Mary Reid

A lot to report today - but at the moment I'm recovering from a live interview on Sky News.  They sent a car to pick me up but we arrived with only a couple of minutes spare. Just a quick dab of powder and I found myself sitting at the large studio desk in front of that massive back screen.

They wanted the views of grassroots Lib Dems - and apparently had found me through this blog! Another unexpected side effect....

It was quite a long discussion, with Ben Ramm joining in from another studio. I explained why I voted for Ming (gravitas and statesmanship), but I also said that the campaign had generated a lot of interesting discussion and that each of the three candidates had the potential to be a good leader.  We do not want a David Cameron clone - that's shallow politics - nor do we want to move from our bedrock principles of social justice, civil liberties and empowering citizens.

To the question about the rocky start to the election I had one simple reply - Dunfermline!

None of the polls has really been able to replicate the demographic of the party membership, so the result is still unpredictable, although Simon is unlikely to get past the first preference count. I'm looking forward to the announcement at 3pm and the beginning of a new chapter in the party's history.