It happens that it was sent in by Rob Fenwick, a Lib Dem and Simon Hughes supporter.
Rob's own blog gives a transcript of what happened:
The last thing Ming should do if he wins the leadership is sell his Jag.SKY: Let's talk about the environment, an important issue that Lib Dems certainly put at the centre of the ground. This question from Rob Fenwick: "Both Ming Campbell and Chris Huhne claim that the environment is of paramount importance. Chris Huhne owns a hybrid electric car, a Toyota Prius. Is it correct that Ming Campbell owns not one but TWO Jaguars? And if so, how does that square with a supposed commitment to the environment?" A gas guzzler, Sir Menzies
CAMPBELL: I have one 20 year old car which has been my pride and joy.
SKY: Not the best for the environment.
CAMPBELL: But we are all going to have to change our habits, including me.
And then later:
SKY: So the jag goes, does it?
CAMPBELL: Yep,
I see it as central to what could be a very popular image. He would be the new Inspector Morse or the sort of dependable Scottish lawyer who was always played by Iain Cutherbertson.
Don't do it, Sir Menzies.
7 comments:
Couldn't it be converted to run on LPG?
We had a blog question about this. Somewhat disappointingly for Inspector Morse fans, Ming's main car is a VW Passat. The Jaguar (and there's only one of them) is a classic car that he only used very occasionally. While investigating the answer, we found out that David Steel has a considerably more extensive collection of classic cars than Ming has ever dreamt of - but perhaps we were more tolerant of our leaders in the 1970s and 1980s.
And presumably you saw where Rob said
Thing is though, I never actually intended for him to give up his car - I assumed he’d have some sort of answer in mind for the question, whereas what happened was he panicked, waffled, and then when the Sky presenter asked if he was going to give up the car, he said “Yep!”
I think niles has hit the main point here.
Ming is supposed to be the experienced, unflappable one.
Yet he allowed himself to get trapped by a (pretty rubbish) Sky presenter.
The second point that strikes me is that he has given the impression that he is responding to the agenda set by Chris Huhne. Chris launches his campaign with a strong message on fuel taxes and within hours this is apparantly Ming's main priority too.
To my mind both these points are far more worrying than what car he drives.
It's unfortunate that he didn't have the wit to point out how running old cars, in spite of their engines, is probably the best thing one can do for the environment, because of the massive impact that (a) scrapping old cars, and (b) building new cars imposes.
Rob
It is not "a truly magnificent piece of spin". It is my opinion.
And nobody tells me what to write.
I thought it was very commendable to keep the same car for twenty years. We used to moan about built-in obsolescense. Here is a leader prepared to take direct action.
Well done Ming and well done, Jonathan: save the Ming Jag!
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