Category Archives: Leadership Election

The Lib Dem leadership contenders – Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne – have been answering BBC.co.uk readers’ questions: Nick by e-mail and Chris on video.

Here’s the link.

Thank goodness for Peter Riddell, the senior Times political columnist, and one of the few (only?) newspaper journalists who is both watching the Lib Dem leadership contest, and reporting it intelligently. His latest analysis appeared yesterday – do read it in full here, but for those who always skip to the end for the conclusion:

Mr Clegg is still the favourite, but only just, and there is a sense – more a mood – among leading Lib Dems that the contest is tightening and could be close.

The Times also carried interviews-cum-profiles with both candidates, which can be read here …

The short answer is: no-one knows.* And don’t expect to become any the wiser today as a result of The Guardian’s ‘sample of members’, despite the paper’s assertions of its significance.

The Guardian asked c.200 of the 300 Lib Dem members present at Wednesday night’s Cambridge hustings how they would vote. Here’s what they said: 85 backed Chris Huhne; 42 backed Nick Clegg; and 83 did not express a preference.

To be fair to the Guardian, they do enter some major caveats: this isn’t a representative sample of members; the east of England is, they say, a strong area for …

Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne are standing at their podia waiting for Jeremy Paxman’s grilling on Tuesday’s BBC2 Newsnight. After last Sunday’s fireworks, I imagine we can expect a love-in tonight…

Update: a good performance from both candidates. Interesting to see the fall-out from Sunday’s Politics Show… Nick Clegg was able to lead on the front foot, and looked at perhaps his most comfortable and authoritative of the campaign to date; a somewhat chastened Chris Huhne started on the back foot – apologising for the ‘Calamity Clegg’ briefing – but remained as articulate and in control of his …