So I guess I wouldn't really be a liberal blogger unless I commented on the Lib Dem leadership election. Nick Clegg won with 50.6% of the vote, which of course by any count is a very slim victory. It's never a nice position to be on the losing side of a result when the margin in so slim but Chris Huhne must try not to feel too dejected...to me it is clear that those that voted saw two very equal candidates and despite what some people are saying this is only positive for the party.

The Lib Dems have never been one to self destruct easily, the recent chaos has largely been because of the shake given to the party at losing a firm and steady hand at the helm. In 2004 for the first time I think the party realised that they weren't just going to be able to go from leader to leader after long periods of time forever, this seemed to knock them...but surely the party has to be stronger for having gone through this?

Lessons about the media's fickle nature have had to have been learned and two candidates that have shown that they can take part in a debate and not look out of their depth when it gets challenging have crossed the finish line. For as much as non-Lib Dem, and bizzarely some Lib Dem, bloggers and commenter's wish this to be the start of another split it is disappointing to see them engaging in such negative politics.

Every time I watch PMQ's I see it, no real questions being given to the PM by the opposition leader, and in return no real answers given when and shred of a question makes it through...back and forth just jibes and attacks that have no relevancy in a government, and therefore parliament, that is supposedly meant to be about looking to the future.

This is why Clegg needs to be smart. Aside from the fact no-one that doesn't avidly keep a track on political movements will know who he is and that he needs to rectify that, he also needs to ensure that he doesn't take the party into a mud slinging contest. At least not while he can question why the two fighters managed to get the ring so mucky in the first place.

I really hope to see the Lib Dems continue in the vein we started to see Vince Cable use, and I agree with one blogger that says Vince is clearly a talent to be utilised before PMQ's to keep Nick sharp, and that is to not bark on about the same old things. It's great that Lib Dems have something unique with their record on Iraq but really it was nice to see someone tackling issues such as proposing the nationalise Northern Rock when it was damn clear the Cameron was too wrapped up in other subjects to deal with that particular story. Being the party that was against the war from the start isn't going to win them any more seats in 2009+ so it really is time to find some new ground.

But most importantly the party elected Clegg by such a small margin because ultimately the two candidates really weren't all that different in the main qualities needed by the next Lib Dem leader, we aren't talking about the party splitting leadership contests of the Tory's where the extreme-right battles oh so publicly with those of a more centrist persuasion, the whole of the party was always going to be behind whoever won.

So here is hoping to a good first PMQ's performance, importantly now far enough away that Clegg can do some very good PR work to build up to it, and for the confidence to return to the Lib Dems so we can see a return to the road to three party politics.