"And then he said..."

Look – it’s close, OK? Too close for the difference to be meaningful. And it may not actually be good news for Huhne anyway. But there has been a small but measurable swing to him from Clegg in the attention they’re both receiving among bloggers.

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With time running out in the Lib Dem leadership election, I’ve finally thought of something that might make me vote – even though the one thing I’ve been certain of all along is that I don’t want either candidate in charge of my party.

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So, let’s see if I’ve got this straight.

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Chris is winning! No – Ming is winning! Bloody hell – just count the votes already.
Edit: Some interesting commentary at politicalbetting.com suggests that neither paper (but particularly the Graun) took much care to check the people they were polling were party members and therefore entitled to vote. There’s also some suggestion that it would have [...]

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Ahem.
In recent days I have made it pretty clear that I don't want to see the election for the leader of the Liberal Democrats won by Chris Huhne. From this, readers may have drawn the conclusion that I want to him to lose.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, I'd like to see him [...]

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Whole books have been written on the ideal qualities of a leader: the ability to inspire – coolness under fire – broad strategy combined with tactical nous – high principles tempered by low cunning – luck, as well as judgement. Fewer have been written about the failings that leaders must avoid – even though one [...]

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I was phone canvassed by the Campbell campaign yesterday and the combination of that and some conversations I've had with members in my local party suggest exactly why my favoured choice for leader isn't waltzing home unchallenged – why, in fact, he is quite likely to lose to Chris Huhne.
It's not his age, or his [...]

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Finally have time to write up my thoughts about the Any Questions leadership debate, from the perspective of being in the audience.
The comically long queue outside the hall, which wound along corridors and through doors and almost to the Surrey / Hampshire border, made it look like the event was going to be packed, but [...]

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So Mark Oaten has departed from the Lib Dem leadership race, his campaign having been met with a certain amount of derision and rather a lot of underwhelmed silence. While some people clearly have a lot of faith in him and others were out to get him from the start, most gave him a fair [...]

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Here's the second post on Saturday's Meeting the Challenge conference – this one's on the leadership candidates' speeches.
There were all four very different.

Ming gave a leader's speech, not a candidate's speech. It was thin on detail but heavy on gravitas. He was visibly distracted by the way his microphone kept randomly failing, but he [...]

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