Blogger Chick Yog believed that the Lib Dems are staffed by robots.

This proved not to be the case.

Although some believe our fearsome leafleting capability is due to an army of robotic leafleters, the sad truth is in most cases it’s a handful of overworked activists punching way above their weight. And so it is in LDHQ - although the output might look like it is the result of a fearsome supercomputer processing all known political information and spewing it out in dozens of helpful different feeds… in fact, it’s just Will Howells and Mark Pack, with, between them, a finger on every button on the internet.

Snaps for Mark and Will.

In one of the less cerebral contributions to the London mayoral debate, SpendapennySendapenny invites you to select your least favourite of the four main candidates for the Mayoralty and flush them away.

More people have flushed Livingstone than any other; Johnson is second - and our own dear Paddick is currently winning by a whisker with Berry being flushed just a few more times than him.

Just a bit of fun, just a bit of fun.

Being a high profile celebrity has helped Boris Johnson’s name recognition during the London Mayor contest. But being well known comes with its downside too, as it means that your past failings or blunders are likely to be well known too.

The large collection of films about Boris on YouTube demonstrate this well, he’s a very popular subject, but many of the pieces either mock or criticise him.

We’ve selected five, each of which highlights one particular reason not to support Boris Johnson in the Mayoral election.

You can watch them below, and take part in our online poll to select the one which you think is the most effective anti-Boris message for the elections. Who knows whether any of the campaigns will pay attention to the vote, but as Peter Snow says, “it’s just a bit of fun”. So watch and vote away!

He’s a buffoon: (2 / 9%)

He’s a sporting buffoon: (3 / 13%)

He’s consorted with dodgy characters: (8 / 35%)

He was sacked by David Cameron: (0 / 0%)

He’s said loads of mad things: (10 / 43%)

Total Votes: 23

Yes, it’s the moment you have all been waiting for: the answer to our Boris Johnson quiz.

The puzzle was: what was the problem to which Boris Johnson thinks this is the solution:

I have an infallible solution. You go to Legoland. To be exact, you go to those deceptively simple whirly teacup things, and you subject the human body to the most extraordinary stresses and shears. Your teacup rotates in one direction. The teatray spins the other way.

And the answer?

If you have one of those babies that seems to prefer the womb to the terrors of the world, I have an infallible solution.

Let’s hope Boris isn’t running to be on any health trust board any time soon.

Don’t forget to place your guesses. Answer will be revealed on Wednesday…

Here’s a challenge for you. What was the problem to which Boris Johnson thinks this is the solution:

I have an infallible solution. You go to Legoland. To be exact, you go to those deceptively simple whirly teacup things, and you subject the human body to the most extraordinary stresses and shears. Your teacup rotates in one direction. The teatray spins the other way.

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.

Thus speaks wise and wonderful Iain: 

Since David Cameron became leader, he has tried to avoid the European issue dominating political debate. It is only the European constitution that has encouraged him to speak. He - alone among the three party leaders - has re-committed his party to holding a referendum on the European reform treaty.

But he has been outgunned by the Lib Dems, who have refused to offer a referendum on the treaty and instead have said there should be a referendum on EU membership itself, to settle the issue once and for all.

Warning: this post may contain irony

Top satirist Armando Iannucci reported in yesterday’s Observer on the election fever which has taken grip of Washington DC:

Usually, America doesn’t really cover international news in the media, but this week the talk in Washington has been of one story and no other: the fight for leadership of the Lib Dems by Chris Huhne and Nick Clegg. The whole of the US has gone down with Lib Dem election fever. People have been coming up to me in the street and, when they hear my quaintly mild Scottish accent, have been saying to me: ‘Hey, are you from England? What’s the latest on those Lib Dem guys? You think Clegg has got it sewn up in the swing counties?’

Everywhere I turn, I see people wearing campaign buttons saying things like, ‘I’m A Huhne Goon’. Or ‘I Will Willingly Beg For Clegg’. And, to cash in, Sony Pictures has just announced a three-movie deal to start filming the dramatisation of the life of Menzies Campbell (though mostly concentrating on his time as an Olympic athlete).

Irony: so much more fun than reality.

It is only fitting for Lib Dem Voice to mark the 17th anniversary of the publication of Lord Bonkers’ diary with this special cut-out-from-your-computer-screen-and-keep souvenir special. Through the good offices of his literary secretary Jonathan Calder, who writes the blog Liberal England, Lord Bonkers writes exclusively for us.

I have been asked by the editors of this moving electric blog to share some of my long experience of Liberal politics with you. Many of you will already know me from my Diary in Liberator magazine, where it has appeared since 1990: those who do not should take out a subscription immediately.

First, let me introduce myself. I think my entry in Who’s Who in the Liberal Democrats puts it Terribly Well when it describes me as “Statesman, Soldier, Diplomat, Philosopher, Traveller, Industrialist, Author, Philanthropist and All Round Good Egg.” Read more »