Fern Briton described him as: “The greatest Prime Minister this country never had” in December 2015 and though he’ll be forever remembered for the unfortunate moniker “Paddy Pantsdown”, Lord Ashdown truly ought to be lauded for his courageous attempts to save lives during the 1991 – 2001 Balkans conflict. A polyglot and former secret services officer, Ashdown switched from Labour to the Liberal Party in 1975, became an MP in 1983 and then was elected the first leader of the Liberal Democrats in 1988. He has 22,000 followers on Twitter and once remarked: “I’ve had much nastier things said about me in the British press than in the Bosnian press”.
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