One of the benefits of being in a political party that isn’t the Tories is getting to vote in leadership elections.

Following the announcement from Jim Wallace MSP, Scotland’s Deputy First Minister, that he’s to retire, there is an election for the new leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats and this is the first time I’ve been able to vote in a LibDem leadership election.

There is some difference between the candidates – Mike Rumbles and Nicol Stephen – on their approach to working with other parties in government, although I suspect that in practice there is less difference on that issue than first appears. Much of the choice is less about policy than about who would be the best to lead the party into the 2007 elections: who provides the best advertisment for the Liberal Democrats to the voting public.

The good news is that both of the candidates have committed to ending the graduate endowment so that student grants would be funded from general taxation. Both talk about increasing the power’s of the Scottish Parliament and linking personal care payments for the elderly to inflation. Nicol’s manifesto, which I think has the edge, also devotes significant amount of text to the need to support and engage young people.

I posted my ballot paper this morning and the deadline is next Thursday so hopefully we’ll have a result not long afterwards.

In my Boom Town review, I complained that:

Are we to assume half the politicians in Cardiff have been bumped off? And a Lord Mayor doesn’t run the council, they chair council meetings and cut ribbons. If Margaret is a directly-elected mayor, her achievement is all the greater.

While my other comments about Margaret Slitheen’s rapid promotion still hold, it is possible that she was both Lord Mayor and Leader of the Council. Until Labuor lost control of Cardiff last year, the Council Leader was the controversial Russell Goodway who for a time held both posts:

Councillor Goodway, who recently stepped down as the 95th Lord Mayor of Cardiff, was the first Lord Mayor in modern times to combine the role with that of Leader of the Council.

Identity cards: nothing to hide, nothing to fear? (Via.)

Following an election amongst Liberal Democrat MPs, Paul Holmes, the MP for Chesterfield, has replaced Matthew Taylor as chair of the parliamentary party. Paul received 36 votes; Matthew got 23 votes.

This is an interesting outcome although it’s hard to know the reasons without being there. It could be that the MPs feel ideologically closer to Paul; or it could be backbencher’s flexing their muscles. Matthew Taylor suggests that it’s the latter:

“The Parliamentary party had a clear choice to make. They have decided to follow the route of the Conservative and Labour parties in choosing a backbench representative to chair their meetings.”