After Paddy last week, it’s the turn of another former Liberal Democrat leader, Ming Campbell, to represent the party on the panel on tonight’s Question Time (broadcast on BBC1 and online from 10.35 pm GMT).

The panel will also include the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (and future Labour leadership contender?) James Purnell, senior Conservative politician Lord Heseltine, “well-known television personality” (aka the smuggest man in the world) Piers Morgan and novelist and journalist Rachel Johnson.

If you’re watching, and want to sound-off, please feel free to use the comments thread.

Yesterday, Mark previewed Brian Paddick’s election broadcast. While that’s on air this evening in London, the rest of England and Wales will be treated to our election broadcast for the local elections taking place across the country.

Also focusing on crime, and our strong record on tackling crime in local government, this one is fronted by party leader Nick Clegg:

Update: A subtitled version is also available.

It’s being show on TV on Wednesday, but you can already watch it here:

Former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy is one of the panellists on tonight’s Question Time (broadcast on BBC1 and online from 10.35 pm GMT).

The panel will also include the First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond, Conservative shadow chancellor George Osborne, Innovation, Universities and Skills secretary John Denham, and businesswoman Nicola Horlick.

If you’re watching, and want to sound-off, please feel free to use the comments thread.

One of the debates yesterday was about illegal abductions, otherwise known as the US kidnapping people around the world. You can read the text of the motion here, which called for a full independent inquiry into the UK’s involvement in the abductions.

And for other conference news, here is Lynne Featherstone’s Sunday morning diary:

Can’t get to conference, but in the mood for some Saturday night Lib Demmery? At the conference, and desperate to avoid the bar?

Then why not switch on the telly, and tune to the BBC Parliament channel at 9 pm tonight, Saturday 8th March, when you can watch A Marriage Made in Portsmouth, a documentary to mark 20 years since the Liberal/SDP merger. The programme combines archive footage of the merger process, as well as contemporary interviews with some of the key players, such as Lord Steel, Baroness Williams and Lord Maclennan.

It is broadcast Saturday night at 9pm on BBC Parliament, and is due to be repeated over the Easter period.

The latest party video is a brief chat from our leader Nick Clegg telling us about Liverpool and some of the issues facing us at conference.

Shortly after that, he headed into the rally, which as I write, is where I’m headed.

Shirley Williams, veteran Liberal Democrat peer, is one of the panellists on tonight’s Question Time (broadcast on BBC1 and online from 10.35 pm GMT).

The panel will also include the Cabinet Office Minister Ed Miliband, the shadow home secretary David Davis, the leader of the UK Independence Party Nigel Farage, and comedian and broadcaster Marcus Brigstocke.

If you’re watching, and want to sound-off, please feel free to use the comments thread.

PS: I’ll be on Question Time Extra (on BBC News 24 immediately after the main show finishes) alongside Tim Montgomerie… What do you mean, you’ll be tuning into BBC1’s This Week instead?

Nicol Stephen, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, is one of the panellists on tonight’s Question Time (broadcast on BBC1 and online from 10.35 pm GMT).

He’ll be alongside the Deputy Scottish Labour leader Cathy Jamieson, the Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie, the Deputy Leader of the Scottish National Party Nicola Sturgeon, and Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow George Galloway.

If you’re watching, and want to sound-off, please feel free to use the comments thread.

‘The cult of Cable’ - rather sweetly profiled by The Guardian’s Michael White yesterday - comes to tonight’s BBC Question Time (broadcast on BBC1 and online from 10.35 pm GMT).

And what better week could there be for Vince to be a guest, with Labour having finally accepted the Lib Dem shadow Chancellor’s advice to nationalise Northern Rock to protect the interests of taxpayers, with the Tories left as utterly confused (and clueless) bystanders.

The QT panel will also include the Secretary of State for Transport Ruth Kelly, Conservative shadow secretary of state for business, enterprise and regulatory reform Alan Duncan, the secretary general of Unite Derek Simpson and the political editor of The Spectator Fraser Nelson.

So tune in tonight to watch the Cable masterclass, and feel free to sound-off in the comments thread.

Nick Clegg used his Political Slot on Channel 4 last night to discuss his opposition to the Government’s identity cards and database.

If you missed it, you can watch it right here via the Liberal Democrats’ YouTube account:

Okay, so there’s no Lib Dem on tonight’s Question Time (broadcast on BBC1 and online from 10.35 pm GMT) … but I’m saying nothing more.

The panel will include Labour’s Minister of State for Housing Caroline Flint, the Conservative shadow minister for community cohesion Sayeeda Warsi, the Church of England’s first Bishop for urban life and faith, Rt Rev Stephen Lowe, writer and broadcaster Clive James, and the author, columnist for the Daily Mail, and all-round paranoiac, Melanie Phillips.

If you can bear to watch Melanie, and want to sound-off, please feel free to use the comments thread.

Playing around with various internet search tools for finding videos (verdict - none of them are that comprehensive) I found a few Nick Clegg pieces which haven’t previously been mentioned on this site and are worth a quick watch:

Nick Clegg on the BBC, talking about the party’s new mental health proposals.

Nick Clegg visits Islington, talking about green issues and the donations scandals (prior to Peter Hain’s resignation).

Nick Clegg on Sky News’s Sunday Live, talking about his vision for 2008 and his electoral ambitions for the party.

Nick Clegg addresses an NCVO (National Council for Voluntary Organisations) breakfast meeting.

And finally, a slightly slow moving tale of the opening of a new patisserie.

P.S. If you missed Nick on Sunday’s BBC1 Politics Show you can watch the interview here or read the transcript here.

Julia Goldsworthy, the Lib Dem shadow secretary of state for communities and local government, is one of the panellists on tonight’s Question Time (broadcast on BBC1 and online from 10.35 pm GMT).

She’ll be alongside the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Andy Burnham, the Conservative shadow secretary of State for work and pensions Chris Grayling, the director of Liberty Shami Chakrabarti and entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne from BBC Two’s Dragons’ Den.

Damn the BBC… just days after I cynically queried whether Auntie would ever put up a liberal commentator alongside a Lib Dem MP they do precisely that. And not just any liberal commentator, but Shami, LDV’s Liberal Voice of the Year. Bah.

However, putting the often aggrieved feelings of Lib Dems at sometimes being excluded from QT to one side, LDV research to be published tomorrow will show there is a definite pro-Tory bias in the BBC’s choice of panellists. Click back tomorrow to see the stats.

Anyway, if you’re watching tonight’s show, and want to sound-off, please feel free to use the comments thread.

That’s the question LDV posed in last Thursday’s Open Thread on the programme. It was prompted not only by the absence of a Lib Dem on the panel, but also by the appearance of a second Tory-in-all-but-name, Amanda Platell, alongside former Tory chancellor, Ken Clarke (as well as former Tory MP, and now New Labour cabinet minister, Shaun Woodward).

So what?, you might ask. And fair enough, except that this was the fourth consecutive QT in which a Tory-aligned commentator has been signed up to appear alongside the official Tory representative. Ms Platell followed in the stilettos of Sarah Sands (former Sunday Telegraph editor), Louise Bagshaw (Tory PPC) and Kirstie Allsopp (Tory celebrity).

Andrew Hinton took up the cudgels on behalf of the Lib Dems, and has published his findings here. They show that the BBC is pretty scrupulous in ensuring balance on QT between official representatives of the three main political parties. What’s less clear, though, is whether the BBC is quite as careful in ensuring balance between those it selects to be the non-politicians on the panel. Would the BBC, for instance, put up Sandi Toksvig alongside a Lib Dem MP?

(Amusingly, those terribly sane folk at the Biased-BBC blog have managed, who knows how, to accuse Auntie of stuffing QT’s panels with “foaming-at-the mouth lefties”. Bless.)

Anyway, if you have complaints about the media coverage of the Lib Dems, don’t just write a comment on the LDV public blog, or the members-only forum, complain to the folk responsible:

BBC – T: 08700 100 222, www.bbc.co.uk/complaints
Sky News – www.sky.com/skynews/feedback/enquiry, E:
ITN – T: 020 7833 3000, E:
Channel 4 – T: 020 7396 4444, E:

There’s no Lib Dem on tonight’s Question Time (broadcast on BBC1 and online from 10.35 pm GMT), so former Tory chancellor Ken Clarke is as close as we’ll get to a liberal voice of sanity on the panel.

He’ll be alongside Northern Ireland Secretary (and Tory turncoat), Shaun Woodward, Daily Mail columnist (and former Tory spindoctor) Amanda Platell, actor John Sessions, and playwright and critic Bonnie Greer. What a politically balanced panel… ho-hum.

Anyway, if you’re watching, and want to sound-off, please feel free to use the comments thread.