Anders Hanson

As I’ve been in London for the last two days, this has been my first chance to write about the leadership result.  Obviously I’m over the moon about it, and if anything it has been a huge relief after the last two months - which has felt more like two years.  The best moment after finding out the result was walking through Piccadilly Circus on my way to Nick’s victory party at Planet Hollywood, and seeing the words “Nick Clegg Elected Lib Dem Leader” scroll across the big screens there.  It was a great moment.

It’s fair to say I am both excited and nervous now about the future.  Obviously I think Nick will be a great leader, but after the difficulties of the last few years you can’t help but wonder how things will work out.

Today’s reshuffle though has been a good sign of the way forward.  I like the way that the Shadow Cabinet has been grouped in to teams reflecting many of the themes that Nick talked about during his leadership campaign.  I think this will help people work together and will lead us to come up with some better policy ideas that cut across departments and which resonate with the public.  It also gives a clearer spokesman for each theme that the public will hopefully get to know.  If I can pick out one person though it has to be Willie Rennie.  He has been given a new role as “Chair of the Parliamentary Campaigns Team” which given his reputation as a pretty formidable campaigner will be a big boost to the Shadow Cabinet.  He has also been a huge support to Nick’s leadership campaign and has done a phenomenal amount of work behind the scenes to help get him elected.