Two biggies today! Dunfermline by-election and the Lib Dem leadership Question Time. But work comes first – and I have had, unexpectedly, to go into Parliament to respond on behalf of the Lib Dems to Charles Clark statement on their new national offenders strategy.

So – my first statement!

On route in, get call to say YouGov poll puts Chris Huhne in the lead. Can’t read too much into polls – but whoop with joy anyway. It’s very, very exciting at this point – although there have been some negative swipes at Chris. Never mind. I also had an email from someone objecting to my supporting Chris so publicly and suggesting as an MP I ought to be more balanced. Well – of course – all three are wonderful. But I am completely biased and campaigning for Chris – that’s the point. People want to know who I support. Anyway – tonight will be some night. I would be absolutely terrified if it was me. Happily, Chris is pretty good at handling tension and stress – thank goodness. I just wish I had bet on him.

Chris’s press officer is desperate for me to go on TV as they need talking heads for breaking news on Chris in the race – but can’t do it because of the statement. I think Steve Williams did it in the end.

Anyway – back to reality. Dash in – and the process is that the Whip’s office gets notification of the statement from the Home Secretary in Parliament an hour before the Home Secretary makes it. So I have about 45 minutes to compose my response. I do have help – from an adviser. But it is a helter-skelter process.

In the event – it all went fine. So to the substance – the statement was the Government coming round to the Lib Dem position on non-violent, non-dangerous criminals doing community sentences rather than prison. For all sorts of reasons – this is just the best way forward – and finally the Government has cottoned on. Most importantly – it’s the most effective way of cutting crime rates. Sadly, their reason for seeing the light probably has more to do with running out of space in prisons than a real belief in restorative justice and community punishments.

The real test will come if they resource it properly. I was a bit concerned when Charles C banged on about partnership working etc. Can often mean that no one takes responsibility properly – and there was no declaration of resource levels that the Government is going to commit.

I welcomed the thrust of the statement – but had a go over the eight years in which the Government has done sweet FA to make inroads into this bubbling mess.