You can see the full list over at Iain Dale’s blog, but here’s the top 10:

1. Liberal Democrat Voice
2. People’s Republic of Mortimer (Alix Mortimer)
3. Norfolk Blogger (Nich Starling)
4. Quaequam Blog! (James Graham)
5. Liberal England (Jonathan Calder)
6. Lynne Featherstone MP
7. Millennium Dome, Elephant
8. Peter Black AM
9. Love & Liberty (Alex Wilcock)
10. Liberal Burblings (Paul Walter)

Thanks to those who voted for LDV, and congratulations to all the blogs who made the list. And for those who didn’t, remember: it’s just a list.

Some interesting analysis of the Democrats’ Denver Convention to anoint Senator Barack Obama as their presidential nominee over at the Electoral Vote website:

The traditional media seem to have picked up on … [a] theme that the Democrats are letting McCain off easy. Long-time Clinton insider James Carville has been all over TV saying that the Democrats have let slip a golden opportunity to pummel McCain. Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA) compared Obama to Adlai Stevenson, another cerebral Illinoisian, saying that both of them liked to give long thoughtful answers to complex questions, when soundbites would be more effective. Sen. Chuck Schumer(D-NY) said the Democrats should throw more rabbit punches. Indeed, the keynote speaker, Mark Warner, emphasized bipartisanship and working with the Republicans to solve the country’s problems. Of course, Warner is running for the Senate in a fairly red state, so he has his own reasons for making nice to the Republicans, but it is still odd for a keynote speaker not to throw any red meat to the party’s activists.

In contrast, the McCain campaign was in full-bore attack mode. Not a word about bipartisanship. It was running ads attacking Obama as too young to lead and bellowing that he is too weak to be commander in chief. To a considerable extent, this looks like a rerun of 2004, with polite Democrats and fighting Republicans. When asked, the voters say over and over that they can’t stomach these negative ads, but as Lee Atwater discovered a long time ago, they are immensely effective. Some of the convention speakers last night mocked the fact that McCain couldn’t remember how many houses he had, but the suggestion was that he had too many houses. If the shoe had been on the other foot with an elderly Democrat vs. a young Republican, the Republicans would have harped on the memory loss aspect (if he can’t even remember how many houses he has, how can he remember what happened in the last cabinet meeting?). Democrats don’t like that kind of personal attack. It is just not in their blood.

Three questions to ponder, then:

1. Are the Democrats too nice/squeamish/pussyfooting to really lay into a political opponent who, while dubbed a maverick, holds pretty traditional Republican views?
2. Is the UK different from the USA? Does negative advertising, at least as understood in the States, exist already over here – and, if it does, does it work?

The Times, BBC and Telegraph all have reports and you can read the full report for the UK here; and for Scotland here.

The six main recommendations of the Commission are as follows:

1. establish Electoral Management Boards in Great Britain, including all Returning Officers and Electoral Registration Officers for each area
2. provide the chairs of Electoral Management Boards in Great Britain with statutory powers to direct Returning Officers and Electoral Registration Officers
3. develop the Electoral Commission’s role in driving and monitoring performance improvements for electoral administration in Scotland
4. consolidate and simplify the legal framework for electoral administration in the UK
5. take steps to address structural causes of funding shortfalls for electoral administration in Great Britain
6. consider the potential for and implications of a coordinated electoral registration service across the UK

I won’t pretend to have absorbed the full implications of these – so don’t know if they’re to be generally applauded, or not – but I was struck by one sentence in the report which seemed a welcome piece of common-sense:

We do not believe, however, that there is currently a compelling case for removing responsibilities for the administration of elections and electoral registration from local authority control and re-configuring them under a single officer or body in Great Britain.

All too often the temptation of such reports is to recommend disparate local bodies be replaced by a new, larger, remote, more expensive government agency with vast IT and infrastructure needs which lead to massive cost over-runs. At least the Electoral Commission has resisted the pressure for that, on this occasion.

For the last month, Liberal Democrat Voice has been asking our readers what you think of Senator Barack Obama, the Democrats’ hope for the White House.

Slightly to my surprise, you take a pretty sceptical line, with 44% of you viewing him either as a cynical opportunist, or someone who will disappoint more than he inspires. A little over half, 56% of you, have a more benign/positive outlook on his candidacy. Perhaps LDV readers are more likely than most to subscribe to the view that Senator Obama is a little too Blair-like (or – worse still? – too Cameron-like) for our tastes.

Here’s the full results breakdown…

We asked: Which of the following statements comes closest to your view of Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic US presidential nominee?

You said:
• He’s a liberal progressive who will restore pride to the US presidency -127 (24%)
• He’s a moderate pragmatist who will stick to the populist centre ground – 170 (32%)
• He’s an impressive communicator with few beliefs who will disappoint more than he inspires – 135 (25%)
• He’s a cynical opportunist who has dazzled the media by virtue of who he is, not what he stands for – 103 (19%)
Total Votes: 535. Poll ran: 28th July to 26th August, 2008

Having arrived back at work this morning with a dull judder, I toyed with asking, plaintively, the question: does the UK need more bank holidays? (At 8 annual public holidays, England and Wales enjoy the fewest in Europe, except for the Netherlands: for the record, Scotland gets nine, and Northern Ireland 10). But I thought that might come across a bit grumpy, so instead…

To celebrate the countdown to the Lib Dem party conference – yes, there are just 18 days to go, and, yes, you really should have booked your hotel by now – LDV is asking readers to say what they think is the main point of it in the first bally place. I mean, really, why do a few thousand relatively sane folk fork out a small fortune each year to stay in drab seaside B&Bs and obsess about politics for a few days?

Well, you tell us: what is the main point of the Lib Dem party conference? Here are your options (and here I acknowledge my debt to Alix Mortimer, LDV’s intellectual guru, for the suggestions):

* To allow members to play an active role in formulating party policy
* To socialise and network with like-minded souls
* To remind ourselves of the importance of the principles we all hold in common
* To attend numerous speaker/debate/training fringe events (especially those with the best food)
* None. It’s pointless.

Over to you to continue the discussion…

(And, to cheer you up, let me remind you there are only 86 more working days until the next British public holiday, 25th December).

‘Tis the season for lists… All this week we’ve published the top 100 posts by Lib Dem bloggers, in descending order of popularity, for the last year - August 2007 to July 2008, inclusive, according to click-throughs from the Aggregator.

(Profuse thanks to techno-wizard and stat-monkey Ryan Cullen, who runs the Aggregator, for compiling this table.)

And now, at last, we come to this year’s Top 10:

1. That day again (Peter Black)
2. Grasping at straws (Peter Black)
3. EXCLUSIVE: Liberal Democrats to drop “Democrats” (Gavin Whenman)
4. Sajjad Karim defects to Tories (Lib Dem Voice)
5. Team Clegg: in full scale meltdown? (Quaequam Blog!)
6. Is Sajjid Karim as big a scumbag as he is being made out to … (Norfolk Blogger)
7. Final update: Blog reaction to Nick Clegg’s speech on public services (Paul Walter)
8. The verdict on Huhne and Clegg’s fuzzy polls (Quaequam Blog!)
9. That Cowardly Norfolk Blogger Tantrum In Full (Love and Liberty)
10. Lib Dem leadership update (Steve Webb)

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Ton (Nos. 81-100)
Top of the Blogs: The Golden Ton (Nos. 61-80)
Top of the Blogs: The Golden Ton (Nos. 41-60)
Top of the Blogs: The Golden Ton (Nos. 21-40)
Top of the Blogs: The Golden Ton (Nos. 11-20)

With thanks to all Lib Dem bloggers for making the last year such a memorable one – now don’t forget to go and nominate your faves for this year’s Blog of the Year awards.

‘Tis the season for lists… All this week we are publishing the top 100 posts by Lib Dem bloggers, in descending order of popularity, for the last year - August 2007 to July 2008, inclusive, according to click-throughs from the Aggregator.

(Profuse thanks to techno-wizard and stat-monkey Ryan Cullen, who runs the Aggregator, for compiling this table.)

In today’s fifth instalment we run through 11-20:

11. Take it down, Chris (UPDATE) (Quaequam Blog!)
12. Nick Clegg up close (Paul Walter)
13. A new banner for Team Huhne (Norfolk Blogger)
14. Shock candidate for Lib Dem leader (Liberal England)
15. The canard of Rennard (Quaequam Blog!)
16. EXCLUSIVE: London LibDem Leadership Hustings Report and my Voting Intentions (The Whiskey Priest)
17. Huhne’s campaign turns negative (Anders Hanson)
18. Don’t help the campaign in Crewe and Nantwich (A Radical Writes)
19. Huhne - I’m happy to jump into bed with Cameron (Lindyloo’s Muze)
20. The final Liberal Democrats Leadership Hustings, and a decis… (Colin Ross)

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Ton (Nos. 81-100)
Top of the Blogs: The Golden Ton (Nos. 61-80)
Top of the Blogs: The Golden Ton (Nos. 41-60)
Top of the Blogs: The Golden Ton (Nos. 21-40)

Tomorrow: the top 10!

‘Tis the season for lists… All this week we are publishing the top 100 posts by Lib Dem bloggers, in descending order of popularity, for the last year - August 2007 to July 2008, inclusive, according to click-throughs from the Aggregator.

(Profuse thanks to techno-wizard and stat-monkey Ryan Cullen, who runs the Aggregator, for compiling this table.)

In today’s fourth instalment we run through 21-40:

21. Nick, time for a small reshuffle? (Cromwell Country)
22. Sunday Telegraph alleges clash between Nick Clegg and Chris Rennard (Liberal England)
23. Cleggs Oft Used Phrase: A Clanger (Gavin Whenman)
24. The Times asks: Is Nick Clegg that good? (Paul Walter)
25. Huhne lost the election today… (I Am Against This Sort Of Thing – now deleted)
26. Nick Clegg: Its beat up an activist day! (Quaequam Blog!)
27. American View of the Clegg-Huhne Hustings (Antony Hook)
28. Karim defection a blow for Nick Clegg? (Jock Coats)
29. Karim defection (Paula Keaveaney)
30. Farewell (Mat Davies)
31. Is Hannah Gardiner leaving Cowley Street? (Jo’s Jottings)
32. So Saj Karim MEP is off (The Yorkshire Guidon)
33. Clegg or Huhne? Quaequam Blog! comes off the fence (Quaequam Blog!)
34. Made my mind up (Ryan Cullen)
35. Ming’s Lists (Pete Dunphy)
36. Mysterious big cash bets piling onto Huhne in last 24 hours (Pete Dunphy)
37. That Huhne dossier in full (Liberal England)
38. Ming told me before Conference he was going to resign (Jeremy Hargreaves)
39. The Messiah has arrived! (Paul Walter)
40. A Vote For Chris (featuring Chris’ answer to a nasty quest… (Love and Liberty)

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Ton (Nos. 81-100)
Top of the Blogs: The Golden Ton (Nos. 61-80)
Top of the Blogs: The Golden Ton (Nos. 41-60)

Tomorrow: 11-20!

‘Tis the season for lists… All this week we are publishing the top 100 posts by Lib Dem bloggers, in descending order of popularity, for the last year - August 2007 to July 2008, inclusive, according to click-throughs from the Aggregator.

(Profuse thanks to techno-wizard and stat-monkey Ryan Cullen, who runs the Aggregator, for compiling this table.)

In today’s third instalment we run through 41-60:

41. Tory compares Boris to Mussolini (Peter Black)
42. Mail on Sunday sleazy journalist Clegg funding scandal complete nonsense (Pete Dunphy)
43. Just how low will Huhne’s supporters go ? (Norfolk Blogger)
44. Clegg should take inspiration from Summerhill School (Jo’s Jottings)
45. BBC website reveals a breakthrough for the Lib Dems (Norfolk Blogger)
46. Fascinating snippet about Saj Karim (Paul Walter)
47. Huhne is “campaigning like a rabbit on crack”
48. Not candidates but leaders: The London leadership hustings (Liberal Polemic)
49. Can Clegg raise his game? (Eaten By Missionaries)
50. The morning after the lunch-time before (Lib Dem Voice)
51. Conservative candidate calls Lib Dem’s death “useful” (Lib Dem Voice)
52. A rush of common sense to the head from Alex Wilcock (The People’s Republic of Mortimer)
53. Has Team Huhne gone into hiding? (Lindyloo’s Muze)
54. ‘Where is everybody?’ They’re all in Henley, Boris! (Helen Duffett)
55. Opinion: Calamity, Conspiracy & Clegg (Lib Dem Voice)
56. I’m actually very sorry, but I did say it would happen (Norfolk Blogger)
57. Clegg Huhne animosity? (Cowley Street Blog – now deleted)
58. Clegg wins BBC Five Live Speed Dating (David Nikel)
59. Huhne’s Trident Policy Collapses (Jeremy Hargreaves)
60. EXCLUSIVE: The shortlist for the next leader of the Liberal Democrats (Quaequam Blog!)

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Ton (Nos. 81-100)
Top of the Blogs: The Golden Ton (Nos. 61-80)

Tomorrow: 21-40!

‘Tis the season for lists… All this week we are publishing the top 100 posts by Lib Dem bloggers, in descending order of popularity, for the last year - August 2007 to July 2008, inclusive, according to click-throughs from the Aggregator.

(Profuse thanks to techno-wizard and stat-monkey Ryan Cullen, who runs the Aggregator, for compiling this table.)

In today’s second instalment we run through 61-80:

61. An odd sequence of events (Peter Black)
62. Updated: Which MPs were in the pub during the abortion vote? (Jo’s Jottings)
63. BBC Shamefully Undervalues Importance of MEPs! (Love and Liberty)
64. Nick Clegg - potentially a great leader of our party (Paul Walter)
65. The public’s comments on last night’s Question Time (Paul Walter)
66. Clegg on school vouchers - the evidence (Jo Hayes)
67. The Paddick Diary (Peter Black)
68. I have voted and not for the obvious choice (Colin Ross)
69. Newsnight leadership hustings: open thread (Lib Dem Voice)
70. Crewe & Nantwich - an utter disaster? (Fine Words Butter No Parsnips – now deleted)
71. Cobblers about the Crewe and Nantwich selection (Paul Walter)
72. London hustings: my verdict (A Posh-Sounding Northumbrian)
73. Huhne wipes the floor with Clegg on Newsnight (Paul Walter)
74. Calamity Clegg? (Liberal Polemic)
75. My 8 wishes for 2008 (Jo’s Jottings)
76. Live Blog - leadership announcement (Paul Walter)
77. A Vote For Nick (featuring Nick’s ‘EXCLUSIVE’ answer t… (Love and Liberty)
78. Incumbents score 100n euro selections (Duncan Borrowman)
79. If the Richmond Formula showed a 12% lead in an election, you’d be over the moon (Norfolk Blogger)
80. Late surge to Chris Huhne! (Paul Walter)

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Ton (Nos. 81-100)

Tomorrow: 41-60!

‘Tis the season for lists… All this week we are publishing the top 100 posts by Lib Dem bloggers, in descending order of popularity, for the last year - August 2007 to July 2008, inclusive, according to click-throughs from the Aggregator.

(Profuse thanks to techno-wizard and stat-monkey Ryan Cullen, who runs the Aggregator, for compiling this table.)

In today’s first instalment we run through 81-100:

81. EXCLUSIVE : Labour MP in shock announcement (Norfolk Blogger)
82. Nick was great on QT! (Liberal Revolution)
83. Want BNP? Vote Labour (Love and Liberty)
84. Nick Clegg: an apology (Anders Hanson)
85. Nick Clegg, what have you sacrificed? (Liberal England)
86. (come to think of it, actually, a bit) EXCLUSIVE: Nick Clegg talks to Quaequam Blog! (Quaequam Blog!)
87. Cleggheads and Huhnistas: what are they like? (The People’s Republic of Mortimer)
88. Lib Dem Euro selection results (Liberal England)
89. The Lib Dem B Team (UPDATE) (Quaequam Blog!)
90. Huhne apology and withdrawal (I Am Against This Sort Of Thing – now deleted)
91. Doubts About Clegg (Charlotte Gore)
92. Retraction (Ballots, Balls and Bikes)
93. 55 more party members back Clegg… (Jeremy Hargreaves)
94. I’ve changed my mind (5Tracks)
95. Kramer and Heath walk out of Lib Dem shadow cabinet meeting (UPDATED) (Lib Dem Voice)
96. How the Lib Dem leadership contest almost turned into a bloo… (Liberal England)
97. Team Huhne in denial? (Cowley Street Blog – now deleted)
98. Cowley St Xmas Party - exclusive photos! (Jonathan Wallace)
99. Mr Smug, Mr Smarm and my naked ballot paper (And Then He Said)
100. Was YouGov’s leadership poll “technically flawed”? (Lib Dem Voice)

Tomorrow: Nos. 61-80!

The Guardian’s senior political commentator examines the party’s fortunes in today’s online political briefing. It makes interesting reading:

Nick Clegg has issued a reader-friendly pre-conference document, Make It Happen, which will be discussed at his party conference in Bournemouth from September 13-17. If endorsed, it will mark the first Lib Dem shift towards a lower overall tax burden for many years. It will not be straightforward.

But who is listening at a time when the government’s troubles seem terminal, when the resurgent Conservatives, around 20% ahead of Labour in polls, look set to sweep all before them without a hung parliament scenario? … Clegg remains optimistic that his party can hold most of the gains - local and national - it accumulated during the Ashdown-Kennedy years, offsetting southern losses to the Tories with “low-hanging fruit” - Labour marginals captured elsewhere.

And it seems Mr White is an occasional LDV reader:

An activist poll by Lib Dem Voice finds two in three satisfied with his leadership.

(Though it’s only fair to note that the right-wing Spectator Coffee House blog has also noticed today’s survey findings:

today there’s another poll which will dismay Team Clegg. Lib Dem Voice asked party members to rate the performances of the Lib Dem front-bench team during August. Clegg came out a disappointing fourth; behind Vince Cable, Norman Baker, and - perhaps most significantly - his former rival for the party leadership, Chris Huhne. But we haven’t yet heard of any movements against Clegg from within the Lib Dem ranks. I wonder whether that will change soon.”)

For those who are surprised that Norman Baker should have come third in our poll of most-rated Lib Dem shadow cabinet members, much of Stormin’ Norm’s popularity is the result of his championing of causes just like this:

A collection of 22 cross party MPs are launching a campaign to end the tradition of swearing allegiance to the Queen when entering parliament. Led by Liberal Democrat Norman Baker, the MPs are calling for the choice to swear an oath to their constituents and the nation instead.

“This is a matter of democracy,” said Mr Baker. “I’m put here by my constituents and it’s to them I owe my allegiance. Taking the oath to an unelected person is a nonsense.”

For those who want to enjoy the foaming-at-the-mouth fulminations of the Daily Mail and Sun you can click here and here.

My favourite knee-jerk idoticism is Lord Tebbit’s: “They’d rather swear allegiance to Brussels.”

The Scotsman reports that the Lib Dems are going to come to the rescue of the SNP to ensure that the council tax is replaced by a local income tax in Scotland:

SNP ministers are prepared to do a deal with the Liberal Democrats which could see every council in Scotland set its own income tax rate, it emerged yesterday. The Scottish Government wants to introduce a nationally-set local income tax of 3p in the pound to replace the council tax, but its proposals have come in for heavy and sustained criticism since their publication earlier this year.

Business groups, councils, some unions, student groups and opposition politicians have all railed against the proposals, championed by John Swinney, the finance secretary, claiming that they will not raise enough money and will damage the economy. However, it is now understood that ministers are prepared to change their plans to secure the parliamentary backing they need.

As the SNP is running the Scottish Government as a minority administration, it needs the support of one of the other main parties to get its plans through. The Lib Dems support the principle of a local income tax, but are adamant that it must be set locally, by individual councils, rather than by the Scottish Government at 3p in the pound.

All three contenders for the leadership of the Scottish Lib Dems confirmed yesterday that this remained their position, and all insisted that they would not compromise on the principle of a “local” income tax. …

And in case you were wondering how this story might relate to yesterday’s suggestions that Vince Cable is looking to reform the Lib Desm’ policy on council tax in England, the Scotsman explains:

… even if Mr Cable did manage to change party policy in England, it would not alter the position of the party in Scotland.

All this week, Lib Dem Voice has been publishing the results of our first ever survey of party members. Some 133 of you accessed the survey via our private members’ forum. We don’t pretend it’s a representative sample, but that doesn’t mean it’s without value either. We hope you, LDV’s readers, find it interesting. Perhaps the wider party will, too. This is the first in what we intend to be a monthly survey – if you have ideas for future survey questions, please email me at .

The final question asked members to rate out of 10 the current performance of the Lib Dem shadow cabinet members. Here’s how you scored them, in descending order:

1. Vince Cable, Deputy Leader and Shadow Chancellor = 8.8
2. Chris Huhne, Shadow Home Secretary, and Shadow Secretary for Justice = 6.6
3. Norman Baker, Shadow Secretary of State for Transport = 6.4
4. Nick Clegg, Leader = 6.3
5. Lynne Featherstone, Spokesperson for Youth and Equality = 6.2
6. Steve Webb, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Energy, Food and Rural Affairs = 6.1
7. David Laws, Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families = 5.8
8. Julia Goldsworthy, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government = 5.7
9. Edward Davey, Shadow Foreign Secretary, and Chair of Campaigns and Communications = 5.7
10. Norman Lamb, Shadow Health Secretary = 5.7
11. Simon Hughes, Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, and Party President = 5.5
12. Lord Tom McNally, Lib Dem Leader in the House of Lords = 5.4
13. Susan Kramer, Families Spokesperson, Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster = 5.4
Jeremy Browne, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury = 5.4
14. Jenny Willott, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions = 5.2
15. Danny Alexander, Chair of the Manifesto Group = 5.0
16. Don Foster, Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, and Olympics = 5.0
17. Sarah Teather, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform = 4.9
18. Nick Harvey, Shadow Defence Secretary = 4.7
19. Michael Moore, Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, and Shadow Secretary for Scotland and Northern Ireland = 4.7
20. Roger Williams, Shadow Secretary of State for Wales = 4.6
21. Stephen Williams, Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills = 4.6
22. Lembit Opik, Shadow Minister for Housing = 3.5

LDV members’ survey, August 2008 (1): the Lib Dems and by-elections
LDV members’ survey, August 2008 (2): what you think of Make it Happen’s tax-cutting agenda
LDV members’ survey, August 2008 (3): what do you think of Nick Clegg’s leadership?
LDV members’ survey, August 2008 (4): are the Lib Dems on the right or wrong track?

The Guardian publishes today what appears to be a well-briefed article suggesting the Lib Dems are thinking of deferring plans to scrap Council Tax in favour of a local income tax:

Liberal Democrats are planning to soften their support for a local income tax to replace the council tax, a key policy for at least three elections. Instead they are expected to propose reforms to adapt the council tax.

Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman, is backing the shift in stance. He believes the party should not look to introduce, or press any coalition partners to introduce, a local income tax for at least one parliament. The shift would make the proposal a medium-term goal and serve to lift media focus on the uncertain implications for individual taxpayers during an election campaign.

The local income tax plan, defended on the basis that it is fairer than council tax, has often left the party exposed at election times.

This would certainly be a significant move – Axe the Tax has been a signature campaign for Lib Dems up and down the country for years, insulating local council groups against the unpopularity of council tax rises, and striking a chord with many voters with its easy appeal that such taxes should be based on ability to pay.

It does, of course, have its internal critics. Sue Doughty, former Lib Dem MP (and current PPC) for Guildford, went on the record to blame the policy for her defeat in the 2005 general election. And of course the Land Value Taxers in the party have never been reconciled to the concept of a Local Income Tax.

If the Guardian report is true, it marks a third shift in Lib Dem thinking in recent months, alongside the commitment to cut the overall tax burden for the low-paid and middle classes, and the likely reforms of the party’s commitment to oppose tuition fees. Of course, a political party’s thinking can’t stand still, and it’s certainly arguable that the Lib Dems’ policy development stagnated during the ‘easy years’ post-Iraq and when the Tories were in the doldrums.

But will party members view these shifts as long overdue; or camel back-breaking straws?

UPDATE (11.20am): Vince has issued the following statement:

The Liberal Democrats remain committed to scrapping the unfair Council Tax and we remain committed to introducing a Local Income Tax, based on the ability to pay and this will be a manifesto commitment. I will be working with my colleagues on how these policies can be implemented most effectively.”

All this week, Lib Dem Voice is publishing the results of our first ever survey of party members. Some 133 of you accessed the survey via our private members’ forum. We don’t pretend it’s a representative sample, but that doesn’t mean it’s without value either. We hope you, LDV’s readers, find it interesting. Perhaps the wider party will, too. This is the first in what we intend to be a monthly survey – if you have ideas for future survey questions, please email me at .

The fourth question asked about the current direction of the party.

LDV asked: Do you think, as a whole, the Liberal Democrats are on the right course or on the wrong track?

The right course 55%
The wrong track 30%
Don’t know/No opinion 14%

Here are a selection of your comments:

• The narrative is getting better, the policies need to show that narrative is, counter-intuitively for many, progressive
• Campaigning on tax cuts is all well and good - but it isn’t consistent with spokesman making spending commitments. It may also help the Tories as this is a core issue for then where they will get “brand reinforcement”
• Sense that there is a tacking to the right and feel that this will not draw on the many people who are currently disillusioned with Labour but are not ready to join the Tories.
• We’ve got the best policies in a lot of areas, but we’re failing to communicate them effectively. The Tories are a policy-free PR machine, and people are being fooled. We should stick to our guns on tax, the environment, public funding of further education, and so on.
• It’s a mixed bag. Some things (like the recent knife crime announcement) are in the wrong direction, others (like the tax cuts) in the right.
• Despite my reservations we do have positive factors going for us IF we avoid the trap of becoming starry-eyed market worshippers and make our brand image the defence of freedoms.
• A bit of both - policy-wise, it’s working, results-wise, it’s not, and that’s the deciding factor.
• Mildly drifting the right direction. We need some signature campaigns.
• The trouble is that we don’t seem to be on any track, we just have a bunch of policies that may well all be sound individually but don’t add up to a cohesive narrative, and that’s what we need. Fighting the other two parties on policies is suicidal for us, because the only time we can hope to get ours heard is straight after the other two have already had a turn, by which time no one is listening.
• but we need to up our game. In Scotland we should be more cooperative with the SNP to make things happen for Scots rather than playing silly games
• We haven’t accepted its going to be impossible to get from 60 seats to 150 until we deal with the issue of funding and profile

LDV members’ survey, August 2008 (1): the Lib Dems and by-elections
LDV members’ survey, August 2008 (2): what you think of Make it Happen’s tax-cutting agenda
LDV members’ survey, August 2008 (3): what do you think of Nick Clegg’s leadership?

We’d probably note that in July we had almost 15,000 ‘absolute unique visitors’*. That’s a little down on June’s record of almost 17,000 - but still our third best month overall. For comparison, Iain Dale received 59,000 absolute unique visitors and Guido Fawkes 113,000.

Thank you to all our readers, whether you visit only occasionally, or pop by often.

Remember, if you’ve got something to say, and you want to say it to thousands of readers, then do consider writing an article for LDV, and email it to . We publish some guidance for those wishing to write for the site here.

* Google’s term: it broadly means people using nearly 15,000 different computers visited LDV at least once.

Over at Guido Fawkes’ blog, Paul Staines attack-dogs Lib Dem demi-god Vince Cable, accusing him of “naivety” in relation to the Government’s botched nationalisation of Northern Rock:

What about the naive politicians Vince, who welcomed the nationalisation, without having done any due diligence on behalf of the taxpayers?

Why didn’t Vince ask the key question, what are the taxpayers billions in loans secured against?

I guess Mr Staines isn’t an avid reader of Hansard, but as any fule kno’ it has of course been the Lib Dem shadow chancellor asking just these questions of Gordon Brown and Alasdair Darling throughout the shambolic Rock saga. Let’s take, for example, this classic statement to the Commons six months ago:

I congratulate the Chancellor on brilliant originality. The Government, through their bond guarantees, are solemnly undertaking to repay the Government. The taxpayer is standing behind the taxpayer and we have a private sector solution without private money as well as nationalisation of liabilities and losses and privatisation of profits. It requires a special sort of genius to dream up such an idea and I hope that the Government’s financial advisers have been well rewarded.

Of course, Guido could spend his time asking what the Tories’ shadow chancellor, George Osborne, has been saying should happen to Northern Rock over the last nine months – but then he’d have to discover what the Tory policies have been, first. And that would defeat even Mr Staines’ research powers.

Meanwhile, Vince has issued a typically acute and trenchant critique of the Labour government today, following the announcement that the Government is converting £3.4bn of its loan to Northern Rock into ordinary shares:

Alistair Darling assured Parliament that taxpayer loans to Northern Rock would be fully secured on mortgage assets. This is clearly not true.

“£3.4bn of the Government’s loan to Northern Rock is now being converted into ordinary shares, which rank right at the bottom for repayment. Continuing losses at the bank put this money at great risk.

“Other banks have taken the cream of Northern Rock’s mortgages, leaving the rest to curdle.

“The scale of the problems at the bank underlines the extreme negligence and irresponsibility of Northern Rock’s previous management, and highlights the scale of the failure of regulation by the FSA.

“The Government should now go after the former directors who have managed to shift the bank’s losses on to the taxpayer. Ministers must also go after the auditors who failed to spot glaring problems and mounting bad debt.

“The Chancellor and the Government were totally irresponsible for failing to heed my warnings from last October that the bank should be stopped from giving out 125% ‘together mortgages’. These shocking figures show Northern Rock has £6.3bn in unsecured loans. It was clear even then that they could never be repaid in a falling housing market.”

All this week, Lib Dem Voice is publishing the results of our first ever survey of party members. Some 133 of you accessed the survey via our private members’ forum. We don’t pretend it’s a representative sample, but that doesn’t mean it’s without value either. We hope you, LDV’s readers, find it interesting. Perhaps the wider party will, too. This is the first in what we intend to be a monthly survey – if you have ideas for future survey questions, please email me at .

The third question asked about Nick Clegg’s leadership of the party.

LDV asked: Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with how Nick Clegg is doing as leader of the Liberal Democrats?

Very satisfied 12%
Fairly satisfied 56%
Fairly dissatisfied 20%
Very dissatisfied 9%
Don’t know 3%

As we have no previous data to compare it with, it’s hard to know if Nick should be happy with a total satisfaction rating of 68% to 29% dissatisfied (a net rating of +39%). Given the tendency of party members to be critical – and the more so, it seems, if they are hooked-up to the internet – he can probably be pretty relaxed. Here are a selection of the comments of those who answered the question:

• I certainly don’t buy the criticism that he’s invisible - I think he’s been getting some good regular slots
• Good policy direction but needs to be more ‘charming/cheerful’ and also needs to make much more of a media impact.
• We just need the media to give him more attention - no doubt a pipe dream this side of a GE campaign!
• Generally right direction, but far too slow and still lacking clear narrative
• Exception of abstention re: Lisbon [though I am pro-European]
• Solid start. Needs a bit of luck and we could do well.
• He has done better that I expected but he still needs to show he is a ‘bite yer bum’ campaigner. And I am not sure he is being completely clear in his policy thoughts.
• Good guy but doesn’t take enough risks
• The guy needs time. He’s not being given a chance by the media yet but eventually they’ll have to give him coverage
• Moving in the right directon but needs to move faster.
• He’s surprised me. I thought he was a talentless twat. Now I accept he’s a talented twat.
• He’s doing better than I expected

LDV members’ survey, August 2008 (1): the Lib Dems and by-elections
LDV members’ survey, August 2008 (2): what you think of Make it Happen’s tax-cutting agenda