Jenny Williot's criticism of Libdem's campaign worse than DET on Plaid's?

Jenny Willott verdict on her party's General Election campaign has not received the same coverage as Dafydd Elis Thomas musing go Plaid's but its 

She said the Liberal Democrats' general election campaign was uninspiring and Nick Clegg was awful in the first leaders' debate, a former ministerial aide has said.

Jenny Willott, who lost her Cardiff Central seat in May, said she "hated" some campaign messages.

"I didn't find it inspiring and if I didn't find it inspiring then heaven knows who would."

Speaking on BBC Radio Wales, Ms Willott said the party was in a tough position, but will recover.

During the general election campaign, Mr Clegg said the Lib Dems would add heart to a Tory coalition and a brain to a Labour one.

Ms Willott told Sunday Supplement.

"Saying 'we're not as bad as them and we're not as bad as them' I absolutely hated that, I don't think you'll see any of it on my literature from the election,"
“The idea of giving one party a heart and the other a brain, and sort of saying we are not as bad as them, and we are not as bad as them, I absolutely hated that.

"I don’t think you’ll see any of it on my literature from the election, and I didn’t use it when I was talking.

“I didn’t find it inspiring, and if I didn’t find it inspiring, then heaven knows who would.
“We had a whole group of us watching the first debate, the first one with seven leaders on it, all the leaders had two minutes at the beginning and two minutes at the end to give their spiel.
“Nick Clegg did his spiel at the beginning and I thought ‘Oh God, that’s awful’.

“I was really worried about how he was going to perform. "Answering the questions, I thought he was excellent. He was full of inspiration and ideas, I agreed with everything he said. It was really positive.

“Then it came to the last three minute bit at the end again and it went back to the same messaging. It was just dreadful.
“It didn’t feel like a natural way for Nick to be talking or for any of us to be talking.
“We had a lot of really, really positive things to say about what we would do, what we had done, what we would do differently, really positive ideas about how we could make Wales and Britain a better place.

“It meant that wasn’t coming through at all. We were just getting a very negative message."

Compare this with Dafydd Elis-Thomas, a former assembly presiding officer, on Plaid campaign

Clearly the campaign did not seem to be focused on an argument about where Wales needs to be going in terms of powers and its future development, and it tended to concentrate mainly on drawing comparisons with Scotland.
"Scotland is another country, in all senses. It's politically different. The people of Wales understand that."

And he said he did not think it was "helpful" to insist Wales be treated like a nation that was "over resourced in comparative terms in the UK".
Lord Elis-Thomas said he was not sure his party had "learned the lessons of what it means to be operating in a government and a national assembly of its own".

He said it was "not about saying that our party has to be voted for because we're more Welsh than the others".

"All the parties that contest elections in the national assembly are obviously Welsh parties. They are part of the politics of Wales."
To argue otherwise was "arrogant and it's a bit sectarian", Lord Elis-Thomas added.

On paper DET's comments may be sen as mild  compared with Ms Wilotts on the LIbDem  but of course she is not now part of the team of the LibDem MPs whilst DET  it might be claimed should be providing an united front.

But perhaps both are really commenting on a campaign in which all the signs were that there would be a hung parliament and their party may be King makers.

If there;s any lesson to be learned it may be don't base your campaign on opinion polls.