The young guns of all three political parties will dominate the political landscape for years to come

With Nick Clegg now leading the betting in the Lib Dem leadership contest, the era of the Adrian Mole generation has truly arrived.

Loyal readers of the New Statesman will, perhaps, remember an article I wrote two years ago pointing out that several of the rising stars of the Labour Party were exactly the same age as Sue Townsend's diarist. I have always been rather pleased with this piece of political whimsy. But now the generation represented by Clegg, David Miliband and King Mole, David Cameron really is beginning to dominate political life in Britain.

The Moles, like Adrian himself, had their politics forged in the sectarian politics of the 1980s. Their university years -- Oxbridge of course -- were bracketed by the miners' strike and the fall of the Berlin Wall. The economic recession that followed made them cautious and socially conventional.

Whatever happens in the next few years. One way or another we will have Adrian Mole as Prime Minister.

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