Pressure of work has delayed me blogging my tribute to Doris Ansari, who steps down formally on Monday as leader of the Lib Dem group on Cornwall Council. I'm immensely grateful to Doris for taking the time last week to go on BBC Radio Cornwall with Martin Bailie to announce her intentions.
I've known Doris for nearly 30 years and she has always been unfailingly courteous and straightforward, a rare combination in a politician (yeah, OK, I know many journos are not much better.) During the 1980s she was one of a handful of councillors who dragged Cornish politics out of its Independent-dominated rural squirearchy and transformed it into a reasonably recognisable version of the 20th century.
It's entirely appropriate that Doris's OBE should have been awarded "for services to the people of Cornwall." She represents a significant chapter in Cornwall's local government history and it's good to know that she'll still be there at County Hall to offer words of wisdom from the back benches.
Monday's Lib Dem group meeting will confirm Jeremy Rowe as its new leader, and it's hard to envisage a more 21st century local government politician. Jeremy blogs and Tweets and has the sort of sense of humour which - if not actually terrifying his opponents - often leaves them completely lost for words.
Jeremy will be elected unopposed, which sounds a bit like the way they used to do things in Albania, but at least there won't be the need for any of that Alternative Voting. It will be very interesting to see if Jeremy can keep his role as a front-bench jester once he has to combine it with the gravitas of detail that comes with leadership. But if anybody can cheer up the Lib Dems right now, it's Jeremy - I wish him luck.
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