LibDem ladies, what is wrong with you? Simon Hughes was asked directly by the Torygraph if he was gay, he replied “The answer is no”. The rumours have dogged him for years and were not helped by him often being seen in the Red Lion pub surrounded by admiring young male research assistants. He claims he has been turned down by all the women he has asked to marry him. All? Who? Guido has been told that he once dated Sarah Gurling (Mrs Charles Kennedy). Did she, like the party, choose Charlie over Simon? Who else turned Hughes down? Why?

Guido has been scanning the blogs of LibDems in an effort to understand the mindset of that dysfunctional party. Finally, and with some difficulty, a single Oaten supporting blog has been found. It is the blog of Robin and “legally blonde” Leah Darbyshire. It is the diary of a married couple who are LibDem activist geeks and happily includes leggy pictures of Leah who Robin describes as a “Jennifer Lopez lookalike”.

Interspersed between tales of their political discussions in the jacuzzi we get ringing endorsements for Mark Oaten – “Mark Oaten is definitely a good man, a good boss, a good politician and a good businessman. He also still manages to spend time with his kids. Therefore I can’t believe anyone else would be better at the leadership than him right now.”

Robin Darbyshire works for Mark Oaten.

UPDATE: Some comment makers claim Robin works for Hughes, which would be very odd given he’s backing Oaten. It’s all very bizarre.

Guido was out of the Westminster cellar last night at the politicalbetting.com party in Belgravia drinking at Lord Gould’s expense (thanks m’Lord). Mike Smithson was the host and was on good form, Iain Dale was amusing and told Guido that he intends to concentrate on broadcasting now he is no longer chief-of-staffing. Peter Cuthbertson has lost weight and is only half the boy he was, Anthony Wells chatted babies with Guido – congratulations – not so easy to blog now, eh?

One thing that was made clear by blog readers is that they did not like having to register and do verification to make a quick comment. In view of that the registration setting is no longer required. Some speculation as to who uber-comment-maker Stalin’s Gran is, consensus was that it’s a journalist, probably lobby…

The University of St Andrews held an election for Chancellor of the University using rules Menzies Campbell must wish applied in the Lib Dems. The university opened and closed nominations during the Christmas holidays so none of the students could nominate anyone to run against the Principal’s choice – Ming. They then failed to tell any of the voters, which involves all the university’s graduates, about the vote. Perhaps Ming could get Dr Brian Lang, the university principal, to run Lib Dem elections in future?

The university principal works in a building called College Gate, so scandals in the administration tend to get called the Collegegate Scandal. More details here.

The LibDem constitution is a wonderful rulebook. MPs can nominate multiple candidates and anyone can vote for leader.

Surely only members can vote? Correct, anyone who is a member on January 26 will be able to vote. Membership is open, it costs a minimum of £6, so join up and vote. For about £300,000 the Tories can choose the new LibDem leader…

Chris Huhne is the first runner with a campaign website up: www.chris2win.org – its crap and yellow. Ming’s is not ready www.mingforleader.org.uk it was registered by Dan Purchese, Chair of East Arun Lib Dems. Not sure its the official Ming site.

UPDATE: Oaten is up with Oaten TV, which has him and Lembit Opik broadcasting. Oaten’s entire campaign seems to be about him and “libertarian” Lembert. Guido was a bit surprised to hear Lembert claim in the video they are a pair of libertarians.

Even LibDems don’t know where Chris Hune stands, so much so that he is being debated on their blogs. Huhne is saying that, unlike Hughes, he won’t hike taxes (except environmental taxes).

Nick Clegg, the LibDem Tories most feared, is hoping for a deputy Mingship after having now realised that he has missed the leadership boat. His “have I screwed it up” phone calls yesterday saw his odds dip down to 15/1 despite not being a declared runner (now back out to 50/1). You missed the boat Clegg, you may as well just join the Tories now, the Torygraph backs you and they actually want you.

Hughes is now favourite, the former bookies favourite, the patrician Ming, now reckons he is more left-wing than Labour in his interview in the Guardian this morning. LibDems are so honest and straight forward aren’t they?

Guido’s man in Brussels whispers that it is dawning on the EPP that the Tories really are off. EPP-ED leader and German MEP Hans-Gert Poettering realises that for Hans, it’s all over. Only 7 out of the 20 Tory MEPs have turned out to be German agents, the rest are looking forward to the new group. Cameron is threatening to execute the traitors.

Negotiations with Czech President Vaclav Klaus’ ODS party will be finalised by Hague on January 31. The gravy train for faction funding by the European Parliament arrives March 31, so that is the launch deadline for the new faction. The Thatcherite ODS are highly credible partners since they are likely to be the Czech governing party after the Czech summer elections. Expect Swedish, Polish and Baltic free trade / free market parties to sign up as well. There is even talk of a French representation in the new grouping.

The Times has an another article and a leader on the corrupting of the body politic by lobbyists and vested interests. The ruse of setting up an All-Party Parliamentary Group which gives MPs a few freebies in return for a few press releases is well known. Some APGs do good work, many are just transparently obviously PR covers for vested interests. The Times is barely lifting the stone and exposing these cockroaches to the light of publicity. What about the columnists who write articles mentioning issues in an area in which their consultancy clients have an acute interest. Now which occasional Times columnist would be guilty of writing about his lobbying efforts?

Nick Clegg is taking soundings. Chris Huhne throwing his hat in the ring has caused a panic. Clegg had calculated that Ming would be leader and the Orange Bookers would have their leadership battle after the next election. Oaten and Huhne throwing their hat in has upset that calculation. The Orange Book modernisers seem to have decided to have the fight now. Clegg has been discretely hitting the phone lines.

Clegg’s Telegraph endorsement this morning makes his bid more credible. Punters have slashed his odds today…