It’s been reported that Menzies Campbell intends to make age less of an issue in the leadership election by surrounding himself with younger people. He did so on TV this evening. Unfortuantely, the younger people in question were the three other candidates as Sky News hosted the first debate between the Campbell, Simon Hughes, Mark Oaten and Chris Huhne.
I hope I don’t have to sit through another Sky News debate. Topped with a simplistic package attempting to sum up the LibDems, and making some dubious comments – for example, wrongly equating support for civil liberties with being left wing (it’s being liberal) – the presentation was unimpressive. Sky’s rather dim summary on the party branded equated with “If the party wants more votes, it needs to appeal to more voters.” D’oh.
The debate itself was good, though, with all the candidates performing fairly well. There was plenty of agreement, which will hopefully put right those who thinks the party is drastically split on policy.
The presenter compared Chris Huhne’s time in parliament with Menzies Campbell’s longer service, perhaps not realising that Simon Hughes has been an MP for longer than Ming. For someone accused of being inexperienced, Huhne appeared at ease debating with the three media-appointed “big beasts” and made plenty of sensible points.
Ming Campbell was asked how many seats would be a good result at the next election and sensibly avoided setting himself up for a fall. Simon Hughes jumped straight in with 100 seats. It reminded me of his arbitrary promise, when standing for party president, to take the LibDem membership figure past that of Labour. Judging from the number of voters in this election, it’s barely moved.
There was no clear winner in the debate, and subtle policy differences only between the candidates. Campbell held his ground, although dodged a question on private involvement in the NHS. Given that Huhne should, by conventional wisdom, have been miles behind the other three and gave a strong performance, he was the candidate with whom I was most impressed.
Final note: well done to Rob Fenwick for submitting a question that was used, and to Tom Paul for getting an on-screen comment.
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