Farewell Viv Bingham

Sad news this evening. Viv Bingham, who was President of the Liberal Party in 1981-2, has died.

Stephen Glenn reminds us that:

Viv stood for Westminster election on five occasions the two 1974 elections for Heywood and Royton, 1979 for Hazel Grove, 1983 for West Derbyshire and finally in 2005 for Stalybridge as well as standing in the first contested European elections in 1979.

He also posts a video of Viv in fine form at the Liberal Democrat Conference only last autumn.

My own fondest is memory of Vic is joining him on the panel of a well-refreshed game of Just a Minute at the Glee Club some years ago. Chaired my David Grace, the panel consisted of Viv, Lembit Opik, me (in the character or Lord Bonkers) and, I think, Jackie Ballard.

That lack of stuffiness was central to the old Liberal Party Assemblies, even if it has never quite been to Liberal Democrat Conferences, and there was no better personification of it than Viv.