The Third Way

Have the Liberal Democrats missed a trick by failing to elect Chris Huhne as leader? Ming is a good politician, but is he genuinely going to attract any new supporters to the party? He has even talked about resurrecting the 50% top rate of income tax, which was surely a vote loser in the Tory marginals at the last election that ended all hopes in their decapitation strategy.

Huhne is seen as a "yellow Tory". With a background in economics he certainly would have been more competent in that respect, and the fact he is young and new to Westminster would have counted in his favour. Many Tories believed getting rid of Charles Kennedy was a real mistake for the Lib Dems - they looked at the potential leadership candidates and saw them as no real contest for David Cameron.

Chris Huhne may have wiped the smiles of their faces.