Those of us politico-anoraks who have been trying to call the Lib Dem leadership election by the political equivalent of sticking a wet finger in the air can put away the divining rod, scrub out the scrying bowl and stick Mystic Meg on the number 83 bus home. For finally we have rejoined the world of science, with these cold hard numbers courtesy of Sky News and YouGov.

The result of the poll of 678 Lib Dem members was as follows:



Despite a 10PM news embargo, the numbers had leaked throughout the day thanks to a combination of a butterfingers moment from Iain Dale (he's right, the buttons are right next to each other) and the never-blinking electronic eye of Google Blogs Search.

All this of course sparked the inevitable reaction from wannabe City spivs and sharks Betfair punters, who had by midnight pushed Huhne out to 4/1 and tightened a Clegg win to 1/5.



Poor Iain will be anxiously waiting for the knock on his door tomorrow: "'Ello Mr. Dale - we're from the Gambling Commission..."