.
There is, though, a feeling in Westminster that Fox is vulnerable. Fox has already used up a rather large number of his nine lives — think of the 13th century comment on the eve of a visit to Afghanistan, saying that military pensions are ringfenced when they are not and publicly announcing the departure of the Chief of Defence Staff outside of the Downing Street grid.
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