LibDem Bloggers are split between Chris Huhne and Jose Mourinho for leader.

I thought I would see which candidate for LibDem leader commands the greatest support from the top 20 Libdem Bloggers. The results are a little surprising. It turns out that as a group the LibDem bloggers are a secretive bunch. Only five of the 20 announced who they were supporting.

Anyway here are the results:

Liberal England Jose Mourinho. A Liberal Goes A Long Way None yet. Quaequam Chris Huhne. LibDem Voice None yet. Peter Black None yet. Liberal Burblings None yet. Millennium Dome Elephant None yet. Cicero's Songs None yet. Andy Mayer None yet. Love & Liberty None yet. Lynne Featherstone Chris Huhne. Norfolk Blogger None yet. No Geek Is An Island None yet. Liberal Bureaucracy None yet. Hug a Hoodie None yet. Niles's Blog None yet. A Posh Sounding Northumbrian None yet. Hot, Ginger & Dynamite None yet. Jock Coats Chris Huhne. What You Can Get Away With Chris Huhne.

The support so far:

Chris Huhne 4

Jose Mourinho 1

None Yet 15

I think if Jose were to start a blog and get himself on Facebook, he would stand a more than decent chance of becoming the next LibDem Leader.

Ming Campbell is to resign as LibDem Leader.

Following up from my earlier post: Is Ming Campbell about to step down as leader of the LibDems? The BBC are reporting that Ming is in fact going to resign today. Vincent Cable and Simon Hughes said the party owed Sir Menzies "a huge debt of gratitude" and that he had stepped down "interests of the party and of Liberal Democracy".

Vince Cable will take over as acting leader and the leadership timetable will be announced on Tuesday.

Iain Dale thinks Charles Kennedy could be in with a shout. I agree he would be good for the party, if he is in control of his condition. However there is one thing that plays on my mind. If by some wild set of circumstances he became PM, would you want him to have his finger on the button?

Is Ming Campbell about to step down as leader of the LibDems?

The BBC are reporting that the deputy leader of the LibDems, Vincent Cable, has told them that the position of Lib Dem leader is "under discussion". But he then went on to say that he did not think Ming Campbell's position was under threat, despite some in the party wanting him to go.

Lord Taverne told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme that Ming was the "wrong person for the moment" and should step down within weeks. The LibDem peer went on to say: "When you talk to people privately there's absolutely no doubt that the overwhelming number of peers want a change. I can't claim to be a representative member of the party, let's be absolutely clear about that. But my general impression is quite clear, if there's not a change of leadership, the party goes down the drain."

The Young Turks will be all of a quiver at this news. Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne are no doubt gathering support as I write this post.

UPDATE: Breaking news: Ming Cambell is to resign as the LibDem Leader.

Ming Campbell - LibDem Conference Jackanory Presenter

I'm listening live to Ming's address to the LibDem party faithful. So far it's not too bad, he's mixed in some good humour with policy. I particularly liked his soap opera gag. The only problem I've got is that he seems to think that he his telling a story to five year olds. Hold on a minute it starting to go a bit downhill, if mentions the war once more....

OK I give up. I can't listen to this codswallop any longer.

This is the gist: If you are a minority or marginalised you should vote LibDem.

Sorry, this is not what the LibDems wanted to hear. It's not what Ming said, it's just the way he said it. No fight, no fire.

Ming Campbell's Address to the LibDem Conference (Spice Girls).

Go Ming go!

Nick Clegg for leader of the LibDems?

The picture on the left shows Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg with the words "Trust in People" in the background. Should it say "Don't trust him Ming"?

When asked about his future intentions, Nick said "if you are asking me would I stand against Ming, the answer is no".
However in the next breath he said "if there was a vacancy in the future then I probably would".

He went on to say: "At a time when Sir Ming is being attacked with barely disguised ageism... the only response is to pull together, put up two fingers and say, don't you dare push us around."

Very honourable indeed Nick, but is there any real need to point out that your party leader is under constant attack, whilst saying you will be there to pick up the pieces should he step down?

UPDATE: Ming's wife Lady Elspeth was caught on camera challenging Nick Clegg by saying: "I don't know whether you are being helpful or not." A reportedly shame-faced Clegg told her: "I'm trying to be."

Of course you are Nick, of course you are.

And I thought Ming was nuttier than squirrel sh*t

GroenLinks (Dutch Green Left Party) leader Femke Halsema was seriously considering wearing a hat designed for her to wear at tomorrow's budget presentation. The hat, consisting of a pile of coal topped by a chimney, is supposed to be an anti-coal-fired power station statement.

What with Ming being anti-nuclear maybe he will take to wearing a uranium hat in parliament.

LibDems reveal their city of the future.

Ming Campbell is calling for Britain to become entirely carbon neutral by 2050. I wonder what the weather is like for Ming in cloud cuckoo land. This is from a previous post:

The government has blown (excuse the pun) half a billion pounds subsidising the wind turbine industry. "So what, it's a worthy cause" I hear you say. Well, it turns out that it is anything but worthy and more worryingly, it is a total waste of our tax money. It is alleged that energy companies are receiving subsidies for wind farms that will never make any money, because they have exaggerated the potential of sites with not enough wind.

The government are miles away (or kilometers as our EU friends prefer) from achieving the target of providing 20% of our energy from renewable sources by 2020. Despite blowing (there I go again - sorry) half a billion pounds of our money, the energy companies have failed to provide even 0.5% of our requirements. For a wind farm to be viable it must have a load factor of 30 per cent. But Jim Oswald, an engineering consultant, found that the average across the country was 28 per cent.

Michael Jefferson, policies chairman of the World Renewable Energy Network believes that the subsidies are encouraging energy companies to exaggerate the amount of potential wind energy a farm can supply. Mr Jefferson said: "We should be putting our money where the wind is and that is quite often not where the development pressure is."

In a previous post about nuclear power’s life-cycle emissions it turned out that the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions for nuclear plants are lower than that of wind farms. Now it turns out that on average these farms are not even financially viable.

At least one LibDem as some sense. Chris Davies, the Lib Dem climate change spokesman in the European Parliament said: "I have always been opposed to nuclear power. It is expensive, creates a legacy of radioactive waste and has absorbed public resources that should have been used to develop alternative technologies. But the imperative now is to fight global warming. We cannot ignore the fact that our existing nuclear power stations do not release carbon dioxide."

For God's sake (and ours) let's stop pandering to the green brigade and get some nuclear power plants built.

Have Brown and Campbell formed a pact to muddy the EU Referendum waters?

Is Ming Campbell helping out his old mate Gordon Brown with that tricky old EU Treaty? My blood is boiling. I don't think that I have seen a more cynical piece of political maneuvering like Ming's in a long time. Brown doesn't want to give us the referendum his party promised in its manifesto. David Cameron on the other hand believes it would be a betrayal of British citizens not to hold one.

Now in steps Ming the meaningless. What hope do the Libdems have of getting into power? I'll tell you: one very slim chance by the means of forming a coalition government with Labour after the next general election. We now have two Labour parties: Gordon's Big Labour Party and Ming's Little Labour Party. So now we are seeing Ming being a good Little Labour boy by trying to muddy EU Treaty Referendum waters. This is what Ming is proposing and it plays out beautifully for his mate Gordon:

“If there is to be a referendum it shouldn't be restricted to a comparatively minor treaty. It must be a decision about the EU as a whole. Let’s have an honest debate on the European Union followed by a real choice for the British people. That means a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. We would ask the British people the big question - whether to remain in the European Union or not. I will lead the Liberal Democrats at the forefront of that debate. We will make the overwhelming case for Europe and trust the people to make the right choice.”

You see, Ming, like Gordon, does not want a referendum on the EU Treaty. Instead of just being straight and coming out with it, Ming is doing Gordon a favour by trying to change the question from:

Do you as a citizen of this country want a referendum on the EU Treaty?

To:

Do you as a citizen of this country want to remain in the EU?

I think we can all see what this policy of Ming's is intended to do. He's trying to throw us of the scent. Ming and Gordon both believe that if it comes down to it, we could vote to stay in the EU. However they are both damn sure we will vote against the Treaty.

The TUC vote in favour of an EU Treaty Referendum.

UPDATE: The Unions have voted in favour of a call for a referendum on the EU treaty.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It is not looking good for Gordon is it?. You've got to admire Tony Blair's political savvy, he knew the exact moment when the kitchen was getting a little too hot. One person who does not posses Blair's foresight is the Minger (Ming Campbell) who has said he will not back calls for a referendum. How much notice the LibDems will take of the meaningless one I don't know, but if I was a guessing man, I would say - not much.

Tony Blair was lucky enough to be Prime Minister when the people of this country seemed to be in a slumber. Gordon Brown is going to get our full attention.

We want a bloody referendum on the EU Treaty!

Oh God I hate the Lib Dems! 4p tax cut my arse!

So the Lib Dems master stroke is to propose a 4p cut in income tax, what a complete and utter load of bollocks. It would be fantastic if what you got was what it said on the tin, but you don't. They plan to pay for this tax cut by - yes you guessed it: taxing us in other ways! Do they think that the public are stupid enough not to realise that they will being given a tax cut with one hand, while the other takes it away? Not only that, but it will cost the country extra to implement these new taxes, what a bunch of incompetent cretins. They also plan to raise money to cover the cut by taxing the well-off even more. I'm in no way well-off, in fact I'm positively working class and I cannot see why the rich should subsidise the rest of us. They should pay their fair share but that is all they should pay. Thousands of people are leaving this country every day and this kind of stupidity is only going to increase that flood.

Sir Menzies said: "Our new proposals will put fairness at the heart of the tax system. Tax cuts for the majority will be paid for by the wealthy minority." What exactly is fair about asking the rich to part with there hard earned money? If I ever make it rich (not likely) I would be more than a little pissed off at having to give most of it to the government to keep the voters on their side. I can see the airports becoming very busy if these idiots ever get in power. What I want to see is value for the taxes I'm paying now, not a false increase in my take home pay, only to see it disappear on other (Green) taxes shortly after.

Being a conservative member I hope Ming stays as leader of the Lib Dems, that way we will only have Labour to beat in the next election. "Green" taxes on cars and flights my arse!

Rory Bremner - doing Ming - doing the Spice Girls.

Hat Tip Tim Roll Pickering