Has Nicol Stephen misjudged?

George · Has Nicol Stephen misjudged?

Given the recent rants from Nicol Stephen I was wondering if he is being manipulated or he is thinking for himself and has simply misjudged.

My belief is that Stephen sees the lame duck nature of Wendy Alexander's leadership as an opportunity to promote himself and his party as the main opposition.

However, in his rush for headlines I think that his lack of judgement and limitations have been cruelly exposed. The press have taken it upon themselves to headline every utterance that has come from this man recently. This appears to have gone to his head resulting in even more outrageous allegations.

What awaits Stephen and the Liberals when sobriety returns?

Holebender

Considering that he and that LibDem councillor on the planning committee represent constituencies near the proposed golf resort I think he is going to find his voters very unforgiving come the next election. I've a feeling the LibDems in general are going to do very badly in the North East for a while at least.

And good riddance to them.

William_Cleland

He probably was in panic mode over what the SNP being generally perceived as the saviours of this project could do in electoral terms across the North East. Major slap in the face for him that the Tories wouldn't go along with his call for an inquiry.

SLG

I really don't know what Stephen expected to happen here. Fair enough trying to have a dig at Salmond, but to take it a step further and jeopardise the investment is not going to do him or his party much good. I think you're right George, he got the headlines, so he decided to run with it as far as he could without thinking of the implications.

The Tories are playing it very sensibly, I presume they are thinking that they have a chance to over take the Lib Dems as the best placed Unionist party in rural Aberdeenshire.

agentmancuso

SLG

agentmancuso

I read that there was one in the P&J which ran 60/40 against, till the paper pulled it. Again, no hard details though.

SLG

agentmancuso

Sorry I don't. I haven't been following the story much to be honest. Neither the case for the golf course nor the case against much appeal to me.

Economist

He's probably being manipulated by Ravishing Tavish and Mike Rumbles - seems to be where the power base of the party lies these days.

I certainly wouldn't put any money on Nicol Stephen being leader of the Scottish LibDems at the next election.

Avatar

Nicol Stephen can barely get out of his own way, I am genuinely amazed he's managed to hold on as leader for this long.

Neil

Having only lost a few votes at the last election while saying that it is possible to run our grid 100% on largely intermittent windmills he may have thought his party could say anything & not get it noticed. They recently held a conference where they had 2 separate debates on forcing everybody onto bicycles by cutting the speed limit to 20 but in all the years since devolution have never once had a debate about the economy.

They get away with appearing nice, moderate & liberal but actually stand for some clinicly insane stuff.

azzuri

Nicol Stephen really is a tool and the only reason he has survived this long is because he's so far out of the spotlight.

The Lib Dems are falling further behind than the Tories in Scotland because they contribute sweet f.a., and quite rightly, at least Goldie serves a purpose.