On my way out of a reception in Brussels last night, I bumped into one of Catherine Stihler’s people, and asked her (I thought) in jocular vein if she was planning to move back to Scotland with her boss, or stay here and find a new boss after the by-election. She looked evasive and muttered something I didn’t catch. Now I know why. Well done folks!

I didn’t see Question Time last night, but note the following reactions:

Three who think Simon Hughes won:
Nick Barlow (backing Huhne): “Simon won on points from Chris, with Ming third”
(backing Campbell): “I scored it a narrow victory for Simon Hughes, maybe 8/10 for him, 7.5 for Ming and 7 for Chris Huhne”
: “I’d say Hughes edged it overall”

Three who think Campbell did best or joint best:
Peter Black AM (backing Hughes): “Campbell and Hughes performed well. Huhne’s inexperience counted against him.”
Will Howell (backing Huhne): “Campbell and Huhne were well matched, with Hughes further behind.”
Alan Beddow (backing Huhne): thinks Campbell did best and the other two about equal

And one differently nuanced view:
: “All three LibDem leadership candidates are shite”

Looks to me like it won’t have changed anything much – maybe pulled up Simon Hughes’ first prefs a bit but not enough to save him from third place.