Party Presidency: now there are four, how are they getting on?

For obvious reasons, I take an interest in the Presidency of the Liberal Democrats, and today's not entirely surprising announcement that Liz Lynne, the former MP for Rochdale and then MEP for the West Midlands, has thrown her hat into the ring, has given me some food for thought. Not because I'm planning to support her - it's far too early for me to make a decision and we have little idea what the various candidates will campaign for, or what vision each might have for the role and for the Party.

It is particularly interesting that all four candidates, Pauline Pearce, Linda Jack, Sal Brinton and Liz, are women, which is a first (assuming that no other candidate emerges), although we have had two previous female Presidents - both excellent, even if I only married one of them.

Each of them has a Twitter presence;

• Liz Lynne - @lizlynne1
• Pauline Pearce - @LibDemLadyP
• Linda Jack - @Lindylooz
• Sal Brinton - @SalBrinton

and I'm sure that they'll all maintain a strong presence on social media, something which is increasingly useful in an internal party election where membership data isn't available to their campaign teams.

And, inspired by Jennie Rigg's efforts to get answers out of candidates for office in 2012, and Linda Jack's own questionnaire to presidential candidates in 1998, I've written to all four, asking them if their campaign has a web presence yet, and if they would mind answering a few questions from me, which I would aim to publish here.

I'm of the view that the role of Party President is rather more complex than a lot of people think - it's certainly harder, especially in a General Election year, and if I can encourage people to think about what they would like the next President to be and do, and provide encouragement to the candidates to articulate their visions for a party in need to everything from a bit of TLC to inspiration through leadership, I might be of some small service.

We'll see what happens...