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Chris: Ideas, Leadership, Experience Ming: Authority, Credibility, Unity Simon: Energy, Passion, Experience So there we have it - but where's the evidence - and what does it mean? Chris has ideas, great, I have at least 100 before breakfast, does that make me a leader? They may well be good ideas, but good for who? Do they include the filched New Labour ideas of privatisation and the marketization of public services? Are they ideas that the membership will run ...

Leaving aside personalities and negative points about the other two candidates (as you never should in politics) my chief reason for voting for Chris Huhne was as follows. The great virtue of Charles Kennedy's leadership was that he was not attracted to alliances, pacts or mergers. He managed to untangle us from the joint Cabinet committee - the last vestige of Paddy Ashdown's Project - without adverse consequences. Under him the Liberal Democrats fought as an independent force. But his great weakness was a lack of interest in the details of policy. The result was that our shadow ministers went ...

It was as I expected at the start of the campaign: Huhne Campbell Hughes Huhne is still clear favourite with the bookies.

I have added the latest gizmo to this blog - a Blogcode box. The idea is that it will identify other blogs which may interest my readers. (Er, isn't that my job?) It seems to work. Already I have used it to come across Jawbox. He is even a Chelsea fan too.

{Steve Webb MP} "I am pleased to write in support of the campaign for a Liberal Democrat parliamentary party that more fully reflects modern Britain. I have been pleased to support previous initiatives such as mentoring women PPCs, and will be happy to do what I can to further the goals of the campaign." - Steve Webb MP

This is me, today. Not happy. An interesting week. Spent Monday lunchtime at the protest organised by No 2 ID and Liberty. There was a pretty good turn-out and naturally a lot of media attention. Alistair Carmichael put in a decent appearance, we could do a lot worse than him as permanent Home Affairs spokesman. Had a drink with fellow exec member Peter, who suggests that David Howarth could be the Huhnite radicals choice for the post. He’d certainly be a contrast from Oatcakes. There’s been a billion acres of blogosphere dedicated to debating the merits of the smoking ban ...

In Iraq an illegal war created the circumstances where a civil insurgency threatens the emergence of a democratic state. Under UN imprimatur, but supported by and there at the request of the Iraqi Government, an international force led by the Americans and the British are overseeing the transition of security to the Iraqi authorities, and hopefully Iraq to a stable and democratic state. Just as in Afghanistan. Chris Huhne supports a time-table for withdrawal from Iraq by the end of the year. He is in favour of continued British involvement in Afghanistan. He has written (p.116, Orange Book) that intervention ...

...and just hope that it's not one of those which has some kind of direct link to landfill. I've voted. Huhne, Campbell, Hughes in that order. And I'll tell you why. When Charles resigned, I felt I wanted to have a say not just in the outcome of any election, but in trying to make sure the person or people I really wanted for leader put him or herself forward. Especially as, at the time,

Apologies for the complete geekery of this post. I have some data in a file and I would like to manipulate it using PHP to produce an HTML output. Not being very familiar with file-handling, can anyone suggest how I get the data into a usable form? The input file contains (almost) fixed width data in the [...]

by James Chard In a couple of days or so, young Mr Cameron will have lasted 100 days as leader of the Conservatives, an achievment of itself. He has been quite busy, but to what effect remains to be seen. This is my take on how our new leader ought to make an impact both within and without the party in his first 100 days: 1. Put Cowley Street on the market with the aim of moving to modern office facilities, quite possibly some distance from Westminster. A statement of intent regarding a modern, professional party organisation is ...

So my son yesterday made up his mind on which University offer to accept for October and like tens of thousands of other parents around the Non-Scottish parts of the UK I am today getting to grips with the hard details of actual costs to come over the next few years, including “top-up” tuition fees, and calculating the amount of debt he may be running into. Compounded in his case by taking a four-year course not a three year one. Ouch ouch and so on. This fees issue may have a bit of play in it yet, South of the ...

When it is carried out by methods of barbarism in Guantanamo Bay? Liberal Democrats today called for the Guantanamo Bay detention facilities to be closed, and the detainees to be released without delay or swiftly brought to trial. This demand follows the publication of a UN report on conditions in the camp. "The systematic violation of human rights undermines the moral authority of the West and makes it impossible to win the long-term battle for hearts and minds. "It is time for the Prime Minister to take action and to demand the closure of the camp. Detainees ...

Tonight I will be going to the St Albans leadership hustings less to hear the candidates and more out of uxoriousness since my dear wife is going to be in the chair, keeping the chaps in order. I don't really enjoy hustings meetings, which are too dry and worthy with predictable questions and very few good jokes. Perhaps we should have a hustings in the style of Reeves and Mortimer's 'Shooting Stars' with the candidates competing in the 'vibrosprout challenge' to see who becomes leader. Part of me is tempted to find some particularly annoying, offbeat or surreal question to ...

There has been much discussion on other Liberal Democrat blogs about the vote to ban smoking in public places and I have largely abused my position by posting lengthy comments to them. It seemed right therefore to place my latest missive here so that it can be debated. The caveat here is that what is being proposed for Wales is far better defined and, in my view, more defensible than what was passed in Westminster for England. That is because here we have been very specific that we are intending to pass health and safety legislation that will protect workers ...

As you can deduce it has taken me over a week and a few days in the country to consider this thorny issue.............POLICY???? I have to be honest, having attended 3 hustings, one Any Questions, watched Question Time, I am a tad frustrated that none of the questions have been forensic enough to begin to really identify where the policy differences are (except perhaps on Iraq). It's not a bad thing that there is clearly so much common ground between all the candidates, and reassuring that there is so much more that unites us as a ...

Peter Wilby's new media column in the New Statesman, which he started after stepping down as editor a few months ago, has been consistently outstanding: original, informative and funny. This week he deals with the Sion Jenkins case, criticising the character assassination of Jenkins in the press following his acquittal. One of the good things about Wilby as a commentator is that while many of his contemporaries appear certain of everything, he acknowledges his own doubts and mixed feelings. He explains why the NS under his editorship was the first to publish an article arguing Jenkins' innocence yet was ...

Well the scorecards are in for this week. ID Card Bill 5 Divisions Michael Connarty Illiberal on all 5 counts. Terrorism Bill 3 Divisions Michael Connarty Illiberal on all 3 counts. So next time he claims to be liberal the people of Linlithgow and East Falkirk will know differently.

My ballot paper for the leadership election went back as quickly as it arrived: Campbell 1, Huhne 2. I decided to vote that way some time ago, and in the meantime most of the case for Ming has been written by other bloggers beyond my power to add to it.

Yesterday the Government vote the vote on if to reinstate the laws banning the glorification of terrorism after the House of Lords amended the legislation. MPs backed the measure 327 to 279 (majority of 38). This was the third 'tough' vote the Government faced this week the others being on ID Cards and smoking - they seem to escaped unscathed.

If Simon is unsuccessful in his bid to lead the Lib Dems might he consider a career change ? Nottingham Forest FC could do with his leadership potential, motivational skills, charisma, good PR with supporters and 'big name' appeal to boost morale. Most of all, just as Lib Dem **voters** recognise, he is a man one associates most of all with winning. It's been a long time since Forest fans could declare 'Winning Here' with any confidence. We need a new manager to replace the clueless and tactically rigid incumbent, Gary Megson. A 'caretaker' manager, such as the much ...

Yesterday I got to try out the Presiding Officer's chair for a few minutes so as to give John Marek a break. This is a privilege made available to Committee Chairs, who are allowed to stand in for 15 minutes when neither the PO or the DPO are available. Up front everything is paperless, with lists of speakers and a script available electronically on the desk computer. In a way I was glad that I was not asked to chair the statement on free personal care for the disabled as this got fairly lively and for good reason. A ...

Sunny at Pickled Politics has an interesting post on this. Just as the MCB has been using its close alliance with Labour to gain favour and consolidate its position as the “representative” for Muslims, Labour has been using the MCB as a stooge to show it cares while neatly ignoring its advice at critical junctures. Worth reading in full.

By Steve Travis The deed is now done. After time for final reflection, my vote in the leadership election was cast and posted today. For the record, it was: 1 Ming Campbell 2 Chris Huhne 3 Simon Hughes All three candidates have strengths, and all three have weaknesses. All three would make good leaders of the party and would, no doubt, grow into the role. All three are also fortunate to have a talented front-bench team. In the end, though, a decision has to be made. And what tipped it for ...

I had not seen the pictures. I finally saw them this morning and am utterly outraged- no wonder that people are so angry. It is totally unacceptable. They are deep insults to my most profound beliefs. No- not the cartoons- the placards that the demonstrators carried protesting them. "Behead those who insult Islam" "Freedom of Expression Go to Hell !!" "Massacre those who insult Islam". This is totally unacceptable. It is not, however, a "clash of civilizations" it is a fight between Civilization and Barbarism. It is a fight between peaceful self expression and mediaeval bigotry. It is not a ...

So I walk into the Lothian Liberal Democrats meeting last and the first question I’m asked is not, who am I backing, what did I think of Dunfermline or what did I think about Charles. No, the first thing I was asked was what did I think about the return of Robbo. Somehow during the day I had missed the news that John Robertson was returning to Almondvale to take over as manager of Livingston. There has been much speculation with each management crisis over recent years when Robertson would be asked to take the helm of the club ...

I couldn't resist taking this test and this is the answer I got The Ramones (actually one of my favourite bands - see my profile) This is where you belong in the annals of punk history! You probably don't realize how cool you actually are. You set the trend by not setting one. You do what you want and are surprised when other people like doing it your way. You may be simple but that's just

Blogcode is generating a number of interesting links. I point you to A Fistful of Euros and An Insomniac.

I was going to comment on Simon Mollan's post about Chris Huhne and the Institute of Fiscal Studies but I'll just direct you to Jock's blog which has it covered. I don't like ecotaxes. I prefer cap-&-trade, etc. Ecotaxes give the government a financial incentive to maintain levels of pollution - Chris could have discovered this by reading the relevant chapter in The Orange Book. But at least he's talking radical policy ideas, which is better than the other two. [Hmmm, that kitten looks a lot like LibertyCat when he's cross/tired]

To start with James, the truth is that I often agree with him - on tax and many other issues. He left the following as a comment yesterday - and I think it is very fair: Disagreeing with Chris on this is not the end of the world as the party is a democracy and any such changes would require conference to change the constitution. As Simon Hughes learned to his great cost in September, it ain't gonna happen. But, to be fair of Chris, my understanding is that his position hasn't changed greatly from his stated position on ...

The passage about 'glorification of terrorism' . The justification given is to prosecute the bearers of those offensive placards, despite threatening to kill people being an offence under existing legislation. My original post on this topic is here (but this just keeps on coming back up... like a bad curry). The government also intends to ban groups who glorify terrorism. Unless you're not a Muslim and glorify terrorism at which point it's still ok to form a group to glorify terrorism... like in Northern Ireland. The legislation also allows successor groups to be banned to overcome the problem ...

Another one from Simon: Inner West: Chris Huhne approves of the Institute of Fiscal Studies picks up on an article in the Times (link in title) saying that Chris's stated policy of removing those on minimum wage from income tax would be "an enormous tax cut by recent standards and may require an equally big tax rise to pay for it". Well, as Homer would say "doh!". The clue is in the manifesto - "Tax Shift". It's not meant to be a cut, nor an increase, in the overall burden of taxation. But a shift. That ...

Forceful and moderate puts the Liberal case against the smoking ban. I can't bring myself to feel as strongly about this as once I might have done. But there are perhaps two reasons why I continue to be against the smoking ban: 1. It is a measure entirely dreamed up by professional campaigners – groups such as ASH which essentially get government money to lobby the government about new legislation. In 15 years as an elected representative, during which time I must have knocked on thousands of doors at election time, I have not had a single ordinary voter raise ...

OK, think I'll stick to something nice and uncontroversial for the next few posts, at least. Just (well, a few hours ago) got back from Cambridge's very own hustings. All three candidates spoke well, and the most common response from people that I heard was "well I really don't know that that made the choice any clearer, they're all quite good". However, I will attempt to draw something

I see from the BBC News headlines that the House of Commons has voted to overturn the Lords' rejection of the new offence of glorifying terrorism. I heard Charles Clarke on Radio 4 yesterday morning unconvincingly attempting to defend the government's position. The giveaway was when the interviewer asked how such a law would affect gable-end murals on both sides of the sectarian divide in Northern Ireland. Clarke dismissed this comparison as 'simply absurd'. In these two brief words Clarke reveals the sheer cynicism of the government on this issue. The whole point of the loyalist and republican murals ...

In March 2005 Chris Huhne defended Liberal Democrat spending plans going into the General Election, stating on his website that they had been “carefully costed and given the seal of approval by independent scrutineers such as the Institute of Fiscal Studies”. The Institute of Fiscal Studies have now come out and said that Huhne’s eco-tax plans would.... ... cost roughly £21 billion, some 1.7 per cent of national income or 4.2 per cent of the total revenue the Chancellor expects to receive this year. It is almost equivalent to the total amount that the Government receives each year in ...

Simon Mollan writes in Inner West: Another reason to vote for Ming – he is not a wonk that a "wonk" might not set the world alight, give us the profile we need. I disagree. There's been a lot of talk in both Labour and Tory parties in recent years of "blue sky thinking" yet it has all fallen flat because of the drudgery of parliament, government and opposition and the altar of focus group acceptance. And the area most likely to give us that radical policy edge is the discovery, that Chris Huhne has already made for ...

I spent tonight watching the three leadership candidates at the hustings in Cambridge. This wasn't as much fun as leadership events should be, because all three candidates agreed about everything. There were some significant differences in tone though, which can be summed up by looking at what each candidate started their speech with: Simon Hughes began with a history lesson about how the Liberal Democrats almost disapperared and fought our way back by hard work and local campaigning. Chris Huhne began by talking about the big ideas he wanted to focus on: protecting civil liberties, sustainability, ...

{Fiona Hall MEP} "In the Liberal Democrat European Parliamentary Party, the 12-member Lib Dem European Parliamentary Party we have seven women and one person from an ethnic minority. I think that makes us a much stronger group and one which more people can relate to." - Fiona Hall MEP

{Mark Williams MP} “It has become very clear to me how unrepresentative of women and the ethnic minorities Parliament really is. That’s why ‘Reflecting Britain’ is such an important initiative, so whatever your background, whoever you are, get involved” - Mark Williams MP

Tuesday's Plenary session was worth noting for a number of reasons. Firstly, the chamber was no longer freezing cold, in fact it was too hot. Secondly, members had started to find their form again after the initial shock of taking occupation of new surroundings. Thirdly, the PO was ill, thus scuppering any attempt by the opposition to win votes, as John Marek had to chair for the whole time. The session had the feel of one of those reality shows, the ones that do not feature George Galloway. In fact we even had an offer from the First Minister ...