Muammar Al Khadafi

Before we begin, I'll make clear that this is not truly a report. This is just one persons take on the events of the night, and some thoughts and opinion mixed in. I believe SWN is to publish a full report, this is merely intended as an opinion piece.

As an opening remark, the venue was really nice, and the hustings itself was very well organised. The turnout was somewhat lower than I had expected, but those in attendance, whatever their views on all this, were all still friendly and doing what they believed was right for the future of our party.

The first obvious thing of the night was the great difference between the two challengers styles.

Nick is a very emotional speaker, he knows how to appeal to an audience and how to push buttons. Andrew is a much more intellectual speaker, he said more of note but in a less crowd winning way.

In fairness, the best way I can say it is that Nick can win hearts - whereas Andrew can win minds. Both of these are crucial to us, but hearts will only carry us so far as the present turmoil shows, and can soon be lost to some bad decisions and questionable calls. Others within the party can win hearts, from the very top we need substantial thought and solid policy that will appeal to the people of Britain, the days of the demagogue are gone especially considering a hostile environment like the British press which we now face.

I was a little disappointed in how things became bogged down over a few issues - eg the mass mailed booklet or comments on websites - and did wish that things could have focused much more on the future of our party and how we are going to retake the ground which we have lost with the public no matter who wins.

Given the economic climate and the absolute failure of Lib/Lab/Con, this should be very much our time, the time when true nationalists can make major advances.

One would also have liked to have seen more substance over style when Nick spoke about the allegations in the booklet.

Nicks team did themselves no favours in how they attempted to 'tag team' the discussion and steer it in certain directions. They'd obviously rehearsed, and it felt a little forced.

In fairness to Nick, as already said, he is a very good speaker, the outside 'assistance' only weakened his case and detracted from the emotional appeal.

Now, in contrast to reports of some of the other hustings, this was, for the most part, very well natured. Mike Howson did an excellent job of keeping things in order on the few occasions where it did get really heated, and other SW officials made sure that it all ran smoothly.

I got little chance to talk to Andrew, but did speak to Nick for a while when outside of the venue after the hustings - and 1 to 1 he is again a very good speaker, perhaps moreso than before a crowd since he seems more willing to offer 'substantial' comments and opinion.

All in all, it was a good night, and an informative one, but one in which it seemed some areas for discussion were focused on too much, others neglected. It did, for a while, become about point scoring instead of moving our party forward.

So, did it sway how I'd vote? No. I like Nick, I think he's done a lot for the nationalist cause, but I still think it's time for him to step aside and take a legacy where the good outweighs the bad with him instead of continuing to cling on in the light of recent issues and bad decisions.

It makes me think of a comment made by someone - won't name them since I've no chance to check they don't mind, and they've since sadly become inactive/left - who kindly gave me a lift to a Somerset branch meeting back at the beginning of this year. He said that Nick is our Neil Kinnock - he laid the groundwork, he did much good for the party, but after a certain point we have to admit that as a party we are un-electable with him in charge, and if we do not then the only place we can go is downhill.

Andrew offers us hope of a more organised and accountable to its members party, which is something I sincerely believe we need if nationalism is to progress from here. With the greatest of respect to Nick, he has held the reins long enough, we now need substance over personal charisma and style. Without change we are stuck in a rut and going nowhere but backwards.

We need to build on what we have and become electable, and to do that we need a new leadership. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the current leadership we will remain in the political wilderness unless we see change at the top. Recent elections and declines in the levels of activism within the party prove this all too clearly.