The full extent of Charles Kennedy's drink problem, from shaking hands to missed public appearances, has been catalogued in the fullest account to date by his successor as Liberal Democrat leader.
The graphic recollections in Sir Menzies Campbell's serialised memoirs, entitled My Autobiography, come just two days before Mr Kennedy, MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber, hopes to win the support of students at Glasgow University, where he is vying with three rivals to become the rector.
Undergraduates at Mr Kennedy's alma mater vote tomorrow and Wednesday with the successful candidate, who will serve a three-year tenure as rector, being named on April 10.
In his autobiography, Sir Menzies, MP for North-East Fife, explained how his father, George, was "a drinker", which led him to acquiring "a greater understanding of why people did it".
The ex-leader's serialised account of his colleague's battle with the bottle began with events in 2001 when the two men were due to meet Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader, in London.
Sir Menzies explained how Mr Kennedy "eventually" turned up, raised a soft drink can to his lips but "was shaking so much he had to use both hands to hold it steady".
After Sir Menzies became deputy leader in 2003, Anna Werrin, Mr Kennedy's gatekeeper, took him aside and briefed him "in detail on Charles's problem". The back bencher said: "Whenever necessary - and it was frequent by her account - they put up a shield for him."
He recalled how on two major political occasions - the announcement by the then Chancellor Gordon Brown on whether Britain would join the euro and on Budget Day in 2004 - Mr Kennedy failed to put in an appearance; on the former occasion because he was "not capable of it" and on the latter because he had "a stomach complaint".
One of the most dramatic moments came in 2003 when Sir Menzies was told Mr Kennedy was to give a press conference the following day to announce he would step down as party leader and seek medical treatment for his drink problem.
As the Fife MP travelled to London, he was paged halfway to say his colleague had changed his mind and was told, as a parliamentary recess was coming up, Mr Kennedy would privately seek help then. A meeting with colleagues was called in which the then leader insisted he would indeed see a doctor and assured them: "Everything will be fine."
In November 2005, after colleagues raised concerns over a "rambling" speech by their leader, Mr Kennedy confronted his critics amid the "growing clamour of complaint" and demanded a show of loyalty.
In January 2006 "the dam broke", with colleagues demanding action. The leader attempted to survive by again going on television to claim that his drink problem was "essentially resolved".
However, the game was up as more than one-third of the parliamentary party threatened to resign their portfolios.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article