That isn’t helpful. You have no proof.

To be honest what Si said may be just a big difference of opinion on campaign perceptions. They might or might not be in Huw’s camp or Carwyn’s come to that. Ultimately that’s not the issue, it’s that people are entitled to their own take, and we’re not part of some accepted view or group think.

This is WalesHome.org, and we’re entitled to say what we want to say, how we want to say it, when we want to say it. We’re not bound by political or any other conventions. This site was, is, and always will be independent, with no agendas save one – we want the best ideas, the best writing we can find. We won’t always achieve it, but we will always strive for it. And that comes ahead of any other consideration.

And that’s our manifesto.

I’ve got to say that Daram, Adam and Duncan have at least told me about what all these politicians are. Sometimes I can’t get my head around all this backstabbing. It is typical political spin and a real turn off to someone like me voting for the first time. I think that this site has been telling it like it is. Huw sounds cool but Edwina’s a bit like a Welsh Mam, takes no nonsense but will look after her family till the end. That’s where my vote will go.

The leadership election has, up until now, been contested by the three candidates in a very fair, open and comradely way. It’s a shame that one individual – presumably a Huw Lewis supporter – has lowered the debate to this level. Shame.

The coverage of the leadership election on WalesHome has been by far the best. It’s put the BBC and the Western Mail to shame.

You say that my piece on Huw “chimed with the feeling amongst Party members and commentators alike.” Maybe, maybe not. Certainly some of the Plaid bloggers took issue with a certain phrase which I used, and which I stand by. So there was no unified perspective amongst the commentariat. Indeed, on certain aspects of Huw’s campaign and their impact (as with the other two campaigns), the WalesHome home team, as it were, has differed in opinion.

Views of campaigns are never uniform. You may savage the Hart campaign – and from your undertone you obviously do – but why should I?

Differences of opinion are totally natural. Sometimes that comes from having access to different sources, or looking at things in different ways. For example, I’ve tried at different points to examine the contest not just from an electoral mechanics side but also by comparing what candidates have said on issues. Not everyone who comments – and certainly not every party member – even bothers to read manifestos, less still all three. That’s not to assume an air of superiority (which comes all too naturally to me, I’m afraid) but rather to stress that people look at things in different ways and from different standpoints.

Another factor would be party hustings. Not being a member of the Labour Party, I have not attended any. Indeed, because of their regional nature, I would suspect that very few people outside immediate campaign teams would have. People who would have been to one would have seen a certain perspective, perhaps personal to them, and this might have varied to the person in the next seat or the person in the next hustings. So my view isn’t complete, but then again how many people’s views are?

You may think Edwina’s campaign has been a disaster but that is a subjective viewpoint. Just because you presume it to be shared, that does not make it group-think.

What I have tried to do in this post – and I can accept that you do not agree Si – is look at Edwina’s campaign from the perspective of what it was trying to achieve and has achieved. The campaign the team has run has been energetic, direct, and, to my mind, more philosophically driven than the others. It has also delivered some genuinely robust and exciting moments. It started later and that has showed, but it also has given it a certain excitement and “what next” feel.

This post is as “obviously genuine” as the one I wrote for Huw’s campaign and the one I wrote for Carwyn’s. I am glad they have pushed people into responding.

Heaven help us!