Nicol Stephen yesterday won the election to succeed Jim Wallace as Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. He beat fellow MSP Mike Rumbles by 76.6% to 23.4%.

I was at the press conference where the result was announced by Malcolm Bruce MP and I watched Nicol’s acceptance speech which was as positive as the campaign had been. Nicol is a charismatic new leader (and former MP) who I’m sure will lead the LibDems to a greater presence in the Scottish Parliament in 2007.

“I want us to be seen as pro-education, pro-the economy, pro-business, pro-the environment,” he explained.

“I want our ideas to be radical, responsible and reforming.
[…]
“My strategy is to aim high, my vision is a Liberal Scotland and Scotland’s future is best with the Liberal Democrats.”

Here endeth the PPB.

‘Racist’ remark was sci-fi quote. Of course it was. And I’m a Jedi Knight.

Readers of the Independent may notice that pages 32 and 33 are today taken up by a list of names (and who says journalists are lazy?) of those 1,991 people who qualified for the finals of the paper’s national sudoku championship.

I’m amongst them, as, I notice, is Nick. With around two thousand qualifiers and a hundred places in the grand final, there’s a 5% chance (all other things being equal) of making it through.

Any other bloggers in the regional heats?

• Melting iced lolly floods Manhattan. (Via.)
• Lib Dem hopeful Stephen wants Labour to end talk of ‘neds’. (Via.)
• Dubya “mouth-kissing”. (Via.)
• Vera Baird wins Westminster Dog of the Year.
• And The Bear (off of Bo’Selecta) deals with The Frog.