I watched Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne go head-to-head on Question Time on Thursday evening, and have just seen a clip of their lunchtime encounter on the Politics Show. Whereas Thursday's was largely consensual - much to David Dimbleby's irritation - today's was much more scratchy. The Politics Show had been sent a dossier prepared by the Huhne team entitled 'calamity clegg' attacking Nick Clegg on policy and on his record. Chris Huhne said he knew nothing about it.
This is obviously unhelpful for us as a party, as a leadership contest that is about issues gives us a chance to promote the party, but one that turns into a slanging match is damaging for us all.
Today's exchanges tell me two things: a) that both candidates are getting pretty tired after weeks of racing up and down the country and b) that the Huhne camp think they are behind - people who are ahead don't have to 'go negative'. With ballot papers going out in just a few days, I think Chris's team have phoned enough people to know they are behind and have to do something desperate to pull this one out of the fire. It's sad that this may be to the detriment of the party - whoever wins.
Sunday, 18 November 2007
Lib Dem leadership update
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9 comments:
Absolutely agree Steve. This is just what we don't want.
I was appalled by Chris Huhne's behaviour and as a listed supporter I now withdraw my support for him.Pity our acting leader can't continue indefinitely!
spot on steve
What do you expect?
Your party has the facade of being 'nice' - the truth is coming out the more you have the attention of the media.
Not only are you a bunch of amateurs but nasty ones at that!
I don't agree that it damages our party. I think people are forgetting how incredibly nasty the last leadership contest was and how Ming was never himself smeared or never looked like the bad guy. Aren't the people working on Clegg's campaign the same people who worked on Ming's campaign? Of course it will be nasty IT'S AN ELECTION!!!!
I think there were better ways of making the campaign more interesting. They are supposed to be showing the Party off not up. I agree that they'll both be shattered but that's no excuse for bad behaviour. The important thing is to make sure that it doesn't get any worse. They are both important to the future of the Party and they have to make it up.
I have not been impressed by the negative undertones in Chris' campaign and this shows how easily it can all go badly wrong.
I thought it was no more than a robust engagement on the front line!
What it threw into relief is that Clegg comes across as a centerist whereas Huhne is firstly a liberal - there's a lot more intellectual weight and
substance from Huhne reaching undecideds like me, and that's a key competitive edge for the party that we need to exploit.
Frankly we have enough centerists in UK politics and I rather empathise with Huhne's aide!
Do you predict that this prediction will be more accurate than your prediction that it was neck and neck between Hughes and Campbell last time ;-)
I'm not a Lib Dem voter but why bother with this leadership contest? Your interim leader has been asking all the right questions and has made more of an impression on me than any leader you've elected in the past!!
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