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Tonight I have decided to back Ming Cambell for leader of the Liberal Democrats. I intend to vote: SIR MENZIES ‘Ming’ CAMPBELL CHRIS HUHNE SIMON HUGHES  Ming posses the following question on his website, http://www.campbellcampaign.org/: Which leadership candidate can most confidently be trusted to lead a principled and united party in the next General Election - and earn more votes, more [...]

Earlier today Sir Menzies Campbell posted about his visit to the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election. Well he has not been the only one Simon Hughes had been there earlier in the week and Chris Huhne arrived this evening. So far I have yet to run into any of them as the efficient team at HQ know me too well as one of those deliverers that never seem to tire. They just keep turning me around with

Liberal England reveals itself to be a follower of the greatest band to emerge from the Wirral – the excellent Half-man half-biscuit. They emerged in the 1980s with a brand of semi-satirical songs that dwelt on the ennui of life on the dole spent watching daytime TV, most notably the famous 'Trumpton riots' ep. They famously twice refused television appearances because the recording clashed with Tranmere Rovers home matches. HMHB have made a bit of a comeback in recent years, carrying on with excellent punning album titles: 'Trouble over Bridgewater' and 'Cammel Laird Social Club', the latter released ...

Liberal Democrat leadership candidate Chris Huhne headed to Dunfermline and West Fife today.

...but only after the World Cup.

The Bloggers4Chris site comes with its own RSS feed that you can add to your site or use in a news reader. The address is http://www.chris2win.org/articles.rdf.

A change from the heavyweight deconstruction of Mill and Locke usually found on this blog; snaps from Somerset and London taken on a disposable camera. Roll over Lord Lichfield. Dan and Ralf discussing the success of Banque Paribas on the French stockmarket. Andrew and Max considering the implications of President Morales' election for the Bolivian gas industry. The gang mull over who is better at articulating the conservative approach to social justice; Iain Duncan Smith or ...

Apart from domestic issues quite a bit has been happening in the world. Bolivia has been sworn in as the new president Evo Morales, Evo is the first indigenous president. Chile has elected a Michelle Bachelet as its first female President. Kosovo has been rocked by the death of Ibrahim Rigova who has the figurehead of Kosovo's Albanian population.

I was disappointed in yesterday's News of the World. I bought if for the scandal, only to find that it did not give the names of the three Premiership clubs that Sven had accused of corrupt transfer dealings. There was also something about a chap called Oaten, and a detail of that story caught my eye: "Before one session he rang several times asking if I'd dress up in a football strip for him. He really seemed to enjoy himself that night."This seemed strangely familiar. And, of course, it was because a similar detail appeared in the papers when David ...

Chris Huhne has now moved into second place in the betting on the Liberal Democrat leadership contest, reports Steve Guy. Steve concludes: Given that so many members strongly identify themselves as 'Mingers' or 'Hughesies', we can guess that they won't be giving many second preference votes to each other. The way I see it, Chris is likely to make it through the first count, and make the headlines with all of the second preference votes propelling him through the finish line.

Over at the place where things are made less blunt, one can find my latest TV review.

I’m sure many people will be boycotting it anyway, but has anyone else noticed how long it seems to be taking for The Liberal to bring out its latest issue? Also, they still have a link to their Kennedy Must Go petition on the front page. Hello? All this does somewhat suggest a bit of a [...]

In Canada. The election campaign has been documented on the Liberal party’s Blackberry Blog. It’s, erm, somewhat tongue in cheek: Dear Blog Boy: My Mom says all journalists and political staffers are alcoholics. It’s not true. Some are kleptomaniacs. And one is a tremendous kisser. Tags: canadian+general+election, liberal+party+of+canada

Meanwhile back at the leadership contest, surprise expressed over the number of bloggers backing Huhne has been replaced by worry on the part of supporters of the other two. The dynamics of the Lib Dem way of voting mean that 'second' (as the betting would suggest) only tells half of the story. The majority of members will take up the option to back a second choice candidate on the voting slips. Chris Huhne's campaign has been gathering momentum steadily with every interview on TV, radio and in the press. I think this is because his 'low start' was based on ...

You'll note that I've just put a 'Bloggers4Chris' box up on the blog. I've blogged at length about why my first and second choices are going to be Chris and Menzies but in summary... The Lib Dems are portrayed by our opponents as ideologically woolly and not to be trusted on the economy. The other parties are competing on the basis of being the best manager. We need to set ourselves apart and

OK, time to nail my colours to the mast. I have decided to support Chris Huhne in his leadership bid. I think Chris has fresh ideas the right balance of Liberal Policies and approach to become an excellent leader. Besides which I have my 20 Quid investment with William Hill to protect. And who says I don't have integrity.

Well I could not let the whole Oaten thing go without comment and after some repairing of the website - many thanks to Ryan Cullen and www.libdemblogs.co.uk for the assistance! I do not want to say too much but thought I should say something.

I had wondered what had happened to my diversity motion, you remember, the one that caused me so much angst in November. And now I know. The good news is that it's been accepted for debate, and, even better, given a 45 minute late morning slot. And now for the politics. Who proposes it, who summates, how to lobby for support and who to talk to are the key issues now. There is evidently a desire

Southampton Itchen ex-parliamentary candidate and Eastleigh Borough Councillor David Goodall today announced, 'I will be backing Chris Huhne to win because I believe he has the right combination of political knowledge and real world experience to be a very successful party leader.'

An interesting report from Yale University ranking the environmental performance of countries around the world. New Zealand is top, the UK comes fifth, Canada eighth and the USA 28th. Its press release says the following: The 2006 EPI, to be released in Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum on January 26, ranks Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom two to five respectively. The top-ranked countries all commit significant resources and effort to environmental protection, resulting in strong performance across most of the policy categories. The EPI identifies targets for environmental performance and measures ...

Liberal Democrat leadership candidate Chris Huhne was interviewed this afternoon on Jeremy Vine's Radio 2 show.

Where the interests of the police are considered by the Executive to be synonymous with the public interest there exists a worrying imbalance in the distribution of power between the state and the citizen that marks an erosion of democracy. Last last week, thanks to Tory MP Grant Shapps, it was revealed that the Police keep the DNA details of 24,000 minors who have never committed any crime on a database, and the details of a further 100,000 adults who similarly have never committed any crime. It is plain that these people have every reason to ...

Several people have contacted me to assure me that the Darbyshires are in fact real. Well I sincerely hope that someone who knows them can persuade them that what they have written is not wise, and not in the interests of they party they profess to support. There is, I believe, a real issue to be addressed with regard to the private lives of our public servants. I am seeking adoption as a PPC this year. Friends often ask me why anyone would want to be an MP. It certainly isn't the money - an MPs salary is ...

Ming visited the Dunfermline by-election on Saturday and the Lib Dem campaign is going really well. The seat is close to his and he intends to be there at least once a week over the course of the by-election campaign. Campaign team member, Kevin Lang, was also there: There was a really warm and friendly reception [...]

This, for what it's worth, is my personal view of the Oaten debacle. 1. There are these things called local elections in May. This is where the main thrust of my political attention is focused. I would really like to be able to get on with campaigning without these continual distractions. And with a few shreds of my optimism and motivation left intact. 2. The private sexual behaviour of consenting adults is, frankly, no-body else's bloody business whatsoever. And not something I necessarily want to know the details of, thanks very much. 3. However there is ...

NBC have cancelled the West Wing after viewing figures dropped. May have something to do with them changing it from a Wednesday night show to a Sunday night one.I would have liked at least one season of the new President, but not too sure if it could have lasted much longer than that.

From Lembit's Meeting the Challenge essay, Taking the Risk: If you’re risk averse, you’re on the wrong planet. In the words of Hank Williams, “I’ll never get out of this world alive.” Death is the inevitable consequence of everything we do. So why is it that we’ve come to fear risk so much? It seems to me that it’s all about fear of losing something you regard as valuable. People with nothing to lose feel utterly free to be themselves, because there is no sanction to hold them back. How true. How ironic.

Latest betting odds: Campbell: 4/6 Huhne: 10/3 Hughes: 7/2 Yes, Huhne has overtaken one-time favourite Hughes. More on Hughes’ slide to nowhere later, but this will do for now.

I know, I know, we are supposed to be very po-faced about sordid sex scandals. Nevertheless, the fact is they are just great fun... that is why our down market rags are so full of them. The Brits adore the lovely juicy details (and who cares whether its is true that David Mellor wore his Chelsea strip when "frolicking" with Antonia da Sancha or not?). These things run to a formula- the hard faced journalist teasing out the details from the young ingenue (or rent boy), doubtless under the baleful eye of Max Clifford. The paper then making the absurd ...

It hasn't been a great couple of weeks for the Liberal Democrats. After Charles Kennedy's messy departure, the undigified fall of Mark Oaten has made it difficult for more positive messages to get out. Of course, there are no shortage of positive messages which could be reported. Even before nominations have officially closed, we've seen more policy debate - particularly about the environment and taxation - than David Cameron has managed in months as the Tory leader. The willingness to grapple with serious issues contrasts with the media's obsession with the froth and triviality of politics. I'm ...

As I’ve got myself into deep water for being critical of the defensive nature of the Campbell campaign, I feel I should point out an example of the right way to do it by Chris Davies MEP (whose backing counts for a lot in my book). Davies, a former marketing expert who has an [...]

Angus J Huck commenting on my previous post re Oaten. "The tabloids had a raft of stories about David Cameron lined up last Autumn, but none of them appeared. That was because Murdoch and his friends decided that Cameron, not Davis, was their man. Other senior Liberal Democrats should watch their backs." I agree, whilst I have never known such publicity it does seem that we are under media siege at the moment. Daily Telegraph "Lib-Dem's in Free Fall". Had Mark Oaten not withdrawn from the leadership race last week, when would the story have broken? If Oaten stood a ...

Like many in the Lib Dem online community, I have watched with bemused fascination the unfolding soap opera that is Lib Dem Weblog war. The childish, narcissistic ramblings - and the inevitable spoof. I realise now that we've been framed. No Lib Dem activist would ever publish a post in which they make threats of libel action against someone who has produced a spoof of their website - and the go on to make potentially libellous allegations against one of our leadership candidates! You've been rumbled! Question is - are you Labour or Tory?

The weekend was fairly hectic (and offline). Friday night was spent celebrating Lara's birthday in Primitivo's off Colmore Row. Craig managed to kill the sound system by slicing the phono lead from the CD to amp. Fortunately it was almost closing time, so no harm donw, and not quite enough time for me to patch the lead back together (those years on the UMIST Ents crew weren't wasted...). After a few hours sleep, it was up early for a trip down to London for an Agents & Organisers Assoc exec meeting, followed by a trip up to Cambridge. The AOA ...

When I started this blog (not that long ago) I felt very isolated from anyone who holds similar views. In the short time since I've discovered the LibDem blogs and I went along to Liberal drinks as well as the local party suddenly deciding it does exist outside the PPC. So really, the name of this blog is a bit misleading now. I am greatly heartened by the level of intelligent discussion around,

Reading through emails over weekend - catch up with what my colleagues are doing on Haringey Council and there is a huge financial scandal unfolding - one that Labour seem to have been trying to cover up. Basically - the Audit Commission has produced a damning report on the mishandling by Haringey Labour Council of an IT project called 'Tech Refresh'. It was meant to have cost £9 million, but

Chris Davies wrote the following comments for the Liverpool Echo: It was 10 years ago. Ming Campbell was addressing the Liberal Democrat conference and I was waiting my turn to speak. I saw on the stage an establishment figure dressed in a pinstriped suit, every inch a Scottish barrister. He’s too far to [...]

Even if he was never going to be high up my preferences (let's be honest, he was fifth out of a field of four for me), and I agree with many sentiments expressed that Mark Oaten has been a bit foolish, I would never want anybody to be brought down by the odious rags that are the British gutter press in such a way. But there is one aspect of this whole sorry business that we must not allow to be

Well, i never expected the revelations about oatcake in the Screws. There remain 2 questions: what was the "unspeakable act of degradation"? Surely there is nothing too shocking for readers of the Screws, especially as the paper should only have been sold to over 15's as it contained the 15 cert film Highlander.Maybe the act involved repeatedly saying "you will never lead the party"?And which football club's strip? David Mellor is well known for his Chelsea replica antics. Which football club will be proverbially dragged through the mud?

Two stories in the Indie (get them while they’re free!) that may interest those interested in the LibDem leadership. The first I highlight for a particularly dim quote from Peter Tatchell: Peter Tatchell, leader of a militant gay rights group, said: “Mark Oaten is not the only Liberal Democrat MP who has had sex with men.” Not [...]

Rather annoyingly over the last few days the website has been down and it now turns out I have lost the last three weeks worth of stories and changes made to the site. This was due to circumstances beyond my control, it was due to a hard disc failure on the host's ISP server and a failure of the host's back up procedures

It has been a week or so needing some positive antidotes to events. One cheerful thought is that someone like Chris Huhne is standing for the leadership, and will have to be good to win because his opponents are good. That is a cheerful choice. But there are other positives to hang on to. Some thoughts from Milton Keynes. Firstly real success on the ground from a LibDem council. This from Milton Keynes, as we reported in my local FOCUS a while back. “The Home Improvement Agency (HIA) is an exciting new initiative from LiberalDemocrat Milton Keynes Council, in ...

by Peter Joe Otten has an excellent post on the environment on his blog on the strengths and weaknesses of environmental thinking. (He doesn't mention the fact that he used to be active in the Green Party). There are two passages that particularly struck me. One on keeping things in perspective: The idea that the environment is so important that everybody should focus on it is an unfortunate consequence of the green lifestyle movement. If it actually happened it would do immense damage to every other aspect of public service. In practise of course it makes nobody responsible and ...

Having disagreed so sharply with Peter Hain yesterday I am going to make common cause with him today. The issue is the Tories' attitude to devolution and in particular the amendments that they have tabled to the Government of Wales Bill currently going through the House of Commons. Last week the Assembly Conservative group joined in criticism of the Bill and the way that it puts disproportionate

Menzies Campbell said that: "just as government does not always know best, neither does the council". And this morning Peter Preston has a go at trendy localism. From the Lib Dem point-of-view he's doing a few rounds with a straw man. First he advances a lot of arguments about the US and Switzerland: Is it fair... that a murderer in Oregon will face no death chamber while a murderer in Texas prepares to fry? Local democracy [in Switzerland], honed over centuries, means a host of different hard things: different taxation levels, different asylum policies, ...

I was rung by two journalists yesterday asking me to comment on the circumstances of Mark Oaten's resignation as Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson. I declined both invitations on the basis that I did not wish to comment on an MP's private life. The second journalist tried to widen the issue to one of whether the media should be indulging in this sort of salacious exposé. As interesting as

Went out again today taking more photos for a Lib Dem leaflet (we don't call them 'Focus' around here, unlike the rest of the country, we call them 'Democrat' - historical reasons). We ended up at the bar of the football club I mentioned on Thursday,...

by Peter Mat GB's first challenge was to persuade him to (re)join the lib dems. Here's my go. Are you a Liberal? (I used to recruit people by knocking on the doors of known supporters and asking if they would like to take their support of that nice Party led by David/Paddy/Charles one step further. Mat GB is looking for something more ideological, so let's take it back to basics.) If you believe these three things, you are a liberal in politics 1. Power should not be concentrated. That means both poltical and economic power. Competitive ...

The British libel laws have a long and inglorious tradition as a playground for the undeserving rich, most of who managed to make complete fools of themselves while enriching the late and largely unlamented Peter FCarter-FRuck. The latest politicos to follow in the footsteps of Neil Hamilton, Jeffrey Archer, and George Galloway are two insufferable narcissists from whichever part of La-La land the journalists used to go to to find Oaten supporters. Leah and Robin Darbyshire are apparently upset that a parody site has been making fun of their overly twee blogging style and Leah's rather juvenile habit of blogging ...

A friend just pointed out this column by former Owenite, now Brownite, and general witch Polly Toynbee. Like most of the Guardian's columnists, Toynbee begins by assuming that the real story is entirely internal to the Labour party, and devotes more than half her space to discussing that. In the middle third of the column, she does deign to talk about the Liberal Democrats. Her advice is more than usually asinine. This is now the question Lib Dem would-be leaders must answer. It may maximise their vote to dance about saying "neither right nor left", but what is ...