Ming

Got home from Conference last night. Had to come away early as we have Planning tonight and Licencing tomorrow, and we're pretty busy on the home front. I went along to the debate between Chris Huhne and Nick Clegg, which Andrew Neil was touting as an unofficial husting on the leadership challenge. He had a couple of mugs, one with Clegg badges and one with Huhne badges, I took a Clegg badge and watched Neil being filmed declaring Clegg the winner of the straw poll.

The room was packed, so packed that Huhne was told, 'sorry mate it's full' when he arrived, so there is interest in the debate. But Clegg and Huhne made it clear they only wanted to talk about policies and the direction of the Party. At one point the Chairman, from the Independent, tried to drag the discussion back to the leadership, but the crowd booed him. And having gone into the room wanting to see Clegg take over, I saw that Clegg and Huhne are doing great work on crime and the environment, and that it's better that they continue to build on that, rather than waisting energy on a leadership battle, just because the press say we should have one.

Later I heard Ming described as a statesman. So I think the consensus is that we're going to continue to support him. That's not a scientific poll, or a particularly informed opinion, but its about as valid as Andrew Neils straw poll.