Claims that Lembit will be appearing on the next Celebrity Big Brother have now been vigourously denied. But there remain two problems.

The first thing is that the story “rang” true. CBB is pretty much the only celebrity reality TV show Lembit hasn’t appeared on. He’s made much out of his appearances on I’m a Celebrity and Celebrity Apprentice*. And he has of course appeared on a myriad of other chat and panel shows. By contrast, no-one would have believed the story about Ros Scott or indeed pretty much any other MP. That is an image problem which Lembit himself has cultivated. So while it may indeed be “mischief” to invent stories such as this, it is only planting a seed in well cultivated soil.

The second thing is the length of time it took to rebut the story. Indeed, at the time of writing (1.20pm) the denial has yet to appear on his official website. No bloggers were briefed to start the rebuttal process. Why the length of time? Could it be that his campaign team weren’t completely sure the story wasn’t true and wasted the morning trying to track down the candidate? This suggests that a) Team Lembit perceive the same image problem that the rest of us do and b) either the campaigners or the candidate is not really concentrating on the fight.

Issuing a denial on a website is a five minute job. Is it really too much to expect Lembit to sort this out?

UPDATE: * Not forgetting Big Brother’s Little Brother of course**.

** Oops. Didn’t mention the All Star Talent Show, All-Star Mr and Mrs, Celebrity Weakest Link and Celebrity Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

As you will no doubt have read by now, the Sun is claiming that Lembit Opik has agreed to take part in 2009’s Celebrity Big Brother. Thus far, Team Lembit have issued no denial, suggesting it is either true or they are in complete disarray.

A thought though occurs: assuming CBB starts at around the same time as it did in 2007, Lembit’s participation would prevent him from taking part in either his first or second Federal Executive meeting (so much for that much-vaunted high attendence record). I find it awfully hard to believe that intense pressure will not be brought to bear to prevent him from doing that. By contrast, if he doesn’t get elected, then who will be able to prevent him from taking part?

I’m sure Lembit has thought that one through. So a thought occurs: is the choice he is offering us that either he will get elected, knuckle down and take his presidency seriously or he will continue going down the path of establishing himself as a celeb TV fixture. So people are being offered the Hobson’s Choice of either electing him or having him make the party look ridiculous. In other contexts, that looks rather a lot like blackmail.

In some ways though, he is doing us a favour. By raising the stakes in this way he is dramatising a choice the Lib Dems have to make: do you want to be taken seriously or be dismissed as wacky eccentrics? A decisive Ros Scott victory will send a signal that the party is raising its game.

Lembit is making a great deal out of the fact that he has more Facebook supporters than Ros Scott, which is fair enough. I’ve never bought into this idea that this election is a shoe-in for Ros Scott. He can also claim a mini-coup in the fact that Mark Littlewood has abandoned ship and is backing Lembit over and above his Liberal Vision colleague Chandila Fernando.

One thing that confuses me about the Lembit Facebook strategy though is how come he has two, apparently official Facebook groups? One has 516 members, the other features an official video. It’s almost as if they launched an official Facebook group but it was less successful than a disparate group of supporters who had managed to get more people to sign up in the same amount of time, so they abanoned ship. With the website change as well, it certainly does seem as if there has been a mini-coup d’etat within Team Opik. But if you have to save your candidate from himself, is he really worth saving?

…can be found on Comment is Free:

These questions, for the Lib Dems at least, are important. The party president is not a figurehead but an executive role. I happen to think that the more focused Lembit who ran a highly organised campaign four years ago would have done a much better job than Simon Hughes. But now? He says he wants the role but all his actions suggest that his campaign is little more than an afterthought. Whether that is complacency or apathy, it is the last thing the party needs right now.

I’ve resisted requests to set up a post Where’s Lemby? Lembit watch, but this strange video can’t go unmentioned:

Is it me or does he come across as rather aggressive, roaming his “ordinary street” and emphasising how he goes “ROUND… THIS… COUNTRY!”

The overall effect is rather reminiscent of a certain Verve video:

Don’t you think it would have been so much better if he’d careered into a few innocent bystanders a la Richard Ashcroft? At least this video doesn’t feature a riverboat steamer.

The vigil is over. Lembit’s website has been launched. It, er, isn’t exactly Web 2.0.

From what I’ve seen of the site (and this may have changed by now), it features endorsements from those famous triplets “Ordinary Member,” “Ordinary Member” and their brother “Ordinary Member.”. Just to ensure that Lembit is taken seriously, he also claims to have endorsement from a senior politician. Boris Johnson.

Congratulations Lembit - it may have taken you two weeks but you finally got there. And I’m sure that, if you are elected president, your office will be the slick sort of operation we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks. At the very least we can expect all the Federal Executive to have gained their Segway Proficiency Badges by 2010.

Blogging is light at the moment until I can find decent WiFi in Bournemouth. Still no news of Lembit’s actual campaign - even the dejected-looking staff member collecting signatures has disappeared. lembitforpresident.co.uk has a new holding page. Someone sent me a picture of Lembit whizzing around on his (yawn!) Segway which I will duly publish as soon as I can blog using something other than an effing BlackBerry. And when I talked to Lembit myself this morning, he appeared to be a little hoarse - whether that was revellry or disease-related is currently unclear.

Serously. This is starting to go beyond simple disorganisation and look pretty contemptuous of the electorate. So a message to Team Lembit: send me an email to confirm your candidate is actually standing and to give me a launch date: semajmaharg{at}gmail{dot}com. It is time we heard from you!

Reports of Lembit’s demise have been greatly exaggerated!

Quaequam Blog! has had reports that Lembit arrived at the Bournemouth International Conference Centre resplendent on his Segway. And QQB! has personally been asked to sign Lembit’s nomination papers.

Team Lembit, it has to be said, look at bit less impressive than Team Ros, with their ‘Ipik Opik’ address labels on their lapels. But at least they’re now doing something. With any luck, we might even see a campaign website soon.

Text your Lembit sightings to 07966 237550 or Twitter @jamesgraham.

More Lembit news today, but none of it is very good.

First of all, the Western Mail reports that senior Welsh Lib Dem politicians are “snubbing” Lembit in favour of a “little-known candidate from England” (which is apparently a small place somewhere east of the Marches). Yet Lembit is apparently still standing, stating that:

“Party members can vote for whichever candidate they like. It’s called democracy and I support that. Ros Scott may have some supporters in Wales, but I have lots of people backing me in England.

“I believe I am the right person to become president. I am already the senior vice-president and chair meetings of the executive, of which I have been a member for 17 years.

“If people want a president with experience and determination who is inspirational, I believe they should vote for me.

“I travel round Britain to see members of the party all the time, which is why my car has 380,000 miles on the clock.

…

“I am standing in this election not on what I say I will do in the future, but on the record of what I have been doing in the party and will continue to do.”

But in a sign that he is a little irked about his lack of support, how’s this for a pout?

“I have done all the training for candidates within the party since 1990. I remember Kirsty Williams coming to a course I ran in the mid-1990s in the early stages of her career.

“I’m sure she is grateful for the help I gave her.”

Ouch. I’m sure she feels suitably put in her place now. Bloody girls.

Meanwhile, it appears that it isn’t just the Welsh who are less than sympathetic to Lembit’s cause. For the second month in a row he has come bottom of Lib Dem Voice’s Members’ Poll on the Shadow Cabinet:

Sarah Teather -14.6%
Roger Williams -14.6%
Michael Moore -20.8%
Nick Harvey -23.9%
Lembit Opik -35.4%

No Lembit news today, so I thought I would just link to the launch of Kirsty Williams’ campaign to succeed him as Welsh Leader instead.