Clegg ahead in the press
James Forsyth 11:54am
Iain Dale is out with his monthly ranking of the shadow cabinet’s media appearances but it is actually his Lib Dem numbers that are most interesting. If anyone had asked me whether Nick Clegg or Chris Huhne had got more press last month, I would have said that it was pretty even but with Huhne probably edging it. But according to Iain’s numbers, Clegg got vastly more mentions than Huhne—450 to 301. Whether this is any predictor of the final result of the leadership election is unclear, but it does emphasise how much of a front-runner advantage Clegg has had.
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James Strong
December 5th, 2007 12:47pmNick Clegg has been the preferred media candidate right from the start of this contest. This has been clear; what is still unclear is why this has been so.
Penelope
December 7th, 2007 7:48pmBecause many people in the media KNOW Chris Huhne. He worked for nearly 20 years as a Fleet Street hack. For The Economist, Guardian, Independent.
In 1983, some of his colleagues on The Guardian helped scupper his bid to become an MP when he stood in the General Election as an SDP candidate. The story of how they did this was revealed the week after the '83 election in Private Eye. (Issue no. 561 - 17th June 1983)
Former colleagues like Nick Cohen know the real Huhne and detest him. (Look up some of Cohen's comments in The Observer last year. eg: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1707972,00.html
Last but not least, some of his former colleagues who knew him in the 80's know the sordid story of how Huhne helped bust up his wife's first marriage to a very popular LSE academic. (Full details: http://the--anti--chris.blogspot.com)
And that side of Huhne is not very attractive...