As Rob mentions, Simon Hughes got a whopping 71% in the election for party president eighteen months ago. While this is indeed evidence that members have been happy to vote for him in the past, I don’t think it can be extrapolated to the current leadership election – and I write as one of those voters.

There are several reasons Simon did so well in 2004. Only weeks earlier, he had been the party’s London mayoral candidate and the presidency somewhat made up for his less than great showing there. There was a significant “Stop Lembit” vote (ironically in the latest election there seems to be a significant “Stop Simon” vote). Plus, people genuinely thought he would make a good president.

There are several reasons why Simon will not do so well in 2006. First off, of course, this is an election for a different post. Plenty of people who were happy to see Simon as president did not want him, or expect him, to be a future leader. Some of us who had first-hand experience of said mayoral campaign were less than impressed and it exhibited the gimmickry with which Simon has been characterised since. But, most of all, Simon has asked to be judged on his record, and his record as president is pretty woeful.

He pledged that by the end of his term of office the LibDem’s membership would exceed that of Labour. Fair enough, he hasn’t left office yet, but there is no sign of us making any significant move towards this. This is the sort of grand talk – see his declaration on Sky News that we should win 100 seats in the next general election – that can come back to bite. I recall Simon also promising a youth branch at every university. Has this been achieved? No. What steps has Simon taken to make it happen? None that I’m aware of.

Then there was this from his presidential acceptance speech in 2004:

“I now plan immediately to set up a new ‘Target Labour’ unit to maximise our chances of winning seats from Labour as well.”

I certainly don’t remember that happening. I assumed I would have heard if it had as Simon’s manifesto promised to “improve communication all year round.”

The gimmicks haven’t gone away either. Simon decided unilaterally to appoint “deputy presidents” – how wonderfully democratic – to speak on certain issues. LibDem Youth & Students had to fight to have their chair recognised as the youth spokesperson, although given that there is a UK-level youth spokesperson in the Commons, the need for the role was never clear.

Now, none of this precludes Simon for being leader. With the right people around him, keeping him organised, curbing some his urges, he could do well. It is, however, why I can’t give him my first preference, and why many of the others who supported him for the presidency can’t either (and wouldn’t support him for a second term as president).

When Simon stood for the presidency in 2004, his campaign in Scotland was chaired by Archie Kirkwood. He is backing Ming Campbell for the leadership. His campaign in England was chaired by Sandra Gidley. She is backing Chris Huhne.

The leadership election has spawned lots of new blogs, which is to be welcomed, and I hope these new bloggers keep it up once the election is over.

I discovered three blogs (either new, or new to me) over the weekend which seemed to be from that large intersection between LibDems and Doctor Who fans. Alex Wilcock and Aidan Brack both fit the bill. I have no idea if Andrew Hinton is a fan, but it would be interesting to know how he came upon his URL if he isn’t…

I managed to get up to Inverkeithing on Saturday to deliver some leaflets for the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election. It was my first time travelling over the Forth Bridge. There was so much mist over the Forth that all you could see on either site was whiteness and the Forth Road Bridge rising up through it on the left – it felt like the train was travelling through the clouds. Several people in my carriage whipped out their cameraphones.

The HQ was very busy and I ran into people I knew as soon as I arrived. The areas I delivered – on my own, on foot – were particularly nice, and only a little hilly. Although there were some houses with steps to the front doors, the driveways weren’t too long, there weren’t any entryphone flats, and the letterboxes were not, for a change, troublesome. I noticed that none of the houses had window posters for any of the candidates. I did my good deed for the day (if you don’t count delivery) by knocking on one door to alert the owner that his car lights were on. See, LibDems are nice.

There were various councillors and parliamentarians around the HQ. One MP had spotted a headline in a Tory leaflet – “Dignity for Older People” – and quipped: “Isn’t that the new name for the Voluntary Euthanasia Society“?

After a meeting, I headed to a pub quiz fundraiser organised by Edinburgh West LibDems. Excellent fun. My timeteam came second thanks to particular success on film quotes and celebrities (the shame), and I also won, for a change, on the raffle.

If you can, please head along and help Willie Rennie win the by-election – polling day is tomorrow!

Went on a tour of the National Library of Scotland last Friday, and very informative it was too. The most interesting part was seeing behind the scenes. Their meeting room has a lovely view of the top of St Giles Cathedral and out towards Arthur’s Seat, which was peering up out of the mist.

I had wondered where all the books were stored as the building seems quite smaller – only two or three storeys higher than the entrance on George IV Bridge. However, the building goes right down under the bridge to Cowgate, and we walked down a Vertigo style spiral staircase to reach one of the stock rooms. This was filled with books, sorted by years of acquisition, subject and – in order to use space as efficiently as possible – height.