So I sat down about 20 minutes ago to write about how I thought it had been a good week for the Liberal Democrats. We had held a county council by-election in Cambridgeshire, and the three remaining candidates for the leadership had all impressed me in different ways.
I had listened on my car radio to Ming doing a decent job at PMQs . We had also heard about Ming apparently turning down a cabinet offer from John Major some years ago - greatly to his credit that he refused it. So although I'm still not inspired by Ming, and he's still my third choice, I won't be too discomforted if he does win
As for Chris Huhne - well, I'm one of the people from our constituency who are nominating him. (in fact I offered to do so even before Chris's campaign website was up, because I wanted him in the race). However , I still haven't mind up my mind who to vote for out of Huhne and Hughes - both seem to be shining fairly brightly as the campaign progresses, and it's going to be difficult for me to make my mind up regarding first and second choices.
As for Mark Oaten - I wasn't so dismissive of him as some other bloggers had been, and he did seem to realise that crime is an important political issue. But I couldn't see him as a leader... and I was glad he had stepped down as a leadership candidate.
... and now it's emerged this evening that Mark Oaten has been apparently exposed by the News of the World for having an affair with a rent boy.
You have to feel sorry for Mark and his family. But what the hell was he doing trying to run for the leadership in these circumstances? It will be interesting to see what the public reaction is - will people be as supportive to Mark and his problems as they have been to Charles' drinking problem?
As someone who is far away from insider's gossip, I also wonder how many people inside the party knew anything about this.
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