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Admits to "drink'' problem

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: Britain's Liberal Democratic Party is in turmoil after its leader Charles Kennedy publicly admitted that he had a "drink'' problem and was seeking "professional help'' to cope with it. Mr. Kennedy, who had previously denied reports about his drinking, caused a stir when at a hurriedly-called press conference on Thursday he confessed that for the past 18 months he had been struggling to come "to terms and seeking to cope with a drink problem''. He explained that he had chosen not to acknowledge it before because he wanted to "overcome it privately''. "I should have been willing to talk about it more openly before. I wish I had.'' His surprise confession followed weeks of speculation about a leadership crisis. There had been criticism that he had not been pulling his full weight and that the party had started to "drift'' as a result of his lacklustre leadership in recent months.

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