It is of course something of a cliché, but the leadership contest does allow us some airtime and public interest to talk about what the Liberal Democrats believe in some places where the broader public may hear.

And I have been pleased with the way that as they have been interviewed over the last week first over Ming’s resignation and now in the leadership contest, various senior Liberal Democrats have used the opportunity well to get across some of the key beliefs and values that are important to us.

To many of us who spend a lot of our time kicking around such ideas these don’t always sound very new - but inexplicably many people of course don’t spend their time following every last Lib Dem policy pronouncement in great detail - and so it is very good that both the candidates and others are able to use the opportunities we now have to expose them to it.

I have in fact been surprised by how much media interest there has been in us over the last week. There certainly currently seems to be a press buzz about the contest and the future of our party that, shall we say, does not always distinguish media reporting of the Liberal Democrats!