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A look back at the political career of former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy - video report Guardian

Charles Kennedy presents Have I Got News For You Guardian

As leader, Kennedy saw little reason to change his relaxed style and continued to appear on television programmes such as the satirical Have I Got News for You, joining with gusto in its irreverent approach to politics and his fellow politicians, while winging his way fluently, if not always knowledgably, through policy press conferences. It did him no harm at all with the electorate, who saw him as a more genuine person than most of those at Westminster and the one they would most like to share a drink with. His popularity with the public did not suffer when he led the party’s opposition to the Iraq war when both major parties were supporting it.

Kennedy led the party to an improved showing in the Help

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