Charles Kennedy dead aged 55 | Vital Football

Charles Kennedy dead aged 55

Dave the Yid

Dave the Yid

Alert Team
Charles Kennedy, former Liberal Democrat leader, dies aged 55

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-32970337

Former Liberal Democrat Party leader Charles Kennedy has died at his home in Fort William aged 55.

His family said they were devastated to lose a "fine man and loving father". No cause of death has been given but police said it was not suspicious.

Mr Kennedy, who led his party from 1999 to 2006, lost his seat last month.

Politicians including Nick Clegg and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon have been paying tribute, calling him "one of the most talented politicians".

'Great sadness'

Mr Clegg, who resigned as Liberal Democrat leader last month, said: "Charles devoted his life to public service, yet he had an unusual gift for speaking about politics with humour and humility which touched people well beyond the world of politics.

"He was one of the most gentle and unflappable politicians I have ever known, yet he was immensely courageous too not least when he spoke for the country against the invasion of Iraq."

[img=http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/83361000/jpg/_83361747_000198441-1.jpg]
Charles Kennedy in 2001 celebrating the best general election result for any third party at the time since 1923

Mr Kennedy's family said in a statement: "It is with great sadness, and an enormous sense of shock, that we announce the death of Charles Kennedy.

"We are obviously devastated at the loss. Charles was a fine man, a talented politician, and a loving father to his young son."

A Police Scotland spokesman said: "Police officers attended an address at Fort William on Monday, June 1 to reports of the sudden death of a 55-year-old man. Police were notified by ambulance service personnel. There are no suspicious circumstances."

'A different style of politics'

Charles Kennedy was one of the most influential politicians of his generation. In 2005 he led the Liberal Democrats to their best election result, carved out a distinctive position for his party on the left of British politics and, perhaps most significantly, ensured his party was at the forefront of opposition to the Iraq War.

Charles Kennedy also brought a different style of politics to Westminster; more informal; relaxed and outgoing; generous to opponents, warm to friends and not one for the more bitter, dark arts of politics.

He was a politician as much at ease in the television studios as in the Chamber and struck a chord with the public in an age when politicians were more reserved and removed. He sought to fashion a different way of doing politics.

Never the most organised of politicians, he found the business of leadership more onerous and that, coupled with his drinking problems, fuelled disquiet within the Parliamentary party that was eventually to lead to his toppling.

Kennedy's life in pictures

[img=http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/83361000/jpg/_83361762_charleskennedypa.jpg]
Mr Kennedy was Social Democratic Party spokesman on social security, Scotland and health

Mr Kennedy's political career began in the Social Democratic Party and he became the youngest MP of the time at the age of 23 when he won the Ross, Cromarty and Skye seat in 1983.

At first he was SDP spokesman on social security, Scotland and health and when most of his party merged with the Liberals to form the Lib Dems in 1988, he continued to hold a series of frontbench posts.

He took over the Liberal Democrat leadership from Paddy Ashdown in 1999 and led the party to its best election result since the 1920s in 2005, when the Lib Dems won 62 seats.

In January 2006 he said he had been receiving treatment for an alcohol problem and resigned as leader.

[img=http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/83361000/jpg/_83361749_008685717-1.jpg]
The former Lib Dem leader appeared as a guest on satirical news programme Have I Got News for You

During the 1990s, Mr Kennedy built his profile through TV appearances, earning him the nickname, which he hated, of "Chatshow Charlie".

His 2002 marriage to Camelot public relations executive Sarah Gurling was seen by many in the party as a sign he was settling down.

The birth of his son in 2005 was seen as a further sign that the hard-partying Kennedy - one commentator had dubbed him "Jock the lad" - was being transformed into a family man.

'We became chums'

I remember in 1983 when he was first elected. He was 23 years old. It was a rather unexpected victory.
He had been on a scholarship in the US and returned, and after a couple of weeks campaigning found himself an MP after taking a Conservative seat in Ross and Cromarty.

I was in the Westminster lobby at the time as a slightly older lobby correspondent. We got together and became chums. I was working for the Press and Journal. He was a very senior MP for me to be covering.

He was a remarkable individual even then. Talented and driven, he always struck me though as being slightly remote from partisan politics. He never had that killer instinct. He could always see the other side of the perspective.

He was exceptionally gifted

'Dreadful news'

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: "Sad beyond words to hear the news about Charlie Kennedy. A lovely man and one of the most talented politicians of his time. Gone too soon."

"He had his demons, we all have our demons, but on form and when he was on song Charles was the best of all of us," Lord Ashdown told the BBC.

"It has been a very difficult time for him, he lost his seat, at the beginning of the election campaign he lost his father.

"He was, I think, a person who maybe characterised a different and more welcome political age when politicians generally spoke the language of ordinary people and stuck to the things they believed in… which is why he was so popular."

SNP's Ian Blackford, who won Mr Kennedy's seat in last month's election, tweeted: "So sorry to hear the dreadful news that Charles Kennedy had passed away.

"A man of such great ability, such a tragedy he has passed away. RIP."
 
Sad news. A very decent politician and always felt his heart was in the right place, yes he had his personal issues, but then who doesn't?!

RIP, heartfelt condolences to his family.

 
Authenticity is the most elusive but the most precious of all qualities in modern democratic politics. Very few politicians are blessed with it. Lots of politicians pretend to possess it. The lack of it causes many careers to stumble and not even get off the ground. But Charles Kennedy had it naturally and he had it in spades. He was one of the very few politicians of the modern era to whom ordinary non-political people instinctively related. People liked him and were right to do so. It gave him a special status in public life right to the enormously sad end.
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At his best, Kennedy had the ability to rise above the crowd and speak for his times in easily expressed and easily understood language. His ability to cut through the evasions and cliches of modern politics was a quality so many others struggle to emulate, often without success. He also had a great and natural sense of humour, unusual in a very private man such as he. It made him one of the few politicians who could master every form of television interview or appearance without looking awkward.

Two such memories stand out and show him at his best. The first was his apparently effortless ability to put into words some of the most complicated issues of modern UK identity politics, when he described himself as comfortable with himself as a Highlander, a Scot, a Briton and as a European. It worked because it was true. He was the same man in Fort William and in Brussels. He didn’t need to put on an act to be consistent. Whatever Charles’s inner demons, he had a facility of mind and speech that others could only dream of.
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The other was his decision, as leader of the Liberal Democrats, to oppose the war in Iraq. This was self-evidently the right decision on principle. But it was a big call for the Liberal Democrats. It took the party out of its comfort zone. Kennedy wasn’t a natural street politician in the way he was a natural studio politician or a parliamentarian, and he swithered about the decision. I like to think the Guardian editorials urging him to put himself at the head of the anti-war campaign helped to push him over the line. But he did it, and in 2005 he was rewarded with the best election result the Liberal Democrats had ever seen – and possibly will ever see. When he was tested he did the right thing. It was the mark of a leader.

He will be remembered as a Liberal Democrat, but he was always a social democrat too. His early political career as a member of the SDP was a consistent thread through the rest of his career. Charles was a Highlander and a Scot and all the rest of it, but he was also an anti-Tory. His political comfort zone as a Liberal Democrat was on the left of the spectrum, not the right. This never made him a great flirter with Labour, not least because as a Scot he was a lifetime witness to Scottish Labour’s authoritarian and now ultimately self-destructive ways. But it always meant he was unhappy with the way events propelled Nick Clegg’s party into coalition with the Conservatives.

Charles started young and somehow seemed to stay young, even when he got older. He has been a figure in parliamentary politics since the 1980s, when he won the Highland seat, centred on Fort William, where he grew up. He was leader of his party at 39, young even by today’s standards. Likewise, his young, untimely death at 55. But he packed a full political career into those years and he will never be thought of as a might-have-been.

His private life was darker, and his problems with drink lay at the core of his failure to retain political power. His marriage broke up and his behaviour became unpredictable. He was always bitter about his overthrow. It meant among other things that he was unable to play the role for which he would otherwise have been ideal, as a leader of the anti-independence campaign in the 2014 Scottish referendum. That not even he was able to retain his seat in the May election said something about Scottish politics, something about the collapse of the Lib Dems and something about Charles’s diminished political allure. But there won’t be a single person in politics feeling anything other than sadness and loss today – and there are few political passings of which that can truthfully be said.
 
It doesnt seem right that when you do get a decent MP, whether you beleive in their policies or not, that they tend to die early. Cook, Mowlem, Kennedy and Smith were all genuine people, yet they were taken from us far too soon.
 
spur67 - 3/6/2015 05:30

It doesnt seem right that when you do get a decent MP, whether you beleive in their policies or not, that they tend to die early. Cook, Mowlem, Kennedy and Smith were all genuine people, yet they were taken from us far too soon.
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The lifestyle as you climb that greasy pole is probably one of the unhealthiest in the land unless you take an awful lot of care over yourself., unfortunately, not many do.
 
spurdon - 2/6/2015 20:46

Can die in the knowledge that he opposed the Iraq war that is a legacy to be proud of.
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Totally and utterly agree. Had the courage of his convictions when he was being placed under huge pressure.

I hope this if nothing else gets him the respect he unquestionably deserves.
 
Kennedy brought the lib dems up to scratch and helped shape them into a genuine 3rd party option. In a world where people are often critical about the lack of transparency in politicians, he trail blazed a template for a genuinely honest and caring member of parliament that you wish others would follow.

With him at the helm of the LD's he offered a true option for the left of centre voter, going against the grain of the centre/right to right trend of the other main parties.

Who knows what would have happened if he'd have lead the party for the 2010 election? The LDs seemed to be making forward momentum before his resignation which could have seen further gains instead of the near same result that Clegg delivered, but one thing would have been certain is that we'd have never seen the Con-Dem coalition, which in turn would have left the nation in 2015 in a completely different state.

I really hope that it's not his personal demons that have got the better of him as (has been witnessed by all the tributes from politicians from all parties) he really was a top notch person and politician.

Rest in peace big man!
 
A good man that he was no doubt - perhaps in his memory should bar the freely available alcohol at the Houses of Parliament. Hopefully the cause of his death shouldn't be hidden under the carpet. Alcohol is a killer let's face it ....
 
It seems it was the booze, his family say it was a major haemorrhage brought about by his alcoholism.

A sad waste.
 
Always had time for him, good talker. Sorry for my ignorance but how does alcoholism cause clots ? I read his wife is an ex wife so I guess he was on his own when he died.

Such a destructive illness, when you think in football alone who it has affected. I read that George Bests mother was an alcoholic so it may be hereditary to be susceptible to it.

Who becomes an alcoholic and why ? It can't just be those that drink a lot. Some must be more vulnerable to it.
 
NRD, yup sadly found by his 'secret' lover the following morning. Like all things some get addicted some not not - alcohol leads to so much sorrow and nothing more than shallow enjoyment -why is it legalized when others less harmful aren't? As said earlier, shame for the young lad left behind ....
 
spurdon - 2/6/2015 20:46

Can die in the knowledge that he opposed the Iraq war that is a legacy to be proud of.
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too right, and pretty much a lone voice. The rest of them can just die.

One of the good guys, great comedy timing and quick brain
 
No man who can give up on his wife and his young son for his love of alcohol can be a good guy with a quick brain!
 
It's easy to make puerile simple judgements based on a lack of knowledge., smarter people might think more deeply...it's now conclusively known that many peoples addictions and addictive personality is caused by a genetic predisposition....

Alcoholism is a four fold progressive disease

Dr. Robin Foote BA NCAC.

Alcoholism is a disease of the body, thinking, emotions and spirit.

Progressive damage to these four aspects interact in various ways such that a person is increasingly compelled to drink. Also, once drinking starts they cannot 'always' guarantee when they will stop or how much they will drink.

The Body

A genetic predisposition. Fifty percent of alcoholics have an inherited genetic makeup that almost guaranteed they would become alcoholic when they began to drink heavily.

For example, the brain chemistry of some children or grandchildren of alcoholics actually encourages heavier drinking.

Alcohol Metabolism. Alcohol is metabolized differently by some people. As a result the body and brain requires more alcohol to have the same effect than normal drinkers would need.

Cell alteration. All heavy drinkers undergo changes at the cellular level of the brain.

Where the brain cells meet extra receptor positions grow to receive the heavy dose of alcohol related chemical messengers.

When not drinking these extra receptor positions demand to be filled thus creating a craving for alcohol.

Brain damage. Alcohol, in any quantity, is poisonous to brain cells and kills off cells in their millions. The most critically affected parts of the brain are those that deal with short term memory, decision making and rational thinking.

Women heavy drinkers develop brain damage with less drinking than men.

Liver Damage. The most common liver disease of alcoholics is cirrhosis (scarring) of the liver. This disease results in reduced and corrupted chemicals being sent to the body which can result in damage to other organs. Women suffer liver damage with less alcohol consumption than men.

Alcoholic Hepatitis (AH). AH is caused by other liver diseases most notably cirrhosis of the liver. More than 60% of persons who develop both AH and cirrhosis will die within four years.


AH can cause changes in sleep patterns, mood, and personality; psychiatric conditions such as anxiety and depression; shortened attention span; and problems with coordination may occur.

Brain Chemicals. The body and especially the brain relies on the liver to filter important body fluids and excrete wastes. As a result of contaminated chemistry from a damaged liver the brain does not function properly.

Typically a person will have cloudy and slowed thinking.

Heart Damage. Heavy drinking causes damage to the heart muscles. The heart pumps less blood and an abnormal heart beat may develop.

Women suffer heart damage with less alcohol consumed than men.

Skeletal Muscles. Heavy drinking causes muscles in the arms and legs to shrink. For example, an alcoholic may have legs that are out of proportion, skinnier, than the rest of their body. Sufferers may become embarrassed about their body shape.

Cancer. The risk of cancer increases with greater alcohol consumption - more so in women. Cancer can develop in the upper airways, the liver, breasts and the bowels.

Sexual Organs and Sexuality.

Heavy alcohol use shrinks the testicles.

In men and women the breasts grow larger. Men produce more female hormones and women produce more male hormones. Men become less virile and women become less feminine. As a result a persons sexuality and libido is altered.

They may sense change in their sexuality and over compensate by becoming more sexually active. Indiscriminate or intoxicated sexual activity raises the risk of getting sexually transmitted diseases.

Thinking
As detailed before various damaged body organs and altered chemistry affect how the brain thinks.

This buildup of thinking changes occurs over an extended time period. These small changes are usually unseen by the sufferer. The person reacts by adjusting their reasoning and behavior to accommodate their new ways of thinking. Alcoholics always adjust their thinking in ways that are harmful to themselves. And further, they cannot see the impact of their new coping style.

Typically they begin to adopt a siege mentality. Inner-self feedback, and from other people, indicates they are not quite at one with their 'inner' selves or the person they once were. Their experiences seem to paint a picture to the sufferer that people around them are against them, or are better than them, or are just different from themselves. They become insecure, angry, ashamed, depressed and anxious about their altered attitudes and actions.

This siege mentality generates a self-centered perspective to protect their self concept. They become takers and non-givers. "I want what I want and I want it now", sort of thing; "I need a drink, now"; regardless of the needs of others. And, when they do not get it they assert themselves even more, becoming more demanding as the disease progresses.

Alcoholics will increasingly try to cope by drinking more alcohol to take away the pain of their perception of being isolated in thinking and behavior. They slowly adopt a denial attitude to their real condition, which they eventually believe is reality for them.

The alcoholic drinks more due to a different brain chemistry and metabolism, has craving for more alcohol due to cell alteration and organ damage, and drinks more to cope with the effects of their changed thinking and behavior. They are drinking to feel normal.

The Emotions


From the above it can easily be seen that their emotions become strained and twisted. They become emotionally dependent on achieving and keeping a state of denial of their true situation. They deny it to themselves and others. If their alcoholism is in threat of being exposed or their alcohol supply is threatened they may protect themselves with anger, bluff, self-pity, manipulation, depression, running away & etc.

They 'feel' as if they must continue their current emotional and thinking stance at all costs.

Alcohol has become their best friend and they are loyal to it.

The Spirit

The spirit of a person is the centre of their personality. If, as seen above, the person is not thinking, feeling or acting as their true self would, not aligned with their spiritual self, they are spiritually ill at ease; or dis-eased.

A Solution

The progression of the disease must be arrested by stopping drinking and restoration of health in all four areas - body, thinking, emotions and spirit.

It is the dis-eased spiritual state that is targeted by the most successful treatment service world wide - Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Through the Twelve Steps of recovery each person finds their inner, spiritual self by stripping away the effects of alcoholism and fixing up the wreckage of past thinking and actions. They begin to live a life of freedom from alcohol that has had them enslaved.
 
Highgatespur - 7/6/2015 06:36

No man who can give up on his wife and his young son for his love of alcohol can be a good guy with a quick brain!
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That's the power of addiction for you. He didn't choose to die, I'm sure he didn't choose to become an alcoholic either. Any one of us who drinks runs the risk of becoming one though.
 
spursgirl_4_life - 8/6/2015 13:28

Highgatespur - 7/6/2015 06:36

No man who can give up on his wife and his young son for his love of alcohol can be a good guy with a quick brain!
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That's the power of addiction for you. He didn't choose to die, I'm sure he didn't choose to become an alcoholic either. Any one of us who drinks runs the risk of becoming one though.
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Just ask Gazza.
 
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