Husting at St Mathews Church, Perth

We attended a very interesting and well attended hustings in Perth last night, at which all five candidates were putting forwards their messages in front of a crowd of 120-150 people in St Matthews Church by the Tay.

Peter Barrett was really the only one to say clearly what he and his party were going to do if he was elected, carefully setting out the main points of th Lib Dem manifesto and what this would mean in Perthshire. He was measured and thoghtful, and came across very well on his home turf. All the others were more superficial.

Pete Wishart of the SNP is obviously a born performer, always aware of the crowd and how he is being perceived, and able to ad-lib as required, turning on the charm or attacjing an opponent as required. He was quite willing to have a go at his Labour and Conservative opponents, and is obviously a dogged little fighter. Very short on policy though, as per the SNP manifesto in general at this election.

Jamie Glackin looked every inch the central belt Labour politician, hopelessly out of touch with voters in Perthshire, light on policy and offering only a very weak defence of his government's record. We wont be hearing from him again.

Douglas Taylor of the Trust Party (he stood as the Conservative candidate in 2005 and came close to winning) was very limited in his message, and although he was very strong on defending civil liberties and freedom of conscious, it will take a lot more than that to get attention in this area. A distant fifth definitely.

The boy Peter Lyburn is determined to throw this all away. Obviously not at ease in front of a crowd like this (a bit strange for a politician), he trotted out his party line, said very little of specific interest to Perthshire, and only very superfically said much about himself. Peter Lyburn could be a very imposing politician if he was tutored a bit better. He stood up for his opening speech and the summing up at the end, and dominated the room and almost sounded convincing at times. He is tall and looks very striking with his mop of black hair, and he would certainly get people's attention if he had something worthwhile to say.But during the questions, he sat when everyone else stood up to answer and project themselves.......he could very easily have dominated the room if he had chosen to do so, but he did'nt, and he threw away his natural advantage. Peter Lyburn needs to go away and find himself a proper job for ten years and he can see if he is still interested in all this in 10 years' time. It would be a travesty if he managed to win in Perth & North Perthshire. He is not ready to be an MP, and might never be.

Going by these hustings, you would say that this was a two horse race between the impressive and tenacious performer Pete Wishart, and the steady, measured Peter Barrett who was able to articulate a lot more clearly what he would actually do if elected. I got the distinct impression that Pete Wishart and Peter Lyburn were so enthralled in their own little battle that our own Peter is operating completely under their radar and will almost certainly do them both some damage on polling day, probably a lot more than they might be expecting.

There are three Peters in this race, no doubt.