A day of weighing up thoughts on the Lib Dem leadership contest. First – many thanks to everyone who has been lobbying me to run for the leadership. It’s flattering – but sorry, I’m not in the running.

Instead, I am sticking with Chris Huhne. You know he had real balls last time – took the risk – gave the party a real choice. And in the campaign – it was Chris who had the big ideas – so much so that the other leadership contenders followed his agenda. I want the person who sets agendas – that is leadership.

Outside of loads of media interviews – it has been a day of Lib Dem huddles. Who will support who? Who’s the media backing? And so on … but perhaps at last there is a chink of light in the media being (a little!) interested in what the policy choices there may be behind different candidates and what our party’s approach is rather than obsessed with what socks Ming is wearing.

But I’ll give you one firm prediction: whoever runs and whoever wins – their best policies will be nicked by the Tories without hesitation, then nicked by Labour and then the Tories will complain about Labour doing the nicking – as if they were really their policies in the first place!