Who I am supporting for Leader of the Liberal Democrats

1.35.15pm GMT Fri 16th Nov 2007

Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne

When Sir Ming announced his resignation it was quite clear that both Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne would be running, I had hoped there would be other candidates. I had hoped that, as I wanted to see a number of candidates offering different visions and directions for the party. I went as far to ask someone to stand (obviously they refused) and it did seem for a while that Steve Webb might stand. I had thought although either Nick or Chris would win it would have been very useful for someone else to stand and give us more choice.

Sadly only Nick and Chris put themselves forward, I would argue that my Liberalism is not represented particularly well by either of them and believe this to be true for many of our members, we would have benefited from another candidate.

Nick and Chris are similar in lots of ways - both went to the same school, both have worked in economics and journalism, both were MEPs elected in 1999, both were elected to Westminster in 2005, both are white, male and middle class (although they can not be blamed for this!), both are of similar view in policy terms - what a choice!

I have been undecided for much of the campaign, I suspect my indecision has not been helped that I have also been gagged by the Party until recently (but that's another story) so I didn't have an opportunity to 'come-out' earlier. I attended the first hustings in Rugby, watched Question Time last night and read both candidates websites, allowed both of them to write for this website (which I will do again) and quizzed members of both campaign teams. I will be watching the debate on the Politics Show at noon this Sunday on BBC1 and may attend the Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats organised hustings in Birmingham on 5 December. But I am now ready to declare!

Before I went to the first hustings I thought I would probably end up supporting Nick, as did many of my friends who also attended, after the hustings I thought I would probably end up supporting Chris but was not sure. I have considered both of them since, at times it seemed as though Nick had won my vote back and then Chris convinced me otherwise - I had also thought about spoiling my ballot as at times neither has impressed me (quite the opposite in fact). My views had been crystallising since that original hustings, and last night's Question Time confirmed my view - I will be supporting Chris.

Last time round I supported Sir Ming against Chris Huhne and Simon Hughes, I thought Sir Ming would be the best Leader for the Party at that time, especially as the candidate I wanted to see as Leader decided not to stand (they also did not stand this time either). For the record I still think Sir Ming was the best choice for the Party at the time, and thought he would have performed better than he did and at times he did show he could, but the media would not let up on the age thing.

This time, as I say I thought I would support Nick to start, partly as I have some historic reasons for not wishing to support Chris (which I will not go into here as they are mainly historic) and many of the people (but certainly not all) that I respect in the Party were very enthused by Nick, including a number MPs who have worked with both.

At the Rugby hustings Chris performed much better than Nick in my opinion. Nick seemed less confident and struggled with some of the questions; Chris on the other hand was much more composed and coherent - far better than he had been 18 months earlier. There were perhaps three things that stood out for me:

1. Nick and Chris both said they were lovely people, and the party was lovely and we should be performing better, both said there are a number of problems in British politics but only Chris gave some idea of how we could solve them.

2. Chris almost completely won me, and most of the audience, over by saying he would not replace Trident - more on this later!

3. A good friend of mine asked a question about how the candidates would 'break the mold' as both had claimed they would, when they agree we already have the policies and people we need. Nick either could not answer the question or choose to not answer the question (even asking for clarification of a very simple question), Chris at least attempted to answer the question (even though I am not sure it was the right answer)

And finally Chris was better at mentioning the West Midlands (although wrongly in one incident), now this could have been tokenistic but I saw it as he had done his homework and was better prepared.

However after the hustings it appeared Chris' rallying call to rid us of Trident was less unilateralist than I thought. As many know Trident and the UK having Nuclear Weapons is a key issue to me - I am unilateralist and proud of it! Nick has repeatedly given his answer that he is a multilateralist and he believes that is the right approach to take to the negotiations in 2010 - that's fine I have no argument with that position, I disagree with it but it is consistent. Chris on the other hand seems less consistent he talks about ridding the UK of Trident - to mass applause at the Rugby hustings and no doubt elsewhere - but he is also talking about potentially having a new set of, different, nuclear weapons (which has been argued may be less effective and most costly than Trident - and although I may be a unilateralist if we have to have nukes lets have ones that work!). At this point I think I was swinging between Nick and spoiling my ballot.

So apart from Trident, I was very impressed with Nick over Identity Cards and his pledge to break the law (a pledge I had already made), ID Cards are another of my key issues. Some of what Nick has been saying on Home Affairs have impressed, but then it is his policy area, Chris has also been very good on the environment too as his policy area. The only other real difference has been on health, I am far from an expert on the NHS (despite my brother and sister-in-law working in it) but I prefer what Chris is saying to what Nick is saying.

However one of the deciding factors for me is how the two candidates have performed on television and also at the one hustings I have seen. Chris seems far more adept, confident and better at handling the media than Nick, maybe that is due to experience may be it is something else I am not sure but Nick comes across less well and seems, and it may be harsh to say, but more lightweight - I am not convinced he could hold his own against Paxman whereas Chris could. The same may well be true of how they perform in the House of Commons and on the campaign trail, however with the media being so important to how politics works these days it is now an important factor.

So I will be backing Chris when my ballot paper arrives - unless of course between now and then he manages to say or do something to lose my vote!

Finally the teams of both candidates have been sent this and given the opportunity to send a response which will be published on this website