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.
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13 Comments
How can you support a candidate who is so incompetent that he a. brands his opponent with a nick name that will forever be used against him by political enemies whilst b. ensuring he will lose by doing so?
Whilst I respect your rationale for supporting Chris, I wonder if this was written before this lunchtime? My 19 year old son (a young person)immediately warmed to Nick and was completely turned off by Chris, particularly given his disgraceful behaviour. As someone who has worked with young people all my life I tend to judge how well someone would relate to young people on the basis of whether I would appoint them as a youth worker. I wouldn’t employ Chris because the young people I know would eat him for breakfast!
Linda, I’m sure your dog loves Nick, too.
2.
Too bad they don’t bother to vote in any numbers then, isn’t it?
“I wouldn’t employ Chris because the young people I know would eat him for breakfast!”
Yeah right.
After today’s appalling events outline by many others on the Politics Show, it is sad that you endorse such negative campaiging. Your timing could not be worse and the problem you hav enow is that if Labour use tactics like Chris is using against you in Oxford East, you do not have a leg to stand on.
So silly.
1,2,5 it’s people like you that bring this party into disrepute.
Linda
I think most of us agree that the Party would have been served a lot better if both candidates had behaved in a manner more becoming of individuals aspiring to high office.
But it would be a mistake to judge how well Chris would operate as the leader of our Party on the basis of one “bad day at the office”
Steve Goddard has put up some excellent reasons for coming to the view that Chris would do the job best.
Personally I am still not clear which candidate would advance the cause of Diversity and Equality the most – both within the Party and the Country
I am also waiting to hear from both candidates what their plans are to lessen the widening gap between the rich and the poor – a legacy from New Labour
For me it is a little to early to come out for either candidate –
But I am happy in the knowledge that whichever one wins he will be a match for Brown and Cameron
Wise words Rabi.
Steve may well take the view that his stated reasons are far more important than one campaign cock up which will be pretty much forgotten by Tuesday.
Oh, look, Nick’s supporters going negative again. What a surprise.
Nick’s ‘Opportunism Knocks’ attack on Chris, anyone? Far more personal. To say nothing of Nick’s revolting supporters, which if I were Nick I’d disown faster than Chris disowned the ‘Calamity’.
Linda, since you ask (2) about when I wrote the article, and since you, Nich, comment (5) on the timing, I should say that I wrote it on Friday (the reference to “last night’s Question Time” might be a hint!) and submitted it to LDV the same day. I had no control over when LDV put it up. As for “endorsing negative campaigning”, Nich, I don’t think you’ll find anything in the article which does anything of the sort. You will find, however, a clear statement that I think Nick is a very substantial politician, and that I could work happily with either candidate.
It seems to me that both sides could accuse each other of some negativity in the campaign so far; and that no campaign is immune from the sort of cock-up I think we’re looking at here (indeed, I’ve very good reason to believe that Nick’s campaign hasn’t been without the odd organisational mishap). I’ve seen nothing at all that changes my belief that, for the reasons I set out, Chris is on balance the stronger candidate; or that, whichever candidate wins, our party will have an excellent leader.
I agree, Steve. It’s a great pity that this sorry episode is likely to continue following an official complaint.
There are 2 very good candidates standing in this election. That is a bottom line that in my opinion noone should ignore or forget.
I did not see the show today so I cannot comment on that.
Generally speaking I think that Chris is invariably on top of his brief and can take on allcomers.
I think Nick needs more experience before he can do the same. I imagine he would be a better candidate next time round.
Steve (who is both an excellent campaigner and an extremely wise head and who I look forward to joining on the green benches) has put this in a very good, fair-handed way.
It will be vital for us to continue Chris’ excellent work in getting the public recognition for our policies to tackle climate change, and continue the rise for the Lib Dems in polling on the subject. While I have a huge amount of time for Nick, that edge and radicalism on a whole range of issues will be such a contrast with Cameron and Brown who (having just watched TV, unusually for me) must be the angriest man in British politics again tonight.