Top punter Mike Smithson is tipping readers of his politicalbetting.com site to watch Brian Paddick in the London mayoral election. With the collapse of support for Ken Livingstone, he now thinks Brian is the only man who can save London from a Boris Johnson mayoralty. You can read Mike’s comments here. The Nick Cohen comments Mike refers to are on his site.

Liberty Director Shami Chakrabarti was the clear winner of our Liberal Voice 2007 poll, taking 101 votes (a third of all votes cast). Her only serious opposition was Radio 4’s The Now Show, who took the lead for the first day but came second with 72 votes (24%).

The other candidates were: John Bercow with 18 votes (6%), Samuel Brittain 15 (5%), Al Gore 30 (10%), Simon Jenkins 20 (7%), Philippe 10 Legrain (3%), Bob Marshall-Andrews 18 (6%) and Craig Murray 21 (7%).

It’s perhaps no clear surprise that Sharmi won, given the number of nominations we got for her to be one the shortlist. You can find the Liberty website here and Shami stars in the ‘Charge or Release’ campaign video at their MySpace page.

On that theme, our next poll asks how many days should be permitted under detention without charge.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, President Simon Hughes and Chief Executive Chris Rennard have announced a party reform commission to undertake a complete review of all the party’s functions.

Nick Clegg said, “the Party Reform Commission is critical in ensuring that we make the best electoral impact over the coming years. I am determined that this root and branch review should take us towards meeting my commitment of at least doubling our number of seats within two elections.”

Chris Bones, Principal of Henley Management College, has been picked to head the review. He is a former director of Cadbury Schweppes and an advisor on civil service reform. “Chris Bones is highly respected and has a proven track record in organisational change management,” Clegg said.

This sounds like a great opportunity to make real progress within the party and knowing Chris Bones, it will be a thorough process.

In a seperate development, the leader’s office have also announced Former Managing Director of Saatchi and Saatchi UK, John Sharkey, as the Leader’s Adviser on Strategic Communications.

Voting has topped the 100-ballot-mark in voting for Liberal Voice 2007 (see the sidebar to the right). Radio 4’s The Now Show stormed into an early lead, but is losing momentum as Shami Chakrabarti’s civil libertarian base gets motivated. There could still be time for the second-tier candidates yet, though. Make sure you vote… polls close this Saturday.

Doyenne of reactionaries and climate change sceptics, Jeremy Clarkson, decided to belittle the concerns of civil libertarians last year. Protesting at the clamour over the government’s loss of a HMRC CD of people’s personal details, he published his Barclay’s bank account details in the Sunday Times, asserting that readers would be able to do nothing but put money in.

Unfortunately, he forgot about direct debits. Mr. Clarkson has unknowingly become a £500-a-month donor to Diabetes UK. I hope he keeps it going.

In typically measured style, he now says:

Contrary to what I said at the time, we must go after the idiots who lost the discs and stick cocktail sticks in their eyes until they beg for mercy.

Should we begin a petition campaign asking Mr. C to make a monthly donation to Liberty or No2ID after his experience?

With the numbers crunched from the overnight caucus in Iowa, Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee have emerged to win their respective caucuses. Can Hillary still come back to win? How will Huckabee’s win impact the Republican race? The most active discussion of the ramifications is over at Mike Smithson’s Political Betting.

A Lib Dem councillor in Manchester has defected to the Conservative party, giving them their first representation on the council since 1996. Faraz Bhatti had been PPC for Stretford and Urmston in 2005.

The Lib Dem leader on Manchester City Council, Simon Ashley, has told the Manchester Evening News that the defection comes after Cllr. Bhatti’s bitterness in a selection matter. The paper credits former Lib Dem MEP Saj Karim with engineering the defection.

The Grauniad’s leader column is inspired by Nick Clegg’s New Year message to launch an eloquent polemic against ‘a pernicious piece of plastic’. They say:

Mr Brown previously let it be known that he saw big problems with Tony Blair’s pet ID card project. But when he moved into No 10, polls showing strong support for the scheme deterred an immediate change of course. That support has now slipped thanks to concern about lost data; it will slip further as the costs become stark. After a battering few months, Mr Brown must use the new year to define his government more sharply, making plain how it differs from what went before. He should ditch ID cards - and make a virtue of the change.

Hat tip: Paul Walter

You can sign the Liberal Democrats’ petition against ID cards and the national identity database here.

For the 45th time, we indulge in a round-up of the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (23rd-29th December), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed.

In the last full week of 2007, these were the best-read posts:

Read more »

A very merry Christmas from the Lib Dem Voice collective to all readers, contributors and comment-makers.

Christmas is a time of peace, joy, and the perfect opportunity to nominate your Liberal Voice of 2007. Suggestions so far include Mitch Benn, Simon Jenkins and Al Gore. Have your say this Christmas day.

Lib Dem Voice want to find out, and we’ll be running a New Year poll to find the liberal voice in British politics which has most inspired you in the last year. But as a little twist, we want to look outside the Liberal Democrat party – and find the greatest liberal who’s not a member of our party.

So, who would you pick? It could be a member of another party or one of the majority of Britons who belong to no party. It could even be someone who isn’t British themselves, but has had a big impact on liberalism in this country in 2007. And what should qualify as “a liberal”? The shortlisting panel, chaired by Cambridge MP and Lib Dem Shadow Solicitor General David Howarth, will be watching discussion and debates in the comments when deliberating.

Let us know your nominations in the comments - and feel free to start debating different candidates’ merits - and our panel will pick a shortlist for a poll in which readers can choose their Liberal Voice of 2007.

Satirist Craig Brown has been sharing his premonitions for 2008 with readers of the Telegraph. It turns out the second-half of the year will feature positive revelations on a major new pool of Liberal Democrat support:

Marine biologists who have spent years studying the click-and-whistle sounds made by dolphins have at last cracked the code, and can now reveal what these fascinating creatures are saying to one another… Scientists working on the project admit that, up until a few months ago, they had “no idea” that dolphins were such committed Liberal Democrats.

David Cameron has made a cheeky bid for warmer relations with the Liberal Democrats and the Green party, in a posting on his blog. Vince Cable has already snubbed this cheap publicity stunt. He says:

The Liberal Democrats will continue to work with other parties on issues where we have common ground and can work together in the national interest. However, this is not a serious proposal and David Cameron clearly lives in cloud cuckoo land.

As the 2008 Presidential election approaches, Lib Dem Voice is looking to expand its coverage of American politics and the coming contest.

We’re particular looking to offer analysis and insight from a Lib Dem perspective. For example, will “states rights” (i.e. decentralisation) always be seen as a Republican issue? We know which party is more “liberal” in U.S. language, but which is more liberal by our standards?

If you’re a Lib Dem member living in America and following the 2008 race, we’d like to hear from you about writing for LDVUSA, our new series looking at the race. Please drop me an e-mail at .

The latest issue of Lib Dem News featured an editorial column by the party’s Chief Executive, Chris Rennard, responding to comments he’d heard about the party needing to go “Beyond Rennard”. In doing so, Chris is himself kick-starting a debate about how our campaigning should evolve.

There have been a number of thoughtful responses on Lib Dem blogs where such a debate should lead us which are worth looking at:

The Canard of Rennard on James Graham’s Quaequam blog

Rennard’s Challenge on Andy Mayer’s blog

Beyond Rennard - Dangerous talk costs seats on Pete Dunphy’s Party Political PLC

We’re not going to throw the baby out with the bath water on Paul Walter’s Liberal Burblings

Beyond Rennardism: we need to win the battle of ideas, not just the fight for votes on Iain Sharpe’s Eaten by Missionaries blog.

Let me know if there’s any I missed!

In the next few weeks, we’re delighted to welcome both Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne to Lib Dem Voice as twice-weekly guest contributors. Both Nick and Chris will be given a blank page of 500 words (or multimedia we can handle!) to address party members reading this site.

The first contributions will be today, with regular doses every Tuesday and each weekend. Good luck to both candidates!

Welcome to the 35th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (14th-10th October), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed. And we are of course unexpectedly in the midst of a leadership campaign, which it’s fair to say virtually noone expected so soon! But without ado:

1. Shock candidate for Lib Dem leader on Jonathan Calder’s Liberal England
Pity those of you who clicked eagerly, unaware that the good Mr. Calder is apt to leg-pulling!
Read more »

Join the Lib Dems today to have a say in our next leader. You can sign on here!

The BBC report that the Liberal Democrats have reported the Labour party’s “robo-calling” electioneering to the Information Commissioner. The method - where automated calls ask voters to state their voting preference - may contravene regulations on unsolicited automated calling. In preparation for their botched snap election, Gordon Brown’s party had revived the system, which was controversial when used in 2005.

The Beeb quote our own Mark Pack:

The Lib Dems argue that unsolicited “information gathering” calls in which parties ask people if they would mind being sent more information, do contravene the EC directive.

Asked about the Lib Dems’ use of automated calls, spokesman Mark Pack told the BBC: “It’s not something we do. Our view is that it’s illegal.”

He said the information commissioner should be more assertive against Labour: “It is clear that they are making automated phone calls to people where they have not had specific prior consent from those individuals.”