Another reason to like Michael Howard...

...no really. With the endless speculation about Blair's future, and with the debacle that surrounded the end of the Kennedy era as Lib Dem leader, it is worth noting that the last UK party leader who managed to resign but still retain a shred of dignity was Michael Howard. He said he would hold his subordinates responsible if they did not do what they were supposed to do, and since he failed to win the election, he applied the same rules to himself and ended any leadership speculation by resigning the afternoon after Election Day. He then stayed on for long enough to organise the very epitome of an orderly transition, with the four (then two) candidates debating issues without sniping at each other. Compare that to the meltdown that the Lib Dems went through at the beginning part of this year, and the meltdown Labour is currently going through, it is difficult not to think of Howard and realise that he actually knew what he was doing. Howard's legacy is a united Tory party, that will almost certainly win the next election. Blair's legacy to his party could be a rift to rival 1981.