QUESTION: - How are the LibDem leadership candidates shaping up?

The recent requirement for yet another leadership election within the Lib Dem party has recently looked more like a whimsical comedy with a penchant for light philosophy and full-on slapstick, and we are left to follow the adventures/misadventures of three erstwhile friends (of varying ages, albeit that their sum total is still less than the party's previous leader) tramping around the Westminster countryside - in the style of "Last of the Summer Wine"

These characters; Chris "Foggy" Huhn, Vince "Compo" Cable and Nick "Clegg" Clegg (repeated for consistency, and in the manner of New York, New York so average I've named him twice!!) wreak havoc, or if not havoc, mild mayhem on those around them.

In one recent episode Compo, made a joke at Gordon “Norah Batty” Brown's expense, quipping that he'd undergone a "remarkable transformation in the last few weeks from Stalin to Mr Bean, creating chaos out of order rather than order out of chaos".

”Batty” Brown’s friends seem to have taken great offence at their friend and leader being likened to the character personified by an award winning comedian, whereas they do NOT appear to have been offended by the reference to him being likened to Stalin.

Now unless my recollection of history has mixed Stalin up with Cliff Richard or Nelson Mandela, I had always thought that Stalin was supposed to be one of the most powerful and murderous dictators in history, and that his regime of terror caused the death and suffering of tens of millions.

Ahhh.....