Richard Stevens

The voting papers to elect the next leader of the Liberal Democrat party will soon be dropping through members’ letter boxes. I have made up my mind where I’ll be placing my cross.

I’ve seen and heard both Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne at close quarters and I’ll be  very happy with whoever wins the contest. Both candidates have the necessary qualities and youth to bring a period of stability and progress to the party. The choice is not an easy one.

However, I’m firmly of the view that Chris Huhne is the man for the job. I heard him speak at Coventry during the previous leadership hustings and was hugely impressed. I like his position on Trident.  I think his knowledge of economic and environmental  affairs will be invaluable and in general I believe him to be the more heavyweight of the two. Yet is is personable and has an excellent TV and media presence.

I listened to Nick Clegg at the Regional Conference in Wolverhampton earlier in the year. I was not over impressed - particularly by his proposals on sentencing. I’ve spent a lifetime defending clients in the criminal courts and Nick’s comments displayed a lack of realism. Policies designed to curry favour with Daily Mail headline writers worry me. ‘Making sentences mean what they say’ is a good sound bite but displays an appalling ignorance of the realities of life in the criminal justice system.

And then I watched them both last night on BBC1’s ‘Question Time’. Their performances confirmed my views. I felt that Nick failed to deal adequately with a couple of points and that Chris came across in a very competent and positive manner.

So when the ballot paper arrives next week, it’s Chris Huhne for me.