The Liberal Democrats have held their leadership hustings in Edinburgh as the party seeks a replacement for Sir Menzies Campbell.

Leadership candidates Nick Clegg, MP for Sheffield Hallam, and Chris Huhne, MP for Eastleigh, near Southampton, addressed Scottish party activists and elected officials at a small gathering at the University of Edinburgh’s New College General Assembly Hall on Saturday 10 November.

Widely regarded as the frontrunner, Mr Clegg emphasised the importance of the current leadership race, the second in as many years. He told assembled party members: “The country is watching. We haven’t had a good time of it recently.”

Sir Menzies resigned on 15 October in what was considered by many to be a coup against a leader whose age, coupled with poor results in recent opinion polls, had led many Lib Dems to question his ability to lead the party through the next election.

At the time of Sir Campbell’s departure, the Liberal Democrats’ support nationally stood at just 14 per cent, the lowest approval the party had experienced for several years.

Addressing the assembled delegates, Mr Clegg said the new Lib Dem leader should “showcase a different brand of politics,” calling for an end to the current “clapped-out, two party system.”

Presenting a platform of Five Challenges for Britain, Mr Clegg called for action to tackle political powerlessness, social inequality, fear of crime, environmental degradation and the threat posed by globalisation.

The younger of the two candidates, 40-year-old Mr Clegg attacked the present Labour government on its social policy, accusing the Prime Minister of dealing with profound social problems by “fiddling with tax policies and chasing tabloid headlines.”

Citing the example of a constituent who had received separate messages from her local council on the same day stating that she had been accepted and declined for social housing, Mr Clegg said: “You just don’t treat people that way.”

He added: “People are looking for a government with a sense of conviction that they know is listening."

53-year-old Mr Huhne also came out on the attack, accusing both major parties of practising “crass, callow and conservative politics,” stating that both had “given up on big ideas and radical solutions.”

Gordon Brown, he said, was the “patron saint of tax accountants;” laying responsibility for the Northern Rock crisis at the Prime Minister’s door, Mr Huhne added that Downing Street had lent £1000 to the troubled bank on behalf of each tax payer, without demanding the resignation of its management team.

Linking the approaching Remembrance Day commemorations to Labour security and anti-terrorism measures, Mr Huhne condemned the government’s record on human rights, claiming that those who had died in the service of their country had chosen to defend “their liberties over their lives – while this government would have you choose your lives over your liberties.”

Calling for militancy amongst party members, Huhne insisted: “We are different. You must oppose the things you think are wrong. This country does not need another conservative party, it needs a radical party.

“Now is the time for a grassroots crusade of liberals.”

Introducing the pair of contenders, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Nicol Stephen highlighted recent gains for the party north of the border, citing by-election victories in Helensborough and Dundee.

The Scottish leader also drew attention to the event’s historic setting. The New College General Assembly Hall housed the Scottish parliament prior to the completion of its current home at Holyrood.