The key themes: What do you think?

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

I’ve now seen four hustings in a six days, and will make that five tomorrow when I attend the Fabians/LabourList et al hustings in London.

I feel like I know the pitches of the candidates inside out already, and I’m sure that by the time we’re through fifty-odd I’ll find each instantly soporific.

But for the moment, I’m still fascinated to watch the candidates develop. Each will continue to grow over the next three months, and that can only be good for the party and the eventual shadow cabinet.

I have my own views on who I think should be Labour leader, of course I do. But I won’t air them here, at least not yet. What I will say is that each of the candidates has impressed me at different times and for different reasons so far.

Diane Abbott has been popular in each of the hustings I’ve seen. She’s passionate and her presentation as the insurgent outsider enables her to say things the other candidates can’t. David Miliband is always impressive: he’s statesmanlike, direct and his ideas for party involvement are exciting if they can be sustained. Ed Miliband is coming into his own now too. When he is himself, and loose, he can be easily the most inspiring of the five candidates. Andy Bunham’s populist rhetoric is impassioned and framed in a style that is closest to the prism through which I see my own politics: that your background and the school you went to and the family you come from should never be the cause of a barrier to success, but too often are. Ed Balls was very good on education in particular at Compass yesterday. He, too, is starting to find a voice that suits him, liberated now from the defensive position of government.

I’d be interested to hear others’ thoughts in the comments.

In case you missed this morning’s hustings, here’s each of the candidate’s closing statements, which encompass the broad themes of each of the campaigns, cut kindly by Labour Matters: