Lynne's Parliament and Haringey diary

Leadership hustings at the RSA (Royal Society of Arts) with Chris Huhne and Nick Clegg going head to head. Both were good - obviously - but! Nick started really well with his speech - doing what he does best - and trying to charm the birds right out of the streets with homely examples of real life Nick experiences. Very good stuff. Chris's speech was tougher and more real - and he delivered it with gusto. Full of real experience and good personal examples himself.

Needless to say there was a lot of common ground and agreement - but differences occurred. Before I get onto those however, I noted that Nick was claiming credit for the Freedom Bill or The Great Repeal Act. But actually - that was one of Chris's four big ideas during the last leadership contest. Credit to Nick for being willing to run with the idea so well, but credit where credit's due for the original idea!

But it was the questions - that in my opinion - separated the men from the boys - so to speak. There were two key areas where I felt Chris outshone Nick. One was in overall tone and content of response. Chris is clearly able to think on his feet and come up with really brilliant answers and not waffle. Nick reverts to the safety zone of talking about things like Home Affairs (his brief) when he isn't sure of what answer to give. Nick was more touchy-feely - without question - but Chris is learning feely-touchy - but with steel and with substance.

The real test came just at the end when the boys were asked about Trident. Nick spoke first and nonsensically in my view as he said he wouldn't for one moment consider a unilateralist point of view - he was a multilateralist. But he was trying to imply that Chris was unilateralist - which he isn't. So a bit of edginess there.

Nick then takes the straight party line and tries to rubbish Chris (whose stand on Trident had been covered in the press a lot). Chris then speaks and sets out exactly, clearly and coherently what position he takes on Trident which is that in the end, and dependent on the outcome of the multi-lateral disarmament talks in 2010, it is inconceivable that we would need to replace Trident in exact form and at the gargantuan cost of billions and billions.

Chris's argument is that Trident was developed before 1989 in a world where the name of the game was nuclear and the stand off between the super powers ruled the world. Since the end of the Cold War and the advent of rogue states and terrorism - the rules of the game have changed.

Anyway - then it got heated as Nick interrupted and tried to attack Chris's position. Well - bet he wished he hadn't as Chris's response to the attacks showed the steel of which he is made - not only absolutely confident in content but delivered with absolute authority. That was an excellent joust!

Labels: chris huhne, lib dem leadership contest, nick clegg