Richard Baum

So, it turns out that I have a fat face, and now 200,000 viewers of BBC1’s “The Politics Show” are as painfully aware of it as I am. People keep telling me that the camera adds ten pounds, but this is both irrelevant and inaccurate, as I have checked my wallet several times since this morning’s interview and it is still as bare as it was before. So even that can’t comfort me.

I found out of course because today was the day that I was interviewed live about the leadership hustings. My thanks to the BBC for the positive coverage and the opportunity to give us the air time. And my thanks to the Lib Dem press office for picking me from amongst the many. I hope we didn’t disappoint!

In addition to the facial-flab revelation, another bizarre fact revealed to me during my behind-the-scenes look at BBC Manchester today is that the TV set in the green room is utterly unable to pick up a watchable signal. Which is not something you’d expect from the BBC!

The interview itself went OK as far as I remember. I haven’t seen it, and the fat face realisation came as a result of watching the pre-recorded Q&A session from yesterday. I didn’t swear or fall over, so I passed at least the most basic of tests. I was caught looking in completely the wrong direction at the very beginning, but this was only for half a second and I pray that the entire population of north-west England was blinking at that point and missed it.

We (Darren Reynolds, Jo Crotty and me) were asked about the leadership, and Jo came out for Nick Clegg whilst Darren confirmed his status as a Huhne-ite. I was the undecided one trying to put the case for them both, which isn’t hard given that they’d both make excellent leaders I’m sure. In the end I didn’t really have time to tell people why I’d come down on the side of Nick Clegg, but I can put that right now.

After yesterday’s hustings Nick was the clear winner for me. Not just because of policy, (he is as sure and intelligent and focused as Chris Huhne on this, and the differences between them, whilst there, aren’t insurmountable), but because of his passionate communication of these ideas to the people in the room. Both Nick and Chris are clearly hugely talented and knowledgeable, and as was mentioned yesterday, are two of a band of Lib Dem MPs who can give the other parties a serious run for their money.

But in this age of media-driven politics, rightly or wrongly, it is the amount of conviction and edge displayed to the wider world that will win elections. Nick Clegg seems acutely aware of it. And he is very good at it. I put it to him yesterday that we didn’t need someone to smoothly brush issues away (like Cameron) or blandly and earnestly plug at a forlorn message (as we’re sometimes accused of), and his answer that we should be bolshy and spikey was both convincing and expressed in exactly the terms I would use. We need to be bold, and we need to make our distinct message heard better.

Half the people in this country are liberals, but only 20% vote Lib Dem. This figure will rise whether Nick Clegg or Chris Huhne wins, but I think it will rise more with Nick in charge, taking the message not just to the 350 activists in the room yesterday, but to communities up and down the country put off by consensus politics and spin.

So that’s why I’m backing him. I hope he puts Chris Huhne front and centre of a meaty policy area, because if there’s one thing that came across about Chris more than anything yesterday it was his determination to do good with liberal ideas and to embed them firmly in everything that the party does.

But I was very lucky to see them both at close quarters, and whilst it wasn’t an easy decision at all, I have made up my mind and will be voting for Nick Clegg to lead us.

As for the interview today - well, Annabel Tiffin treated us very kindly I thought, and we all got a chance to say our piece. I will watch it later and go insane with hyper-critical self-analysis, but for now my only regret is that the texts from viewers were all a bit negative. In the past the BBC would probably have just made some good ones up to even the balance. Ah, the good old days…

Rick