The Pointless Simon Hughes

Simon Hughes is stirring again.

I don't particularly care about the detail of what he is saying - there were always going to be those left on the outside, both ideologically and practically, of the coalition deal. And someone like Hughes was always going to be the mouthpiece of the disgruntled wing of the Lib Dems. No, no, what bothers me is this - why is Simon Hughes still in Parliament? No, even more than that - what the hell is the point of Simon Hughes anyway?

The truth is that Simon Hughes is utterly pointless. He's the sort of Lib Dem who gives the whole party a bad name - someone who tries to appear pious and caring on the surface (yet remains faintly patronising at all times - intentionally or otherwise) yet is actually quite nasty, underhand and unpleasant if you even lightly scratch that surface. His campaign against Peter Tatchell in 1983 is an excellent example of that. His constituency blindly re-elects him each time it gets the chance, despite it having some shocking examples of poverty within it and it also being an area of London that is immune to many of the improvements seen in other parts of that great city. He's run for Lib Dem leader, yet failed convincingly. And now he seems to be trying to undermine the coalition - the Liberal Democrats' sole chance to have any political influence whatsoever for more than a generation.

Wherever the Liberal Democrats go after this - to the right, to the left, straight into an ongoing alliance with one of the main parties - I think they need, and should heed, this piece of advice: ditch Hughes. Deselect him. Bin him. Get rid of him. Your party will be far better off without this waspish, poisonous cretin. He contributes nothing to your party, and he is just a headache in desperate need of a pain killer.