I’ve not really blogged about the LibDem leadership election yet. I will do so over the coming weeks, so in advance I’m laying down my ground rules:

1. I’m not going to start jumping up and down for anyone yet. Already too many people (MPs and bloggers) seem to have leapt on the first candidate they saw, declared support before the line-up was clear and then been left wondering if they wouldn’t prefer someone else. Until we’re a bit nearer the nominations deadline and we can be fairly sure who all the candidates are on what platforms they’re standing, I won’t be installing a big – say – “Vote Huhne” banner.
2. The election will be by alternative vote. Therefore, I encourage the use of additional preferences if you have a vote in this election and if I endorse someone it will be as a first choice and not a statement that all of the other candidates are rubbish.
3. Installing a bloodied leader won’t help the party. I will express policy disagreement with some candidates, and I’ll criticise their campaigns where appropriate, but I won’t aim to rip them apart in the hope of helping my preferred candidate(s). If and when I choose to endorse someone, I’ll aim to focus on why they should be leader and not why the others shouldn’t. I won’t be taking chunks out of a candidate whom I don’t support if there’s the possibility that he will be leader in seven weeks’ time.
4. Obviously, therefore, point 3 doesn’t apply to Oaten.

Who fans may be interested in the new blog by Paul Cornell, which he started just before Christmas.

Via Paul, I’ve also discovered Vicious Imagery, by David Bishop, and Neuralgia Nostalgia.

Apologies for the self-referential nature of this entry: it’s a blog post about a letter responding to a letter about blog posts, tagged with the keywords “Blogging” and “Letters”.

I have returned to the letters page of theguardian with this quip, which I decided to send rather than go to the effort of a proper rebuttal. The letter I was replying to was printed on Friday.

In other blogging news, I have spruced up the site a bit. Let me know what you think, and please report any problems. It’s not looking quite right on Firefox, so there’s some tweaking to be done.

Rafael Behr, Observer journlist and erstwhile newspaper blogger, has returned, as promised, with his own blog. So hurrah.