Richard Baum

Today I attended the hustings for party leadership at Manchester Town Hall, which was a feat given that last night was my leaving do from work, and I arrived home at approximately 3am. The feat was made doubly impressive (or risky, depending on your viewpoint) because I had been asked by the BBC to be part of a three-person team to interview Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne in private before the official hustings. Chronic tiredness and interviewing senior politicians don’t tend to mix. Thankfully Nick and Chris were both very engaging and it was a fantastic opportunity to hear at close quarters their vision for the party’s future.

A couple of other activists (Darren Reynolds from Burnley, and Jo Crotty the Parliamentary Candidate for Warrington South) joined me as the very select band of lucky people actually getting the opportunity to meet and talk with Nick and Chris beforehand. I was the “undecided” amongst the three, with the others already having declared their support for one or other of the candidates. And tomorrow we get to talk about what we thought, live on BBC1 (in the north west) at 12.30 on The Politics Show.

I will save my comments until then, suffice to say that it was great to see so many people at the hustings - hundreds of Lib Dem activists in a lovely room and some great debate. My only regret is that every crevice and mark on my exhausted face would have been picked up by the ever present TV cameras. An unfortunate date clash with the leaving do, but what can be done?

And if the general tone and style of this post lacks its usual panache, it’s because I am still shattered now. So I’m off to bed.

Rick