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The party’s record poll ratings and its united position on Iraq are pleasing, he admits, although he declines to give himself personal credit for this.”I really do pay tribute to my parliamentary colleagues. He is even prone to flights of puritanism, which sit strangely with his reputation as a bon viveur. “The bruised feelings that exist amongst several governments are as nothing compared to the suffering that is going on in Iraq,” he says.”It’s beholden on political leaders across the world to keep the differences on hold and focus on the much bigger humanitarian issues.”Mr Kennedy may be steeped in internationalism, but he remains a Scottish boy at heart. “I hope that Tony Blair has not irrevocably chosen America over Europe.”Iraq’s suffering will be even greater if the scars within the UN and EU are not healed in time for the humanitarian effort.

“It’s also the damage that’s been done between Europe and North America.”Mr Kennedy believes rebuilding relations with Europe and tending the “bruised feelings” in the UN and Nato must be a priority after the war. “It is perverse in the extreme to presume you can have a more isolationist approach to world problems You can’t,” he says. Britain’s decision to back America over Iraq without EU support has shattered European goodwill, and this may take years to rebuild.”There’s no doubt the amount of damage that has been done to Britain’s standing in Europe has been colossal,” he says. Now the euro is on the back burner, for obvious reasons.”He is also worried that hurling insults at Jacques Chirac, the French President, and the tacit encouragement of anti-French feeling will make it much harder for Mr Blair to win such a referendum. “I think he could have resolved the issue after his first general election victory and he could have resolved [it] after the second general election victory. He is open about his “total frustration” at Tony Blair’s failure to call a euro referendum.”So far, the Prime Minister has shockingly missed the boat twice,” he says. The former SDP MP was swiftly spotted as a future leader, and under Paddy Ashdown had to live with the burden of being heir-apparent.Now, after three years of leading the party, with what critics termed a slightly hesitant start, he has developed a distinctive alternative voice in politics and speaks with authority on domestic, European and world issues.

During the election he won much sympathy by calling for an end to “yah-boo” politics and for parties to engage with young voters.The war, paradoxically, has motivated a whole generation of disaffected youth, and many of their parents, to engage directly with politics. “This issue has brought one million people on to the streets, the bulk of whom never marched or joined parties and who don’t go on peace vigils or protests,” he says.”It rather gives the lie to this idea that everyone is cynical and turned off and Parliament doesn’t matter. “It doesn’t do the image of Parliament on such a serious issue any good at all,” he says. “People don’t like it, because they think, whether they agree with us or not, we have had something distinctive to contribute to the discussion about war.”The disaffection of the public with politics is a theme that Mr Kennedy returns to often. Force of argument is far better than the force of insult.”Mr Kennedy thinks the public are turned off by seeing party leaders hurling verbal missiles at each other across the Commons chamber. “In a sense, we should take it as a tribute that our competitors in opposition politics think they should have to take us that seriously,” he says.”They are right to take us seriously, but they are just doing it in the wrong way.