Oaten faces reality

Mark Oaten has announced that he is to stand down at the next election. The MP for Winchester may have been motivated by the LibDem loss of Winchester council earlier this year.
Despite concerted efforts to rehabilitate his image - including interviews with his wife in the Sunday papers - it seems he has finally bowed to the inevitable. As long ago as March LibDem MPs were dismissing out-of-hand any suggestion that he might come back onto the front bench.
Oaten says he wants to concentrate on development issues when he leaves parliament.
He also seems to think he is a media celebrity, in the mode of Jade Goody. He appeared weekly in the BBC's Politics Show as one of four MPs starting a new fitness regime.
The comparison with Goody is apt - there is a serious amount of self-delusion in both. If Oaten thinks he is going to be the new Charles Kennedy he is mistaken. There is no public love for Oaten. He would do better to follow the model of the late John Profumo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Profumo) , and devote himself to anonymous good works.