Having spent the last four weeks or so following the leadership election closely – and having spoken to both Chris and Nick – I was interviewed yesterday lunchtime for The World this Weekend about who should be the next leader of the Liberal Democrats. This gave me the opportunity to crystallise my thinking about which of the candidates I should support (attentive readers of LDV may recall that, at the start of the campaign, I was undecided) – and I’ve come to the decision that Chris Huhne is my preferred candidate. I wanted to write briefly for Lib Dem Voice about why I’ve reached that conclusion.

I should first make one thing clear: I’m more than happy to serve as MP for Oxford East under whichever of the two candidates wins the contest. We’re extremely lucky to have two such articulate proponents of Liberal Democracy to choose from – either of whom will be backed up by a frontbench team which, it’s widely considered, easily outshines the Labour and Tory frontbenches. If Nick wins, I believe we will have an excellent media performer, a conviction liberal and a political heavyweight as our leader.

Of course, I believe exactly the same about Chris: perhaps the icing on the cake for me, in supporting Chris, is his unswerving record as an advocate for putting the environment at the top of our agenda, and the political agenda nationally. As I said in my earlier article for LDV, the environment is one of the issues that brought me into politics in the first place: I believe that Chris can make the Liberal Democrats the natural choice for the growing proportion of the electorate who vote, first and foremost, on environmental issues.

But I’ve also been impressed by Chris’s command of other policy areas on which we need to be making a noise. His approach to the housing crisis, to tackling crime and to returning control of the NHS and education to local people will resonate particularly well with voters in Oxford East and other seats we must win from Labour next time. But perhaps most of all, I’m persuaded by Chris’s analysis that Britain needs a liberal revolution: we need to re-engage with the electorate – with young people, many of whom find politics a turn-off, but also with the great mass of the electorate who have chosen in recent elections to abstain from voting. I believe that Chris has the intellect and the radicalism to articulate our vision as a party for a wholesale change in the way in which politics is conducted in this country.

I’m especially optimistic that the leadership election will do us a power of good after watching last night’s Question Time (I popped in to a residential home in Oxford East this morning to deliver some leaflets and got chatting to a dozen or so of the elderly residents – to my surprise, at least half of them had watched Chris and Nick yesterday, and had been very favourably impressed). I was one of those who were at first disappointed not to have a larger range of candidates to choose from – however, my view now is that we have the luxury of being able to choose between two excellent prospective leaders. The next four weeks will be very interesting for our party – whichever candidate wins, our party has a bright future, but I’ll be casting my vote for Chris, and I urge you to do so too.

* Steve Goddard is Lib Dem prospective parliamentary candidate for Oxford East, one of the closest Lib Dem / Labour marginals in the country.

Who should be our leader? Every Lib Dem is thinking about it, but I suppose I have more reason than many for giving it the most careful consideration.

After all, as I am candidate in what my local team has turned into our top marginal in the country - Oxford East - the person we elect is likely to become my boss. Of course, if Mr Brown had let us have the election most were expecting and some, like myself, were hoping for, I might be there now. As it is, my team and I are ready for that battle, whenever it occurs – but we know that who our next leader is will help shape our destiny over the next few years.

It is, of course, too early for me to endorse any candidate: as I write, only one has declared formally and while others have ruled themselves out, there remain others to rule themselves in. Let me say: I liked Charles and I liked Ming – we owe them both a huge debt of gratitude. Whoever follows them will have both to live up to their achievements and to take us to a further level of success.

What I can give you at the moment is the view from Oxford East – the issues I’m hearing on the doorstep and the issues where we have the policies and should be shouting them from the rooftops.

For me, there are four key issues – the three Hs and the Environment. The Hs are Housing, Health and Human Rights, or civil liberties. These are unashamedly issues that matter in my constituency but there ones on which we need to make our national voice heard.
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