Click on the following links to see last year’s Shortlist and the Winners.

This year’s awards are as follows:

To be eligible for ‘Best blog from a Liberal Democrat holding public office’, a blog should be written by a councillor, elected mayor, assembly member, or parliamentarian.

The ‘Best use of social media / campaigning award’ recognises the expanding role of both blogging and the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube in political campaigning. Please send us links to good campaigning YouTube videos, effective tweets and Twitter accounts or a successful campaigning website.

The Best non-Liberal Democrat politics blog winner will be chosen by you, dear reader (should you choose to take part). Once the judges have chosen their shortlist, these blogs will be put up for public vote here on Lib Dem Voice.

Here’s this year’s judging panel, (who aren’t eligible to win, by the way, so please avoid nominating them):

• Kirsty Williams Assembly Member for Brecon and Radnorshire and Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats
• Nick Thornsby , Lib Dem Blogger of the Year 2011
• Tim Gatt ITV News Digital Output Editor
• Stephen Tall Co-Editor, Lib Dem Voice.
• Alan Muhammed, who manages Lib Dem Voice’s social media
• Helen Duffett (that’s me) Co-Editor (Associate) Lib Dem Voice

Liberal Democrat Voice and any official blogs run by the party aren’t eligible either.

You’ve got until 5pm on 14 September to nominate up to 3 favourites per category, but the sooner the better. Please don’t feel the need to round up hundreds of people to nominate your blog as the number of nominations aren’t taken into account.

Send in your nominations by email to helen@libdemvoice.org and remember to state which award category you’re nominating for, in each case.

Photo by Alex Folkes/Fishnik Photography.

Vince Cable’s memoirs do much to explain both the praise and the criticism he has received. At one point he writes how “I am often asked why I am not party leader…”. Conceit or modesty? You can read that comment either way and it is easy to see why he produces such different views.

Views differ too over quite where on the political spectrum Vince Cable should be placed. As left-wing former Labour councillor with a line in anti-City rhetoric? Or a keen believer in free markets who wanted to abolish the Department of Trade and Industry? Cable himself admits the contradiction, pointing out how during his time working at Glasgow University and serving as a Labour councillor in the city he was arguing for socialism in the council chamber whilst teaching the virtues of free markets in the lecture hall.

The ambiguity of his political positioning is nothing new, and the book traces its origins to his time as an economist working on development issues in Africa. Cable eloquently recounts how that left him with a passion for improving society mixed with a distaste of the corruption and waste that can flow from centralised government planning and diktat. Crony capitalism as much as communism attracts his scorn.

What also come through clearly in the book is Vince Cable’s individualistic instincts. He is a sociable and popular figure, frequently charming, but as his account shows is more comfortable in solitary roles that put him against the majority; he is a natural outsider rather than an insider. It is tempting to draw a parallel with his personal life. His marriage to Olympia was disapproved of by many relatives, casting them off in married life mainly on their own. Later her tragic struggle with cancer and her insistence that other people not be told of it against meant it was often a case of the two of them, and not many others, against the world.

So too in politics, where it has been the roles of ‘one person against the world’ in which Vince Cable has prospered, both in his warnings about the state of the British financial system and economy ahead of the crash and in his highly successful stint as interim party leader. As the rest of the party was struggling through a leadership contest, he was off on his own being leader and holding things together in the face of a wave of challenges.

Not quite fully on his own, and to his credit Vince Cable frequently names and praises those backroom helpers and advisers who are so crucial to a politician’s success. People such as Puja Darbari, Malinda McLean and Andrew Reeves get their much deserved mentions and accolades. Also featured is the subject of the late Andrew Reeves’s favourite casework anecdote – the man who said he had invented an invisible battleship which was stolen from him by the Ministry of Defence and moored in the Thames outside the Houses of Parliament. Alas, Andrew never did get the chance to offer to meet him on site to inspect the battleship.

Cable’s character traits were present early in his life, as when he field tested many different churches in search of God. He says that he found which had the best buildings and the prettiest girls but God proved elusive. That sense of intellectual curiosity, investigating options rather than accepting traditions, emphasising individuality and being an outsider to other people’s cosy clubs has run all through his political career.

You can buy Free Radical by Vince Cable here.

* Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.

I thought it would be appropriate to take some time to pay tribute to Liberal Democrats we’ve lost this year. We’ll all know someone who has really made the difference to our lives as party members who is no longer with us. Please feel free to use the comments to tell us a bit about them and what they mean to you.

For me, the worst moment of the year so far was not the heartbreaking election results. It was that phone call around 7:30 am on 3rd June which told me that Andrew Reeves, Scottish Director of Campaigns and Elections, had died very suddenly of a heart attack. Since his arrival in Scotland, we had been in touch virtually every day in some form or another. It was sometimes work, but more often him relentlessly taking the mickey out of me. Mark Pack shared his memories of Andrew as he reported the sad event here on Lib Dem Voice a few hours later.

In the three years Andrew had been in Scotland, he’d transformed our campaigning capabilities and organisation. He was a fantastic leader. He was one of these people who could inspire you through a really tough job, getting the best out of you but still keeping everyone’s spirits up.

The outpouring of grief for Andrew on Twitter that morning, leading to him becoming the fourth highest trending topic in the UK, showed how much he meant to the party as a whole. Whether as a steward at Conference, at by-elections, at election campaigns or online, Andrew made many people smile.

Is there someone we’ve lost this year that you would like to pay tribute to? If so, tell us in the comments.

* Caron Lindsay is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings

I have spent the last few weeks criss-crossing the country, speaking to as many of you as possible, hearing your concerns and answering your questions. We did what Lib Dems do: discussed, debated, argued – honestly and respectfully. There has never been a gathering of Liberal Democrats in our history that hasn’t seen some sort of disagreement. These meetings were no different, but they reminded me that above all else the Liberal Democrats are a family. We all felt that in May when good friends and dedicated colleagues lost their seats. And I think we all felt it this summer when we heard the tragic news of the untimely death of Andrew Reeves. No one embodied the passion, the dedication, and the warmth, of the Liberal Democrats like Andrew. And I thought it was particularly fitting, given his passion for social media, that so many people paid tribute to him on Twitter that he became one of the top trending topics in the country. To say that Andrew will be greatly missed is a huge understatement. He was there in good times and bad, one of us, one of the family.

Like all families, we have our faults too. That’s why it was great to hear Chris Lucas speak so eloquently earlier about putting one of them right. I stood before you at the rally in Sheffield and said that we are too male and too pale, that if we want to represent all of the country then we must have all of the country represented in us. I look forward to formally launching our Leadership Programme tonight and helping to deliver a party that better reflects our country.

I’d also like to pay tribute to another member of our family – Chris Fox – who is standing down as Chief Executive in the next few months. Chris has done a fantastic job since he took over in 2009. He has modernised and professionalised our party operation, culminating in the move from Cowley Street to the new headquarters in Great George Street this summer. His legacy is a finely tuned political operation that is ready and able to take us on to bigger and better things. Chris has been Chief Executive at a really challenging time for our Party and we all owe you Chris a really heartfelt thanks.

So, The Liberal Democrats are a family. There are those who wish to drive a wedge between us – our opponents, the vested interests in politics and the media who want to put us back in our place. They won’t succeed. Because whether you consider yourself more of a social democrat or a classical liberal, whether your hero is Gladstone or Keynes, Paddy Ashdown or Shirley Williams, we are all, to one degree or another, all of the above. We share the same inheritance. We are cut from the same cloth. We are Liberal Democrats.

Like all families, we have our share of rows – I’m sure we’ll have one or two this week – but they are rows for a reason. To get NHS reform right, to keep fair taxes as our priority, to keep the government green. But after we’ve had our debates we get out there together and fight for it, even when it is uncomfortable or even unfashionable. Telling hard truths. Asking what Jo Grimond called the ‘prickly questions’ of politics. And when we’ve set ourselves to something we don’t give up, no matter how long it takes. We never oppose for the sake of opposition but we never shrink from telling it like it s and fighting for what is right. If that makes us a bit awkward, a bit challenging, a bit difficult, so be it. We are prepared to be awkward. It’s the same quality that makes Liberal Democrat ministers fight tooth and nail in their departments for the things we believe in. In government, it means sometimes we have to be awkward. As our Coalition partners are finding out on a daily basis, we are not here to make things easy. We’re here to put things right.

What you told me is that we’re not getting across clearly enough what we are achieving in government. You have heard tonight how we are delivering in government – fair taxes, a fair start for children, building a new green economy and fixing our broken politics. These are the things we put on the front page of our manifesto and now we are delivering them for our country. And more than that – whether it’s the environment, civil liberties, Europe, localism, pensions, ending child detention, boosting apprenticeships – the list goes on. This government has Liberal Democrat written through it like a stick of Brighton Rock.

We didn’t win the election so we can’t do everything we want to, but we are doing a remarkable amount. Make no mistake – we are punching above our weight. The BBC recently reported research showing that three quarters of our manifesto is being delivered in government – more than the Conservative manifesto. Not bad given we have just eight percent of the MPs in Westminster. And our liberal voice is loud and clear.

On the NHS – your vote at spring conference in Sheffield were carried into the corridors of Whitehall, resulting in real change. On Rupert Murdoch – Liberal Democrats have been in the lead, taking on the vested interests in the media. On human rights – I am proud to stand up for one of the absolute cornerstones of our free, liberal society. This Coalition government has a distinct Liberal Democrat voice and you will hear it.

But we can’t have all our fights in public. While times are hard, while people are struggling, the last thing people want is to see the nation’s leaders squabbling and point scoring. That’s why I can’t tell you about every debate we have behind closed doors. But rest assured, we are fighting for Liberal values every day.

I’m also proud that we are proving that we can do things differently. That politicians of different parties can come together and put the country first. Remember before the General Election when we were being told a hung parliament would lead to chaos, that government would grind to a halt and the economy would fall off a cliff. Well it didn’t. We have proved the doubters wrong. We are proving, every day, that coalition politics works. As someone who has always believed in electoral reform, in pluralism, in the idea that people are better served if we look for common ground instead of tribal division, that makes me very proud.

We may not agree with everything our coalition partners say – they certainly don’t agree with everything I say – but that’s the point. We have not become the same and we never will. We are putting our differences aside and putting the country first.

These are tough times. If we had been able to choose when to enter government for the first time in nearly 70 years I doubt many of us would choose to do so in the hardest economic conditions in our lifetimes. But we can also be proud of what we are proving about ourselves.

We could have bottled it. We could have taken the easy way out, washed our hands of any responsibility and let the Conservatives deal with the mess on their own. We could have stood on the sidelines and watched a government that couldn’t even command a majority in the House of Commons try to tackle an economy teetering on the edge of a cliff. That would have been cowardly and it would have confirmed so many people’s worst suspicion about us – that when push comes to shove we’d prefer to shout from the sidelines than take responsibility. We didn’t do that. We did the right thing. We rose to the challenge. And we did it knowing it meant working with our political enemies and almost certain short-term unpopularity.

People can no longer claim we’re not up to the job. They can no longer say we don’t have it in us to put our necks on the line for the good of the country. We are proving every day that we are no longer a luxury vote or a protest vote or, worst of all, a wasted vote. We are proving that we can be trusted to govern – from the centre, for the people, for the whole nation. We are the only party that can honestly claim to represent the entire country – from Land’s End to John O’Groats – and we are proving we can put the whole country’s interests first. Taking the difficult decisions but making a positive difference to people’s lives too. Cutting taxes, not for the rich but for millions of people on low and middle incomes. Helping pensioners by restoring the earnings link. Creating a quarter of a million new apprenticeships. A political family doing this together, showing we have the courage of our convictions and creating a better country for our children.

In difficult times you need to know two things about your government: that it has the strength to take the decisions needed to fix the big problems; and that there are people in that government who are looking out for you. Those people are there. They’re in government and on your side. They’re called Liberal Democrats.

1 Lib Dem Voice

2 Caron’s Musings

3 Liberal England

4 Andrew Reeves’ Running Blog

5 Stephen’s Liberal Journal

6 Mark Pack

=7 Liberal Vision

=7 A Scottish Liberal

9 Cllr Fraser Macpherson

10 Mark Reckons

And the top Liberal Democrat bloggers:

1 Mark Pack

2 Caron Lindsay

3 Andrew Reeves

4 Jonathan Calder

5 Stephen Glenn

6 Olly Grender

7 Mark Thompson

8 Julian Astle

9 Stephen Tall

10 Fraser Macpherson

Lovely and fitting to see Andrew appear so highly in both lists; he was a great blogger in his own right and a wonderful encouragement and support for others.

Congratulations to everyone else in the top ten lists. Thank you too for the votes for me – and an extra thanks to everyone who has helped contribute to Liberal Democrat Voice in one way or another.

But of course the rankings that really matter are the Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year awards, happening tonight. See you there.

Andrew had a long career in the party, including working for Vince Cable in Twickenham and Lynne Featherstone in Hornsey & Wood Green and stewarding at party conferences, before becoming the party’s Deputy Director for Scotland. Andrew was always one of the happiest and kindest people on the campaigns I worked with him on, and never let the occasional inevitable moments of stress or tension sour personal friendships. He had also in recent years become a keen runner for charity.

Three disparate memories stick in my mind about Andrew. One was the middle of a local election campaign when due to a farcical breakdown in communications he was inside a locked building out of touch and I had to get some urgent information to him. The solution? Remotely logging in to one of the printers in the building and printing out a letter to him. It caught him a bit unawares when a printer sprung to life and churned out a piece of paper starting ‘Dear Andrew…’

The second was Andrew’s improbably ability to keep his shirts perfectly ironed all through the day. No matter how many tips I asked him to pass on, my shirts have never got even close to his levels of sartorial elegance.

The third was the pleasure of attending his civic partnership just a few months ago, and the chance to meet for the first time his long-term partner Roger. (See Andrew’s lovely post here.) Andrew was always very good at keeping work and private lives separate, so much so that several of using going were joking in advance whether or not Roger really existed…

It was lovely seeing Roger and Andrew together for the first – and tragically last – time in a beautiful setting on the Firth of Forth.

Andrew will be much missed for many reasons by the large number of people he helped, he entertained, he encouraged, he supported and he loved.

My thoughts are with Roger and Andrew’s relatives.

Today it is Andrew Reeves, who blogs at http://andrewrunning.blogspot.com.

1. What’s your formative political memory?
In 1984 Ken Clarke gave me an award at a thank you party for delivering leaflets for him. In front of the 200+ people there he also asked me if I wanted to join the party – and in front of them all I said no! I was pleased he’d won but said that the more I had got to know the party I realised why I couldn’t. He was somewhat embarrassed!

2. When did you start blogging?
Tuesday 15 May 2007.

3. Why did you start blogging?
I worked for Lynne Featherstone from just after the 2005 general election until the end of 2006, before becoming one of the two London Campaigns Officers. I was amazed Lynne found time to write her own blog posts so this was my initial inspiration. I also signed up to run the Great North Run in 2007 and so wanted to use it for a training diary.

4. What five words would you use to describe your blog?
I cheated here, I asked some friends for their five words – here is a selection: friendly, personal, prolific, timely, political, caring, liberal, sharp, punchy, researched, readable, passionate and straight-talking.

5. What five words would you use to describe your political views?
I’m a social liberal democrat.

6. Which post have you most liked writing in the last year (and why)?
I enjoyed writing this, not because I was suspended from Twitter, because to be honest that was a nightmare, but thanks to the support shown by the online community, inside and outside the Liberal Democrats:
Andrew Reeves is still suspended on Twitter – but the support is awesome

7. Which post have you most liked reading in the last year (and why)?
I love reading Caron’s writing, because unlike my shoot from the hip and rant style, Caron is more methodical and this shows in her writing. In this post Caron highlights the hypocricy of the Labour party while still maintaining decorum – perfect:
Labour didn’t love NHS Direct

8. What’s your favourite YouTube clip?
I don’t particularly bother with YouTube, but this was my favourite ever:

9. Which bloggers, writers or thinkers inspire you?
Sara Bedford, Mark Pack and Caron Lindsay are the main three I read. I also read Paul Waugh and Olly Grender‘s pieces. Lynne Featherstone continues to inspire me, now a minister, a little more than before. Jeff Breslin (SNP Tactical Voting as was) is one of my favourite non-Lib Dem writers.

10. Give us a surprising fact about yourself:
I was a DJ in a gay pub (Admiral Duncan) and club (L’amour then Club 69) in Nottingham before leaving my home town in 1987/8.

You can see all our posts featuring Liberal Democrat bloggers here.

His expense return showed him within the limit but wrongly classified one bill. A correct return would have shown him over the limit.

Although the police have decided that this mistake is not worthy of further action, the publicity, embarrassment and investigation are a strong reminder of the importance of candidates and agents properly checking legal paperwork before submitting it.

UPDATE: Charges against Gilbert Davidson were subsequently dropped.

He shares the date with the Beast of Bolsover, Dennis Skinner, and Caribou Barbie, the Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Other notable occurrences today include the death of Sylvia Plath in 1963 and the début of Julia Child’s US TV show The French Chef in 1963. If you’ve never seen it before, go see Julia making omelettes.

2 Cheerful Stories

British Retail’s “irreversible downward spiral”

The Guardian has news that some British towns and cities have so many empty shops they may never recover:

Many of Britain’s towns and cities are suffering from such huge shop vacancy rates that they risk becoming ghost towns, wiping hundreds of millions of pounds off property values, a study revealed yesterday.

Cities such as Wolverhampton and Bradford, where nearly a quarter of shops lie empty, could be on an irreversible downward spiral as a result of the financial crisis. The research by the Local Data Company shows retail vacancy rates across Britain rose 2% in the past six months of last year to 12%, with some towns seeing as much as 24% of its shops lying empty.

“As much as 24%” ? What’s wrong with “Almost a quarter” ?

Oh, and NB, the photo in the story is my home city Nottingham. I’m not sure where it was taken, but it’s not really typical of the city.

Don’t care what the retirement age rises to, I’ll be dead

Good news for unemployed young people: the Independent has the glum news that many people won’t make it as far as retirement:

Plans to raise the retirement age to 68 will cause hardship for millions because three-quarters of people could be too ill to work, a Government-commissioned report warns today. [...] Up to 2.5 million years of life are being lost each year in England as a result of poor people dying prematurely, the report estimated.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

• Lord Avebury on Uganda

As it happens, the House of Lords was debating legislation to add two countries to the ‘white list’ of states which are supposedly safe for asylum-seekers to return to. I started my speech with a reference to the treatment of gays in certain countries, and Uganda in particular.

• Andrew Reeves’s two very different correspondents

Today has been a bizarre day, first John Prescott the former Deputy Prime Minister read my blog post about the hypocritical Tories and lobbyists, and then twittered the message around his followers.

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

Coming up on LDV later today:

• What Disraeli really meant
• How can we sell STV?
• Shock result – Nick Clegg approval rating
• Social media and foreign policy.

Stay tuned!

That’s it from me today – now if you’ll excuse me, I have to drive to Scotland.

Explaining his reasons for leaving the SNP after 31 years as a member, Cllr Dingwall said:

I believe that Glasgow needs a change in how our city is run and a party that sets out a clear, credible alternative to the current Labour Administration. Regrettably over the last year it has become clear to me that the Glasgow SNP Council Group lacks both the leadership and the authority to set out an alternative vision for our city.

After 31 years of membership with the SNP the decision to leave has not been an easy one but the move away from a local to a centrally set income tax and the recent threats to take away control of schools and care for the elderly from local authorities show the SNP simply doesn’t trust its councillors, preferring instead to govern local communities by ministerial decree.

That’s why I am pleased to be joining the Liberal Democrats. I share their commitment to local government and to the core principle of keeping local decisions local.

I will continue to work constructively for my constituents and for the people of Glasgow, but now in a way which is entirely in keeping with my personal and political beliefs.

Katy Gordon’s reaction is:

I’ve known Councillor Dingwall for many years and I’m really pleased to welcome him to the party.

This is a real boost to the Liberal Democrat campaign in Glasgow North. People are fed up with Labour and Councillor Dingwall’s decision demonstrates once again that the real alternative is the Liberal Democrats.

Andrew Reeves, the party’s Deputy Director of Campaigns for Scotland, explains the electoral situation:

Alex Dingwall topped the poll in 2007 in the Maryhill/Kelvin ward and now joins fellow Liberal Democrat Councillor Mary Paris representing the people of the ward in the Westminster constituency of Glasgow North which Katy Gordon is campaigning in to become the next MP for the area.

You can read more about this story on Andrew Reeves’s blog.

Whether you’re at work, at home, working from home, or none of the above, here’s your Daily View for Tuesday:

Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of William Ewart Gladstone, Liberal statesman and four-times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. (By the way, remember to nominate your Liberal Voice of 2009 here.)

It’s also 34 years since the Sex Discrimination and Equal Pay Acts came into force, legislation which now faces overdue modernisation and streamlining by the Equality Bill.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that caught my eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

• Cameron’s potted plants underline the difference. Peter Black’s post (a late contender for my favourite blog post title of 2009) features a video of Jacob Rees-Mogg, Tory candidate for North East Somerset, “a key Conservative candidate who reflects the views of many in his party that he is a member of the ruling class with a God-given right to be in Government and that as far as he is concerned the rest of us are just potted plants.”
• Is photography the new crime? Andrew Reeves takes a photo of the police taking a photo of the protesters.

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

Fury as China executes British drug smuggler

China was this morning condemned for its human rights record after a British man who, his supporters say, had mental health problems, was executed for smuggling drugs.

Akmal Shaikh, 53, was shot dead by a firing squad at 10.30am local time (2.30am British time) after frantic last-minute pleas for clemency by the Foreign Office failed. [Guardian]

Argentine gay couple becomes first in region to marry

Two Argentine men have become the first gay couple in Latin America to marry.

Alejandro Freyre, 39, and Jose Maria Di Bello, 41, tied the knot in a civil ceremony in the southern city of Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego province.

Gay marriage is illegal in Argentina. However, the Tierra del Fuego governor issued a special decree allowing the couple to wed there.

A judge in the capital, Buenos Aires, prevented the couple from marrying there earlier this month.

The men, who are both HIV-positive, had planned to get married on 1 December, world Aids day.

They eventually travelled to Tierra del Fuego, where they received the support of provincial governor Fabiana Rios.

Although Argentina’s civil code bans gay marriage, the constitution is silent on the matter.

Correspondents say the governor exploited this grey area and gave the two men a special dispensation. [BBC]

Gladstone’s Birthday Bonus

(Hat-tip: Paul Walter)

East Dunbartonshire Council, Bearsden South

Lib Dem gain from Conservatives
The results of this STV election in full:

Stage 1:
LD 1110
Con 1261
SNP 783
Lab 626

Stage 2:
LD 1381
Con 1306
SNP 972

Stage 3:
LD 1770
Con 1499

Scottish Lib Dems Director of Campaigns Andrew Reeves said,

It’s a bad day for the Labour government coming fourth and a bad day for the Scottish government coming third. David Cameron continues to have no mandate in Scotland, losing this seat to the Liberal Democrats.

It’s a great day for Ashay Ghai and Jo Swinson!

Jo Swinson MP said,

I’m delighted Ashay Ghai has won this by-election. There is no sign of a David Cameron bounce in Scotland.

This is a tremendous boost to the Liberal Democrats as we head towards a general election.

West Devon Borough Council, Tavistock South

Lib Dem gain from Conservatives
LD Kirstie Clish-Green 523
Con 450
Ind 170
Turnout 33%

From Torridge and West Devon PPC Adam Symons:

A big thank you to everyone who helped yesterday. The Tavistock South seat is one we have not held for 16 years!!

We were told when the election was called that it was a safe Conservative seat and we could not win it.

Kirstie will be a great councillor who will work to represent the communities views. This a great result for Lib Dems, thanks to a well organised campaign and to all those people who helped out – and encouragement to everyone else to join in for the General Election.

Rushmoor Borough Council, Heron Wood

Labour gain from Lib Dems
Lab 437
LD 354
Con 259
Turnout 22%

Bedford Borough Council, Kingsbrook

Lib Dem hold
LD Andy Gerard 660
Lab 370
Con 150
Turnout 18.4%
More here.

Westminster City Council, Queen’s Park

Labour hold
Lab 814
Con 211
LD Mark Blackburn 123
Turnout 16.46%

Hythe Town Council, Hythe West

Con hold (despite large swing to the Lib Dems).
Con 556
LD Neil Matthews 466

From campaign manager Tim Prater on Shepway Liberal Democrats website:

It’s never good to lose, but the result shows how competitive Hythe West has become – we’ve seen a big swing from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats since 2007. Commiserations to Neil Matthews for not being elected last night despite a sterling campaign by the Hythe West team, and congratulations to new Hythe West Councillor Rosemary Griffiths.

In 2009, of 13 contested elections – all of which were previously held by the Conservatives – between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in Shepway, the Liberal Democrats have won five. Going into the New Year, we’re confident and upbeat about our prospects across the area. Thank you to all those who have voted for the Liberal Democrats through the year.

Have you got any results that we’ve missed? Please post them up in the comments below.

Also look out for by-election analysis and full results over on the ALDC website.

The lost of the Glenrothes marked register caused more controversy than such loses usually do both because it happened at a Parliamentary by-election and because the result in that election was, to many people, a surprise.

The Goverment’s reaction to the loss of marked registers after the 2005 general election was underwhelming. As I described it in February:

In other words [the Government line is]: ‘we don’t know on what dates records were received, we haven’t made an assessment, and let’s shift the buck around a bit’. Woking’s marked register was lost in its entirety and although in other Parliamentary questions the government stuck to the line that this was the only data lost, that didn’t seem to chime with people’s experiences.

For Glenrothes, however, a special House of Commons order has been made allowing the inspection of other records which have not been lost and from which the marked register can be recreated.

The records in question are the “corresponding number lists”, which had electoral register numbers written on them as each ballot paper was handed out and at the same time as numbers were crossed off on the (now lost) marked register. Therefore the list of register numbers from these corresponding number lists can easily, if slowly, be used to recreate the marked register.

The recreated marked register will be available for public inspection in the usual way once it has been compiled.

And if you’re wondering why there are both corresponding number lists and a marked register – the former allow individual ballot papers to be traced, e.g. in the case of suspected postal vote fraud, and are therefore kept secret whilst the marked register is made public for inspection and does not have that extra tracing information.

(Thanks to Andrew Reeves for providing me with copies of the correspondence about the above.)

I’m pleased to announce that Tavish Scott, Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, has agreed to give a Bloggers’ Interview around lunchtime.

Also joining us: Jo Swinson MP, John Barrett MP, Mike Crockart (newly-selected PPC for Edinburgh West), leading Scottish bloggers, Andrew Reeves (prolific blogger and Deputy Director of Campaigns for Scotland) as well as Lib Dem Blogfather Jonathan Calder and members of the Lib Dem Voice team.

Venue: Edinburgh – Scottish Lib Dem HQ, 4 Clifton Terrace EH12 5DR. Map here.

Date: Saturday 21 November 2009

Time: 10am-4pm

To attend, you must register via this thread in our Forum. In the same Forum thread: put your name down if you’d like to lead a session on something blog-related, interview Tavish Scott, or swap sightseeing ideas for the Sunday.

Full details also on Flock Together.

Tavish Scott has consistently opposed a referendum, but some divisions within the party have emerged and the issue was debated in a closed session at the party’s autumn conference in Dunfermline, Fife, on Saturday.

Senior Lib Dem MSP Ross Finnie, who has been asked to lead a consultation with members about the party’s stance, said the session had agreed a united position.

He said: “What was very clear – and maybe a little surprising – was that the conference was having no truck with the SNP’s referendum bill. That couldn’t have been clearer and therefore there is no change, and there is no wish for a change to the position the leader has been taking.

“There is however an issue about going forward beyond 2011, as to whether looking at the constitutional questions, there are issues around how you might frame, how you might produce a different question and different type of referendum.”

The BBC’s Brian Taylor offers an excellent analysis of the meaning behind the Scottish Lib Dems’ decision here:

Two outcomes [of the conference]. One, support for [Tavish Scott's] position that the LibDems should oppose current SNP plans for a plebiscite. Two, the beast that is internal dissent within the LibDems has probably been sated for a while. …

… opposing a referendum is, politically, a very uncomfortable place to be. Hence “bring it on” from Wendy Alexander. Hence the LibDems closed doors discussion in Dunfermline. … [the party's] position is much more nuanced than straightforward opposition to Mr Salmond’s Bill. Of that, they say it is at the wrong recessionary time – and with the wrong question (a mandate to negotiate rather than a blunt Yes or No to independence.)

At Dunfermline, we are told that the issue was canvassed, that there were voices raised for a referendum. But, when Ross Finnie summed up by saying that opposition to the Salmond plan appeared overwhelming in the hall, there was no dissent. That position carried the day by acclaim.

The whole post – including the four nuances of the Scottish Lib Dems’ position – is well worth reading in full.

A number of Scottish Lib Dem bloggers also offered their own thoughts on the conference – here are links to their posts. (As ever, if I’ve missed any, do please email me at stephen@libdemvoice.org, or link to your post in the comments thread, below).

• Scottish Lib Dem Conference aftermath (Andrew Reeves);
• When No Doesn’t Quite Mean No (Stephen Glenn);
• Referendum no more … (Fraser Macpherson);
• Steamie post – the secret truth behind the private Lib Dem Conference (Caron Lindsay).

Despite the persistent criticism that it has allied itself with extremists, David Cameron’s Conservative Party now sits in the European Parliament with the European Reformists and Conservatives group (ECR), led by Poland’s Michal Kaminski – a man allegedly with a racist and homophobic past.

But so far it has gone unreported that another ally of the Conservatives in Europe has a much more serious and recent record of homophobia.

Valdemar Tomaševski, MEP from Lithuania, and member of the Tories’ Euro coalition, is on record as having branded homosexuality a “perversion”.

Not only that, I can now reveal for the first time that he also personally voted for a Lithuanian law that has been described as a harsher, more wide-reaching version of Britain’s Section 28.

You can read the full story here, not forgetting Andrew Reeves’s piece from Sunday on how Conservative MEPs abstained on a vote on homophobia.

2 Big Stories

Speedier tests for cancer planned

Skipping past the utterly predictable stories (senior Labour figures aren’t all happy, shock horror and Baroness Scotland didn’t check paperwork properly, shock horror) we get to this from the BBC:

Patients will get key tests within two weeks of seeing their GP, [Gordon Brown] will tell the Labour Party conference on Tuesday.

It will mean faster reassurance for patients and could save thousands of lives by picking up cancers earlier, he is expected to say.

Late diagnosis has been blamed for poorer cancer survival in the UK.

Merkel’s centre-right hopes at risk in German vote

German Chancellor Angela Merkel looks set to win a second term in Sunday’s election, but faces a tough battle to secure the centre-right government she says is needed to nurture Europe’s largest economy back to health.

Merkel, 55, remains popular four years after taking power atop an awkward “grand coalition” with the Social Democrats (SPD), and polls give her conservatives a healthy 8-11 point lead over to their traditional rivals before the vote.

But after a campaign widely criticised for lacking passion and substance, Merkel’s party has seen its support dip in the final weeks and she is no longer assured of her coalition of choice with the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP). (Reuters)

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

• Adrian Sanders talks of savage cuts and asks for the public’s help in making one of them happen.
• Andrew Reeves reports on the UN General Assembly President’s views on homosexuality. Clue: he’s not keen.

Sunday Bonus

Next time someone tells you have politics, political campaigning and everything under the sun is worse than it used to be, ask them if they’d really prefer politics to return to this type of advert: