Out of interest, what is the FoE position on domestic micro wind these days? My impression is that it is not much use in a large majority of locations. I think George Monbiot has been opposing it too.

You might be interested to know that Friends of the Earth have interviewed both Clegg and Huhne to find out who has the greenest credentials.

Find out more at

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/who_is_the_greenest_lib_de_11122007.html

As you know we haven’t exactly seen eye-to-eye over the years, but I have to say on your point about who has been the best communicator in this leadership contest then I could not agree with you more.

We do need a leader who can perform clearly and successfully in the national media - the fact that Ming couldn’t was as fundamental, I think, to ending his leadership as the attacks on him over his age. As someone who has only watched, read and listened to this leadership contest through the media and who has not attended any hustings, I am consistently impressed by the strength and clarity of Chris’ media performances and just as consistently troubled by Nick’s stumbling and brittle approach and the fact that he can clearly be so easily rattled on air.

I don’t believe that any new Lib Dem leader is going to have a honeymoon (why should Labour and the Tories allow them one?) in which they will have the time to grow into and improve in the job. I hope that if Nick does win, then he is able to shake off these poor performances and start afresh, but as this would be a much harder task to do then simply performing well in the media in the first place, I’m not all that confident it can be achieved.

Chris’ communication skills are light-years ahead of what he was like last time. He does passionate, confident, authoritative, articulate and leader-like. He shows real thought and understanding when answering questions. When asked about the Labour donations he gave some real positive solutions for sorting out party funding. Nick by contrast called for legislation which already exists!

The main points I took away from Nick on Sunday was that he is extremely good at passion (to the point of bursting a blood vessel), when he has a rehearsed speach. But on questions (which I can’t believe were that different in Winchester to any they have received elsewhere) Nick waffled, he did not answer the question asked and he lost the attention of the audience. In fact in response to a question on foreign affairs Nick actually started by saying ‘I’m not going to answer that question’ and then proceeded to give a mini-speech on a different subject. The only area he answered well was on Home Affairs, but then he if couldn’t do that I’d be really worried.

These hustings cemented my support for Chris and as some comments above have said, made me scratch my head at the ’stand-on-your-head-crazy-logic’ that says ‘Chris being good at communication and media is a bad thing’ and ‘Nick being unpolished, umming and erring a lot is a good thing’

Wake up..wake up..before its too late!

I’d say that Clegg comes off best with people in the same room, whether in conversation or at a speech/Q&A. If he can cram millions of people into a room he’ll do well at the next election, unfortunately, however, the election will be won via the airwaves.

I didn’t write that Nick has no qualities at all - I’ve spoken of them often myself. I have long thought that he is both thoughtful and witty, and his speeches are thought-provoking and entertaining. But a pre-scripted address is more comfortable ground than responses to questions from journalists, and the airwaves are not a place to find yourself. Our party has so few opportunities to pierce the public consciousness using the mainstream media - unless, like Cable or Huhne, you are skilled at expanding those opportunities - that they simply have to be taken advantage of. I used to be confident that either leadership candidate would do so more than adequately, but now am I not.

This is beyond irony, of course, because Team Clegg has spent over a month telling us all that Nick is the superior communicator - a notion that, in respect of radio interviews like this one, beggars belief. Whether Nick wins or not, someone is going to have to give him a good shake (as James Graham’s original post suggested) or cover for him until he can make a fist of it, which I proposed. But today’s performance simply wasn’t good enough.

As Clegg supporter, I am perfectly comfortable with saying that Chris Huhne started as the underdog and has proved himself a canny operator during the leadership contest and is now going to give Nick a run for his money. That’s probably as it should be. Chris may not be the most ‘warm’ person when you see or hear him on the media but I can absolutely see that he is dead slick, tenacious and utterly self confident. I don’t find that hard to say. I’m not sure why some Huhne supporters are unable to show any such magnanimity and concede that Nick has his own set of positive qualities! Posts like yours reduce the whole thing to pantomime. You make Nick Clegg sound like Iain Duncan-Smith or someone else completely hapless with no sense of purpose. It’s a travesty of the situation.

Some Nick fans think Chris is too smug and sanctimonious; some Chris fans think that Nick is too wooly and over-emotional. Supporters of each man will view those negative characteristics as a small part of their overall personality and point out their respective strong points. To elevate them into the entire reason not to vote for one of them is not realistic in my opinion. After all, the ‘normal’ Lib Dem members encounter the candidates only ad hoc, when they happen to turn on the TV or radio at the right time, or when they get stuff in the mail. I think that the voters have a clear choice between the different personalities and approaches of the two leaders and I can’t see very many of them agreeing that either man makes them “feel heartily sick”.