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dablink|This article is about the British
politician; see Charles Kennedy (uation) for
others of the same name.


The Right Honourable Charles Peter Kennedy (born
25 November 1959) is a British politician, who has
been leader of the Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal
Democrats (the third largest political party in
the United Kingdom) since 1999.

==Early life==

Born in Inverness, Scotland and raised Roman
Catholic, Charles Kennedy was educated at
Lochaber|Lochaber High School and went on to study
for a Masters Degree in Politics and Philosophy at
the University of Glasgow.  It was at university
that he became politically active, he was a member
of the Dialectical Society (a debating club) but
he was not a member of the Labour Club. He was
elected president of Glasgow University Union and
won the British Observer Mace university debating
award. GUU was the last all-male student union in
the world; during his time as president Kennedy
opposed admitting women as members, but conceded
defeat under pressure from the University Court. 
Shortly after he joined the Social Democratic
Party (UK)|Social Democrats (SDP).

Upon graduation in 1982 he went to work for BBC
Highland as a journalist, and later received a
Fulbright Fellowship allowing him to carry out
research at Indiana University in the United
States, on the rhetoric of Roy Jenkins.

==Political career==
While studying in America he also received the SDP
nomination for the Scottish seat of Ross, Cromarty
and Skye, which he went on to win in 1983,
becoming the youngest sitting Member of
Parliament. He has retained the seat and its
successor, Ross, Skye and Inverness West, at five
subsequent general elections; he is the Liberal
Democrats' MP for the seat which replaced it in
2005: Ross, Skye and Lochaber. 

In the late 1980s the SDP and the The Liberal
Party (UK)|Liberal Party, which had been
co-operating in the SDP-Liberal Alliance, merged
to form the Social and Liberal Democratic Party,
later renamed the Liberal Democrats. Kennedy was
one of only five SDP MPs to support the merge.

Kennedy served as a frontbencher for the Lib Dems
in a variety of posts, including social security,
agriculture and rural|rural affairs, health,
Scotland and European Union|Europe. He was also
party president for four years, between 1990 and
1994.

== Leadership ==

On August 9, 1999, Charles Kennedy was elected
leader of the Liberal Democrats after the
retirement of Paddy Ashdown; he beat Jackie
Ballard, Malcolm Bruce, Simon Hughes and David
Rendel. He won 57% of the vote through a
proportional representation system (Simon Hughes,
the runner-up, won 43% of the vote). 

Kennedy's style of leadership is somewhat
different from Ashdown's, being regarded as more
conversational and "laid back". Although he has
been dismissed as "Chatshow Charlie" by some
observers, as a result of his appearances on the
satire|satirical panel game Have I Got News For
You, opinion polls have shown him to be positively
regarded as a party leader and potential Prime
Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister by a
significant fraction of the British electorate.

Kennedy maintains the long standing aspiration for
his party to break through to the status of Her
Majesty's Opposition|official opposition. In his
first major campaign, the United Kingdom general
election, 2001|2001 general election, the Liberal
Democrats improved their share of the vote to
18.3%, 1.5% more than in the United Kingdom
general election, 1997|1997 election. Although
this is a smaller share than the 25.4% the
SDP/Liberal Alliance achieved united Kingdom
general election, 1983|in 1983, the Lib Dems won
52 seats compared to the Alliance's 23. In the
2005 election his party achieved a total of 62
seats, with 22.0% of the overall vote (excluding
the posponed vote in South Staffordshire (UK
Parliament constituency)|South Staffordshire).

Kennedy, along with his "election guru" Chris
Rennard, Baron Rennard|Lord Rennard, has targeted
the Lib Dems' campaigning on a limited number of
seats in such a way as to turn a lower level of
national support into a greater number of
Parliamentary seats.  He extended this strategy at
the 2005 General Election targeting the seats held
by the most senior and/or highly regarded
Conservative MPs, dubbed a "decapitation"
strategy, with the expectation that without these
"key" figures, the Conservatives would be
discredited as the Official Opposition allowing
Charles Kennedy and the Liberal Democrats to claim
that they are the "effective Opposition".

However, this strategy is widely seen to have
failed. At the 2005 General Election, the Liberal
Democrats failed to unseat leading Conservatives
such as the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
Oliver Letwin, Shadow Home Secretary David Davis,
Shadow Secretary of State for the Family Theresa
May and the Leader of the Opposition (UK)|Leader
of the Opposition Michael Howard. The biggest
"scalp" the Liberal Democrats managed to claim was
that of the Shadow Education Secretary Tim Collins
(politician)|Tim Collins in Westmorland and
Lonsdale (UK Parliament constituency)|Westmorland
and Lonsdale. 

At the same time, the Lib Dems also hoped to
capture marginal Labour seats, attracting Labour
voters (particularly Muslim voters) who were
dissatisfied because of the 2003 invasion of
Iraq|invasion of Iraq; the party succeded with
this tactic in by-elections, taking Brent East (UK
Parliament constituency)|Brent East and Leicester
South (UK Parliament constituency)|Leicester South
from Labour.

Since the General Election, Kennedy's leadership
has come under increased critisism from those who
felt that if the Liberal Democrats could not
capitalise and become the Official Opposition at a
time when, arguably, the Official Opposition, the
Conservative Party, were at a relatively weak
position. Many have pointed the finger of blame at
Kennedy for failing to widen the Party's appeal
while others, like the former Deputy Chairman of
the Federal Liberal Democrat Party, Donnachadh
McCarthy, have resigned from the Party citing the
party's shift to the right of the political
spectrum under Kennedy in pursuit of Conservative
votes.

Sir Ludovic Kennedy, husband of Lady Moira
Shearer|Moira Shearer Kennedy, condemned Kennedy,
a Roman Catholic, for opposing euthanasia in 2001.
He then resigned from the party to stand in the
United Kingdom general election, 2001|general
election as an independent, on a platform of
legalising voluntary euthanasia, but has since
rejoined.

==Personal life==
In July 2002, Charles Kennedy married Sarah
Gurling, the sister of his best friend, James
Gurling.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2141472.stm

Reports of Kennedy's ill-health in 2003 at the
time of crucial debates on Iraq and the budget
were linked to unsubstantiated allegations of
alcoholism.

Sarah gave birth to their first child, Donald
James Kennedy, at 12:14am April 12 2005, at St
Thomas' Hospital, London. Kennedy had been due to
launch his party's manifesto for the United
Kingdom general election, 2005|General Election,
which was subsequently delayed, with Menzies
Campbell|Sir Menzies Campbell taking temporary
charge as acting leader and covering Kennedy's
campaign duties. During the manifesto launch on
his first day back on the campaign trail after the
birth, Kennedy struggled to remember the details
of a key policy (replacing the Council Tax with a
Local Income Tax) at an early morning press
conference, which he later blamed on a lack of
sleep due to his new child.

==See also==
*Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet

== Bibliography ==

*The Future of Politics (2000) ISBN 0007101317
(hardcover) ISBN 0007101325 (paperback)

==External links==
*http://www.charleskennedy.org.uk/ Rt Hon Charles
Kennedy MP official site
*http://www.libdems.org.uk/party/people/person.htm
l?id=28 Rt Hon Charles Kennedy MP profile at the
site of Liberal Democrats
*http://www.scotlibdems.org.uk/biographies/kennedy
c.htm Rt Hon Charles Kennedy MP profile at the
site of Scottish Liberal Democrats
*http://www.epolitix.com/EN/MPWebsites/Charles+Ken
nedy/ ePolitix.com - Charles Kennedy
*http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-286
4,00.html Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask
Aristotle: Charles Kennedy
*http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/charles_kennedy/
ross%2C_skye_and_lochaber TheyWorkForYou.com -
Charles Kennedy
*http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Charles_K
ennedy&mpc=Ross%2C+Skye+%26amp%3B+Lochaber The
Public Whip - Charles Kennedy voting record
*http://search.looksmart.com/p/browse/us1/us317836
/us552286/us526499/us526505/us10234373/us599068/us
670882/us10140098/us10140106/us10140343/ LookSmart
- Rt Hon Charles Kennedy MP directory category
*http://editors.dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/United_Ki
ngdom/Scotland/Society_and_Culture/Politics/Partie
s/Liberal_Democrats/MPs/Kennedy,_Charles/ Open
Directory Project - Charles Kennedy directory
category
*http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/mpdb/html/665.stm
BBC News - Politics: Charles Kennedy profile 10
February, 2005

start box
succession box |
  title=Liberal Democrats (UK)|Leader of the
British Liberal Democrats |
  before=Paddy Ashdown |
  after=Current Incumbent |
  years=1999–

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