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I have today voted Hughes 1, Huhne 2, Campbell 3 in The Liberal Democrat leadership election. First let get the caveats out of the way. I still believe Kennedy could have been eased out of the party leadership after the may local elections in a much more dignified way. He deserved better than the way he was treated and with out his public execution the Oaten story wouldn't have been as big as it was and simon hughes wouldn't have faced the intrusion that he did. The astonishing success in dumfermline will doubtless allow some people to argue that the ...

I have so far avoided blogging on the notorious Mohammed cartoons, largely because I haven't been blogging at all for the last week or so. To create some pretence of topicality, I thought I would respond to this uncommonly stupid Guardian column by Jonathan Steele. It is not often that the left agrees with Tony Blair, let alone George Bush. But the good sense the two leaders have shown in the

I was speaking with one of the Liberal Democrat MP's recently about Clare Short's bill to require Parliamentary approval for the use of force. I asked if it would actually achieve anything - after all, the Americans have this kind of law already (including a requirement for Congress to declare war actually written into the Constitution) and it has been rountinely ignored by all Presidents, particularly shamelessly in the case of the current President who believes that he doesn't have to obey the law anyway. The MP in question argued that if that is what the law said, ...

At the newsagent this morning I noticed the Sun's screaming headline (You coward! Jenkins won’t take our lie detector test) labelling the former deputy head teacher Sion Jenkins, who was acquitted this week of murdering his foster daughter in 1997, a coward for refusing to accept its challenge to take a lie-detector test to prove his innocence. The saying is ‘innocent until proven guilty’ but this seems to be a case of ‘guilty even after being proved innocent’. Perhaps more worrying than the Sun’s reaction, which was pretty much par for the course, was the Guardian’s reaction to the ...

The three Lib Dem leadership candidates hot-footed it over from Slough to Oxford this afternoon to speak at St Anne's College (big up to my employer here, which offered the venue free). Pictures as below. The lecture theatre was packed despite the unavoidably short notice we were able to give for the event, with well over 150 members eager to be persuaded, or to have their preconceptions confirmed. Each of the candidates spoke very well - clearly their speeches have been honed over the last few weeks - in their very different styles: Ming, the Grimond-ite gut liberal, spoke ...

We Liberal Democrats have had to endure being the butt of satirists' jokes over the past few weeks, at least until the Dunfermline result was announced. On Radio 4's News Quiz, which is recorded on a Thursday evening, the panellists had much fun at our expense, but te witty asides seemed curiously dated by Friday when the programme was broadcast. Labour in the twilight years of Blairism appear almost beyond satire. Take John Prescott's speech to the party's spring conference in Blackpool, which apparently had the assembled delegates laughing like drains. According to the BBC News website Adopting ...

The splendid Anthony Wells at UK Polling Report has undertaken a painstaking analysis of the boundary changes and their implications for the next general election. His report can be found here. All his notional majority figures are based on how the parties polled at the last general election: Labour = 36%, Tory = 33%, Lib Dem = 23% If those figures were repeated, Labour would lose a net 10

The three leadership candidates had a tough act to follow in todays hustings in Slough by all accounts. Most Lib Dems I know both online and in preson are still buzzing about our 63rd MP Willie Rennie. However, the reports from people who were there indicate that Simon Hughes was the most impressive. Tony Ferguson who had previosuly written Hughes off ranked Simon top on Education, Environment,

...that YouGov in the Sunday Times will show us at 15%. This is two per cent higher than last month but still below the figures other polling organisations give us. Not for the first time, Lib Dems will be wondering just how much faith one can put in YouGov. Update: YouGov are also said to have new figures on the views of Lib Dem supporters: Simon Hughes 34%; Ming Campbell 21%; Chris Huhne 13%. Don't knows presumably 32%. I still don't trust YouGov!

Just got back from a London shopping spree. Given that I’m utterly skint, it was probably unwise to spend what I did, but there you go. One of my purchases was the latest expansion set for Carcassonne. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, Carcassonne is boardgame (if by board, you mean [...]

Well I don’t know what Simon did at the Slough hustings, but there’s a big new block of new supporters waiting to be put up on his Website. Blogger Tony Ferguson attended the Hustings and rated the candidates on various criteria. On all but one, Simon came out on top. Extracts from the speech that [...]

I went to my first Aqiqah today to celebrate the birth of Noora to Ajmal and Henna Masroor. Noora seems to be a peaceful but alert baby, and the gathering was a joy. Not least because my Lib Dem colleagues there were also celebrating our victory at the Dunfermline by-election - we can claim that whatever is going on with the Leadership, we are still getting our values across. Much discussion...

Rochdale Hairdresser and Liberal Democrat member Gregory Couzens found a novel way of questioning Liberal Democrat Leadership Contender Chris Huhne MP. Chris had no choice to answer his questions as he was sat having his hair cut at the same time!

One of the most memorable and powerful party political broadcasts of the campaign last year had to be 'Memories' . You know the one - images from the dark, cold Thatcher years. Unemployed miners, poll tax riots all underscored by the vocalist mournfully singing 'do you remember... the way we were?'. All too well, the memories came back. The subtitles reminded us of how Michael Howard had been a part of it. The message was simple, and powerful: you might not have thought much of Blair and the recent performance of his government. You might be furious about Iraq, but ...

Here is my personal view of the hustings in Slough this morning. The meeting got off to a great start as we were addressed by our 63rd MP Willie Rennie although the meeting got underway a little late as we were waiting for Simon Hughes! All three candidates did a speech. CAMPBELL– He made a reasonable speech, good on poverty and the war in Iraq but seemed weak on environmental issues. Score

A report in today's Birmingham Mail indicates that if someone shoplifts less than £50 they will only get a caution if either it is the first offence during a year or otherwise the first offence. This shows the problems with cautions. If we are serious about trying to get someone off an addiction for cocaine and/or heroin then we should be looking at treatment orders for possession. Cautions

Sometimes even the media can celebrate with us, rather than laugh at the Liberal Democrats. The party leadership election has given rise to ridicule for the third party of UK politics, but thank goodness for by-elections. In a sensational result the Lib Dems have turned round a safe Labour seat into a most famous victory for Liberal Democrats. Even the politically neutral epolitix.com wrote on their website on Thursday 9th Feb that Nu Labor would hold the seat: Labour is defending a majority at the general election of 11,562, when turnout was 59.9 per cent. ...

One of my favourite Liberal Democrats, top trainer, agent, candidate and all-round lovely person Colin Ross rang yesterday to warn me he was going to republish my ‘leadership profiles’ on his site, along with one of his own. On me. This morning I found he’s been much shorter and kinder than I was (and perhaps deserve). Though backing Ming, he also provides the best round-up of each of the Leadership candidates’ campaigns in one place (I prefer Colin’s site to the ‘official’ Lib Dem one for titbits of party news, as he tends to cut out the more tedious stories). ...

Good Bush story here from Kevin Davis. Don't say I'm partisan in my blog links!

I like to think that posts on this blog are well-considered and thoughtful ruminations on issues of the day – which is perhaps why readership figures have been so low lately. So some readers, especially younger ones who don't read the Guardian, may have puzzled by my wilde-eyed denunciation of one of that newspapers best-known columnists yesterday's post. I would encourage them to follow this link to see the curse of Toynbeeism at its worst and this excellent deconstruction of it by the world's favourite Liberal Democrat blogger.

by Steve Travis Some of you may recognise the motto of the Olympic Games (Faster, Higher, Braver). We need to take this on board as we look beyond the Leadership Election. Much virtual ink is being used penning the virtues of the various candidates, both here in the blogosphere and also in the MSM. Sometimes it is fair, sometimes it personal, sometimes inaccurate. There are signs that people are becoming tetchy. We have another three weeks of this still to go - perhaps its time to start looking ahead. There is no doubt that Dunfermline was one ...

John Prescott: The Tories will come to learn that voters won’t trust anyone who writes a right-wing manifesto one month and disowns it a few weeks later. That’s a bit harsh. I mean, yes, Tony Blair has made a few changes to the Education White Paper, but he hasn’t totally disowned it. B-dum, tsss!

Have just opened my post this morning to my copy of Lib Dem News. It appears that my day in the media scrum last Thursday did pay off. As my picture is the one showing our new MP Willie Rennie with our former leader Charles Kennedy greeting a resident during their walkabout. I remember how I managed to get that picture. I stationed myself in front of a street bin and the gaggle approached ans

This is the link. You won't agree with all of it - I don't - but you should read it.

A report from your Lib Dem Blogger on the spot. Firstly a big thank you to the fellow bloggers Neil Fawcett, Alex Foster, Will Howells and I know I'm missing someone who actually came to Fife to help win this for Willie Rennie. Also to the rest of you involved in Telephone Canvassing or writing addresses and to the MPs including Bloggers Lynne Featherstone and John Hemming who sent key people

For goodness sake, give it a rest! This morning's Western Mail continues its obsession with the name of the new building, as if it really mattered. To be fair, this is also an issue for the BBC and other media organisations. The background is that the Assembly's House Committee agreed on 23 June 2005 to call the new building "Senedd". The decision was taken without dissent and involved all parties, including the Government's Business Manager, the Tory Chief Whip, myself and a number of other AMs. Some Labour AMs have now taken this matter up. seemingly appalled at ...

In his analysis of the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election, the Western Mail's Political Editor, Tomos Livingstone, has fallen for some of the spin being put about by the other parties. How else to explain a sensational and unexpected result by a leaderless party in some disarray? Just as journalists did not believe us when we said we were going to win Ceredigion last May, so they dismissed our claims that we were on the verge of an historic result in Scotland. However, this success cannot just be put down to our "formidable by-election machine" as Tomos Livingstone ...

Alex Wilcock has started a new blog, linked below, on it he examines each of the Leadership Candidates, I have reprinted them below. Hopefully I can describe Alex as a good friend, Alex is a true Liberal if I was to be asked to name one Liberal it would be Alex. Anyway his views are below - in alphabetical order (by surname), I may agree with it all but Alex's views are normally spot on:

Via Orcinus, why not take your kids to Combat 4 Christ this summer? Weapons Course: This course challenges the Christian Soldier to engage and eliminate his greatest enemies. Now, who was it who said all that liberal rubbish about turning the other cheek?

One of the things that saddens me is that there is still a mentality of some within the Liberal Democrats that is suspicious of those who started their politcal careers in the SDP. This year is the 25th anninversary of the inception of the SDP - and we in the Liberal Democrats should be celebrating the contribution that the SDP made to the shape of our party today - and the successes it has enjoyed. One could argue that the Liberal Party would have come back on it's own - and perhaps it would. But the SDP caused the biggest ...

The Scottish press have been on Dunfermline High Street asking voters about the by-election. Willie Rennie will be most pleased with this comment Optician Stephen Carrick, 41, from Dunfermline, said: "It was down to local issues. They pulled the old court building down but, instead of planning something, they just put up boards. It's been like that for about two years. "Dunfermline people are very proud. It is a historic place. They don't like to see it like this." Stephen, with daughters Monica and Franseca, added: "The Lib Dems fought a good campaign. I ...

Sweden has announced that it plans to be oil-free within 15 years - without building a new generation of nuclear power stations. If Sweden achieve this it could lead to a whole change in how the world operates - with massive investment in alternative energies and less reliance on the oil-producing nations. Incidentally a very good friend on mine has just set up a work-blog on renewables versus nuclear power I have linked to it below - please visit and have your say.

Anyone know why Newsnight didn’t update their GorDaq last night? One would have thought that after Thursday night it would have been, umm, interesting.

Reading cruised to victory over saints tonight winning 2-0 and never looked seriously threatened. They are now 13 points clear of 2nd and 24 clear of third. Now just hoping that Leeds can overcome Derby and that Sheffield Utd slip up away to Plymouth before facing Reading on Tuesday