The US Air Force may not seem the obvious place to go for advice on this, but they do seem to take online communication seriously and are an organisation whose activities, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, are frequently talked about online.
Being also rather a large bureaucracy, they’ve created a flowchart to help decide how to [...]

Today’s Observer brings us the story of how the NHS is spending money on getting celebrities to take part in health information campaigns but insisting on keeping the details secret in case it puts people off:
The Department of Health, which increasingly uses actors, singers, television stars and sports personalities to convince the nation to adopt [...]

Based on the amount of traffic they’ve passed on to www.libdems.org.uk during 2008, the top five blogs were (with changes in brackets from last year’s top five):

Liberal Democrat Voice (no change)
Iain Dale (no change)
Lynne Featherstone (+1)
Liberal England (+1)
Jo Christie-Smith (NEW)

Iain will, I’m sure, be flattered as ever to know he is so nice to the [...]

Nick Clegg on Radio 4’s Today this morning:
Mr Clegg said that his party would “rebalance” the tax system so that the country comes out of the recession “in a fairer state than we went into it” … Later Mr Clegg said that the EU should reconsider its trade arrangements with Israel over the bombing attacks [...]

The Conservative peer Lord Laidlaw was criticised by the Lords Appointments Commission last year for failing to keep his promise to stop being a tax exile if he was appointed to the House of Lords:
The commission said it had informed the prime minister of Lord Laidlaw’s situation and said it would not have approved his [...]

Based on the amount of traffic they’ve passed on to www.libdems.org.uk in 2008, the top five local Liberal Democrat sites (excluding blogs) were (with changes in brackets from last year’s top five):

stevebeasant.mycouncillor.org.uk (NEW)
vincentcable.org.uk (+2)
brentlibdems.org.uk (-2)
henleylibdems.org.uk (NEW)
gloucester-libdems.co.uk (NEW)

Steve’s new entry at the top of the list is very impressive, particularly as his site is based on [...]

It’s pretty common for people to use the “remember my password” option in web browsers such as Firefox. But do you realise just how easy it is for someone else to then see all your passwords?
In Firefox go to Tools / Options / Security, then click on Saved Passwords and then on Show Passwords. Bingo [...]

Nick Clegg calls for suspension of EU/Israel agreement: “Innocent people are being killed and injured by a military operation that will only serve to further inflame extremism, and weaken the moderate Palestinian and Arab opinion which Israel’s long term security depends on.”
Vince Cable criticises knighthood for Treasury chief: “I would have thought it a rather [...]

I only wonder but … the job of being a local council Chief Executive involves being responsible for far more staff, far bigger budgets and (much though I think my colleagues in our media team are important) far more important issues than heading up a media.
The awful fallout if a council bungles its Children’s Services [...]

Ah, the glories of the internet: try out this site and pop your cares away.

What else can one make of this? Eric Pickles has been in the media today calling for pay cuts for the most highly paid local council chief executives. But what’s this at the foot of the report about Eric Pickles and his proposals The Times? It’s a list of the eight highest paid local council [...]

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire:
When it comes to social media, Facebook is pretty much it as far as MPs go. For example, of the Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet members, 100% have a public email address, 90% have a website (the exceptions being in the House of Lords), 72% are on Facebook, 7% blog (and for [...]

An interesting little question and answer from the London Assembly:
Q. What has been the cost to the taxpayer of TfL [Transport for London] buying ownership of the Oyster brand? (Caroline Pidgeon)
A. Under the terms of the recent agreement between TfL, Electronic Data Systems and Cubic Transportation Systems TfL agreed to treat this information as being [...]

OK, the list of memos from 1971 that you were thinking about reading may not be that long … but this one is worth a read.
Now that the Democrats are back in control of both houses of Congress and with Barack Obama about to formally take office as President of the United States, it may [...]

You can watch it here:
There’s also a transcript on the party website.
Before you click away, here are three quick things you can do to help the film reach a wider audience:
1. Give it a rating on YouTube (free account required; you can register straight away online for one)
2. Digg it (free account required; you can [...]

You may think that this was just another political YouTube film, this one happening to feature Nick Clegg talking about ID cards.
But watch carefully 30 seconds in for the man entering stage left with a piece of string and a banana, eaten. Ten months on, I still have no idea why he would have been [...]

Shortly before Christmas, Cllr Maureen Hill switched from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats. She represents Weston ward on Northamptonshire County Council, and said:
I think it’s been a natural progression for me. I’ve found myself so much at odds with the policy of the administration I don’t feel I could possibly support any further budget [...]

Some good ideas here.

Yes, it’s the Parliamentary Beard of the Year award from the Beard Liberation Front (aka Keith Flett). If you doubt just how prestigious this award is, turn to today’s Sunday Times where the award basks in its national media coverage:
John Thurso, the Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, has been awarded the title of best parliamentary [...]

From today’s News of the World:

TORY women officials reject pretty female applicants who ask to become MPs — in case they steal their husbands.
And male chiefs block them because they fear they will use party funds to buy designer dresses.
Tories confessed when quizzed by pollsters Ipsos-MORI. Their report said: “Female party officials don’t particularly want [...]