Matthew Taylor to step down - what was there on him?

Liberal Democrat MP Matthew Taylor is to stand down. (Lib Dem MP Taylor to step down) Apparently he was "one of the best known Liberal Democrat MPs" which is news to many, even considering the limited number of well known Lib Dems. He stood for the Liberal Democrat Deputy Leadership alongside that great household name David Heath, but both lost to Vincent Cable. Otherwise Taylor's main notable feature was to be the Baby of the House for ten years.

Readers of my blog will remember that someone was searching and kept on searching for matthew taylor mp news of the world but the mystery was never solved...

And so it's Cable

The Liberal Democrat deputy leadership election ended today and it's not David Heath after all. So did Lembit Öpik give him the Kiss of Death and back him?

The results were as follows:

Round 1

Vincent Cable 21
David Heath 17
Matthew Taylor 25

No preference 0

Heath was eliminated and his votes redistributed to their next available preference.

Round 2

Vincent Cable 31
Matthew Taylor 29

Non-transfers 3

And so Vincent Cable becomes the next deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats and his role in the downfall of Charles Kennedy appears to have been forgiven. But I doubt he will be the next leader of the party - so that speculation will no doubt continue.

Oh and if anyone thinks that I've been in any way harsh about Lembit Öpik and his repeated habit of supporting campaigns that get nowhere then you might want to take a look at other blog posts like The Curse of Opik, The curse of Lembit, Curse of the Were-Lembit, Öpik - The Dead Horse Flogger, The Curse of Opik, The Curse of Lembit - Part II, The curse of Lembit Part Two, and The Curse of Lembit: Part III to name but a few. It's not looking good at all for Lembit is it?

And then there were three...

Nominations for the Liberal Democrat Deputy Leadership election have now closed and there are just three candidates contesting it. The other three previously reported have declined to run and so the Lib Dems are left with:

• Vincent Cable
• David Heath
• Matthew Taylor

Lembit Öpik now has the opportunity to decide which of these three candidates sinks first. So who does Jonah least want?

Lembit Öpik's chance to sink yet another candidate's hopes

There's another contest taking place that offers Lib Dems the chance to seek support from their colleagues - or in one case to seek to avoid that support! Yes it's the Liberal Democrat Deputy Leadership election. Iain Dale has an assessment of the runners and riders. Which of these Lib Dems will get to stand in for Ming when he's not there?

• Vincent Cable
• Ed Davey
• David Heath
• Susan Kramer
• Matthew Taylor
• Phil Willis

I'm sure I'm not the only person asking who some of them are!

Now the big question that needs answering is which candidate has the support of Lembit Öpik. He publicly backed Charles Kennedy - who was then forced to step down. He publicly backed Mark Oaten - who was then forced to withdraw. He privately supported Chris Huhne - who didn't win. All six candidates must be praying that Öpik doesn't support them!