Author Archives: Stephen Tall

Stephen was Editor (and Co-Editor) of Liberal Democrat Voice from 2007 to 2015, and writes at The Collected Stephen Tall. He writes a fortnightly column for ConservativeHome and 'The Underdog' column for Total Politics magazine. He edited the 2013 publication, The Coalition and Beyond: Liberal Reforms for the Decade Ahead, and is a Research Associate for the liberal think-tank CentreForum. He was awarded the inaugural Lib Dem ‘Blogger of the Year’ prize in 2006, was a councillor for eight years in Oxford, including a year as Deputy Lord Mayor, and appears frequently in the media in person, in print and online. Stephen combines his political interests with his professional life as Development Director for the Education Endowment Foundation, though writes here in a personal capacity.
Stephen Tall

PMQs: Nick tackles Gordon on the new strategy for Afghanistan

By Stephen Tall | Wed 2nd December 2009 - 9:25 pm

There’s no doubt today’s PMQs belonged to Gordon Brown. It’s not necessarily that he answered the questions any better than usual – that seems to be an acknowledged superfluity for the Prime Minister – but his performance was miles more energetic and confident than usual.

Mr Brown was also helped by an over-defensive David Cameron, who seemed to have no quips prepared for the inevitable assaults by the Prime Minister on the Tories’ tax cuts for millionaires, and the tax-avoiding non-dom status of Tory candidate Zac Goldsmith. Especially effective were the Prime Minister’s withering put-downs – “The more he talks, …

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Posted in PMQs | Tagged , , , and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

‘Best of the Noughties’: LDV’s Polls of the Decade

By Stephen Tall | Tue 1st December 2009 - 12:55 pm

It’s December, folks, and the last month of the decade* we’ve never quite been able to bring ourselves to call ‘The Noughties’. In celebration of its passing, Lib Dem Voice will be running a series of polls for which we’re seeking your help.

What categories would you like to see polled? My draft list of 21 includes the following politics, media and culture ‘Best ofs’:

  • Liberal Democrat Politician of the Decade
  • Liberal Democrat Backbencher of the Decade
  • Conservative Politician of the Decade
  • Labour Politician of the Decade
  • Most Influential Campaigner of the Decade
  • Best Political Speech of the Decade
  • Best

…

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Posted in LDV Awards and Voice polls | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV doesn’t do statporn, but if we did (Nov. ‘09)

By Stephen Tall | Tue 1st December 2009 - 12:50 pm

… We’d say a big thank you to the 29,252 ‘absolute unique visitors’* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in November.

This brings our absolute unique visitor readership for the last year to date (1 Dec 2008 – 30 Nov 2009) to 292,073, over 40% higher than the equivalent figure for 2007-08 of 205,099.

The 5 top-read stories during the month were:

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Stephen Tall

LDVideo: Nick speaks about launch of Lib Dem tax plans

By Stephen Tall | Mon 30th November 2009 - 6:45 pm

Here for LDV readers’ delectation is Nick Clegg speaking to camera just after launching the Lib Dems’ tax proposals for the next election: tax cuts for millions of people paid for by closing tax loopholes, making polluters pay and introducing a mansion tax on homes worth over £2m.

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Posted in News and YouTube | Tagged and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Vince’s revamped Mansion Tax gets ‘twumbs-up’ from Susan Kramer

By Stephen Tall | Mon 30th November 2009 - 3:05 pm

Ever since the Lib Dems shadow chancellor Vince Cable launched his proposed Mansion Tax on an unsuspecting world in September, there has been a suspicion that neighbouring Richmond Lib Dem MP Susan Kramer – who faces a tough battle against trustafarian Tory Zac Goldsmith – was, how shall we put this?, a little less than enamoured of the proposal that those living in houses worth £1m would be taxed more.

In a BBC interview, Susan declined the opportunity to support the tax as originally proposed, while the Hounslow Chronicle summed it up bluntly, and I suspect accurately: …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , and | 21 Comments
Stephen Tall

Zac Goldsmith’s non-dom tax status: your LDV reader

By Stephen Tall | Mon 30th November 2009 - 12:15 pm

Plenty of coverage – both in the national media and on Lib Dem blogs – of the Sunday Times’ revelations that multimillionaire Tory candidate for Richmond Park Zac Goldsmith has ‘non-dom’ status to avoid paying tax in the UK on any of his offshore wealth.

Here’s what Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay, Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, said:

He’s not fit to sit in Parliament when he’s claimed non-dom status all his life to keep his offshore hundreds of millions free of income, capital gains or inheritance tax.”

Here’s a round-up of some of the news coverage:

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Posted in News | Tagged | 20 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg announces new Lib Dem tax policies with emphasis on fairness

By Stephen Tall | Mon 30th November 2009 - 11:35 am

As I write, Nick Clegg and Vince Cable are setting out the framework of ‘the party’s tax policies, the philosophical basis that underpins them and the contrast between the Liberal Democrats’ policies and those of the other two parties.’

This has been well trailed in the media this morning, with Nick conducting a series of media interviews. Much focus so far on the tweak to the ‘mansion tax’ proposals that Vince mooted at conference to public acclaim, but some disquiet among his own Parliamentary colleagues (many of whom knew nothing about it in advance).

The party has responded to criticisms made of the tax, especially in marginal seats in the south of England, by lifting the threshold at which the annual levy is paid to cover all houses worth more than £2m, and doubling the levy from 0.5% to 1% to ensure even more money is raised by the new tax.

The revenue raised from this and other measures (such as green taxes) will be ploughed back into the party’s spending priorities, including raising the tax threshold for the poorest in society.

Here’s some of the media coverage so far:

BBC Online:

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 5 Comments
Stephen Tall

Those Lib Dem donation figures in full (Q3, 2009)

By Stephen Tall | Mon 30th November 2009 - 10:30 am

The Electoral Commission has published the latest donation and borrowing figures for the political parties this week, and its website allow us to gain a picture of the Lib Dems’ fundraising efforts over the years. Below is the full breakdown of cash and non-cash donations received by quarter since 2005, and annually between 2001 and 2004.

Lots of familiar names on the 2009 Q3 list, with five/six-figure gifts coming from the following: Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust (£231k), Bloomberg Tradebook Europe Limited (£25k), Mr Christopher Nicholson (£21.5k), Professor John Howson (£10k), Mrs Joan Ramsden (£10k), and Philip Young (£10k).

Fewer Parliamentarians than normal contributed this quarter – the most generous I spot-checked were:

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Posted in News | Tagged | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

Daily View 2×2: 30 November 2009

By Stephen Tall | Mon 30th November 2009 - 7:45 am

Welcome to a new week, and the anniversary of the end of the invasion of Iraq … first time round, that is – Operation Desert Storm officially finished in 1995. And happy birthday to David Mamet, Billy Idol, Lorraine Kelly and Gary Lineker and Gael García Bernal. On with the day …

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

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

Richmond Park: Lib Dem Hold (Jonathan Calder)

… some will ask how extraordinary personal wealth can be squared with [his’ talk in an

…

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Posted in Daily View | Tagged , , , , , , and | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #145

By Stephen Tall | Sun 29th November 2009 - 10:50 am

Welcome to the 145th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (22nd – 28th November 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, partly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget, by the way, you can now sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox – just click here – ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down:

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Stephen Tall

The LDV Saturday caption competition – the Nick ‘n’ Vince show

By Stephen Tall | Sat 28th November 2009 - 12:10 pm

There’s no prize at stake – just the opportunity to prove you’re wittier than any other LDV reader …

nick and vince

Here’s the Lib Dem leadership duumvirate of Nick Clegg and Vince Cable – what do you think they might be saying to each other, or thinking about each other?

The winner of last week’s caption competition, Nick Clegg’s microscope, (according to The Voice’s judging panel of one) – was Alex Foster, with a highly commended placing to Joe Taylor Condliffe.

Posted in Caption Comp | 9 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo … Mandy, Clegg and Coulson

By Stephen Tall | Sat 28th November 2009 - 10:30 am

Welcome to the latest LDVideo instalment, featuring three of the most memorable video clips doing the rounds on the blogosphere.

First up, is a rather catchy little email ditty in honour of Lord Mandelson’s implausible-but-deadly-serious Digital Econmy Bill, courtesy of Dan Bull:

As Dan would wish me to add: If you disapprove of the Bill, sign the petition, or write your own message to Lord Mandelson.

Second up, here’s Nick Clegg’s second question from this week’s PMQs – and it’s a real barnstormer, which has earned Nick deserved acclaim from across the political spectrum:

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Stephen Tall

Even top Tory admits their shadow cabinet “haven’t run a piss-up in a brewery”

By Stephen Tall | Sat 28th November 2009 - 7:30 am

The Public Finance website reports the comments of Stephen Greenhalgh, Tory leader of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and head of the Conservative councils’ innovation unit, at a debate two days ago:

‘My mates are all in the shadow Cabinet, waiting to get those boxes, being terribly excited. I went to university with them, they haven’t run a piss-up in a brewery,’ he said.

‘They’re going to get a department of state, in one case running the finances of the nation.’

Greenhalgh pointed to other countries, such as France and the US, where members of the government had typically

…

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Stephen Tall

The LDV Friday Five (ish): 27/11/09

By Stephen Tall | Fri 27th November 2009 - 8:55 pm

What could be simpler: five categories, each with five links. And it’s Friday.

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

1. Lib Dem HQ: read what Nick said, not what the press reported! (67) by Stephen Tall
2. Lib Dem Voice publishes exclusive general election prediction (54) by Mark Pack
3. +++ OFFICIAL: Lib Dems cleared by Electoral Commission over Michael Brown’s £2.4m donation (33) by Stephen Tall
4. Clegg asserts Lib Dems’ ‘hung parliament’ equidistance. (The headline you won’t read in today’s papers). (28) by Stephen Tall
5. Prime Minister removes all Christmas imagery from official Christmas cards (9) by Mark Pack

5 recent Lib Dem tweets

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Posted in Friday Five | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

Probably the most inappropriate Christmas card ever sent …

By Stephen Tall | Fri 27th November 2009 - 3:25 pm

The year is 1938, and you’re looking for a suitably seasonal picture for the front of your Christmas cards. A festive image which will convey seasonal goodwill to all humanity.

What could better symbolise those eternal truths than an international peace treaty signed by the two major European powers which had once been at war? And so it came to pass that this Christmas card was produced and exchanged some seven decades ago:

Chamberlain & Hitler

And here’s what it said inside:

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Posted in Europe / International | Tagged , and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Huhne slams “shameful” Johnson over McKinnon extradition: “stop being an American poodle and start being a British bulldog”

By Stephen Tall | Fri 27th November 2009 - 10:15 am

Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne has slammed the decision of Labour’s Alan Johnson to refuse to block the extradition of Gary McKinnon – the self-confessed computer hacker with Asperger’s – to the US on medical grounds.

It is appalling that this Government places a higher value on a deeply unfair extradition agreement than it does on the welfare of a British citizen. Alan Johnson has shamefully turned down the opportunity to demonstrate his faith in British justice and save a vulnerable man from a lifetime in prison or worse.

“The Home Secretary must now step in and ensure that

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

Tories hoist by their own Christmas card

By Stephen Tall | Thu 26th November 2009 - 10:25 am

David Cameron two years ago:

The idea that anyone ever could be offended by a Christmas card that says “Merry Christmas and happy new year” and we’ve got to send one saying “Season’s greetings”; I think it’s just insulting tosh. ‘In fact, people – Muslims and Jews – are offended because it’s treating them in a silly and politically correct way.

Spool forward a couple of seasons Christmases, and there are more than a few red faces at Tory HQ, as The Times’s Ruth Gledhill notes :

Two years ago, David Cameron, the Conservative leader, said banning Nativity

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 12 Comments
Stephen Tall

PMQs: Nick tackles Gordon on Labour’s “suffocating and shameful culture of secrecy”

By Stephen Tall | Wed 25th November 2009 - 9:05 pm

Ah, the joy of PMQs – Nick asks Gordon a question, Gordon fails to answer a totally different question to the one Nick asks. It’s a regular pattern, but today it was clear to everyone that the Lib Dem leader had floored the Prime Minister over the issue of Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry into the events leading up to the invasion of Iraq.

Nick laid the trap neatly, asking the simple and straightforward question:

It is vital that the Iraq inquiry, which started its work this week, is able to reveal the full truth about the decisions leading up to the

…

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Posted in PMQs | Tagged , , , , and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

Is downloading porn a reason to disqualify a councillor?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 25th November 2009 - 2:25 pm

The BBC has this local story:

A former Somerset councillor has been disqualified from holding office after “illegal and pornographic material” was found on his council-owned laptop. Andrew Woolley was elected as a Liberal Democrat councillor for the Lyngford Ward of Taunton Deane Borough Council in May 2007. Due to the nature of the material found on Mr Woolley’s laptop it was referred to the Adjudication Panel for England. The panel ruled that he be disqualified from holding office for two years. …

During the time he was in office he was given two council-owned laptops to help him in his

…

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Posted in Local government | 35 Comments
Stephen Tall

So, farewell then, Richard

By Stephen Tall | Tue 24th November 2009 - 1:25 pm

Lib Dem Voice sadly bids au revoir to one of our Contributing Editors – Richard Huzzey has understandably but reluctantly decided that his work on the other side of the Atlantic must come first.

On behalf of the whole LDV team, can I thank Richard for all he’s done, both ‘behind the scenes’ and for the public blog, writing approaching 150 articles for the site in the three years he’s been associated with it. His first post, Thoughts on the Amazing Mrs Pritchard, continues to pick up a steady stream of Google-inspired traffic to the site. You can read …

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Posted in Site news | Tagged | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

What should be done with the PCC?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 23rd November 2009 - 6:15 pm

That’s the question asked in today’s Media Guardian, following the controversies associated with the Press Complaints Commission in the last month.

First, there was the PCC’s ruling that the Daily Mail didn’t owe Iain Dale an apology for branding him ‘overtly gay’. Then there were the record-breaking 22,000 complaints submitted to the PCC following the Daily Mail’s publication of a snide piece by Jan Moir attacking Boyzone singer Stephen Gately’s lifestyle and implying it contributed to his death.

And then the PCC’s new Chair, Baroness Buscombe, delivered a lacklustre and confused address to the Society of Editors, before setting any number of hares running by suggesting the PCC might have a role in regulating blogging.

Finally, the Guardian’s editor Alan Rushbridger quit the PCC’s oddly named Code Committee after the regulator’s pusillanimous response into allegations of illegal phone hacking by a number of tabloid newspapers.

All in all, a busy month for the PCC.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , , and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dem HQ: read what Nick said, not what the press reported!

By Stephen Tall | Mon 23rd November 2009 - 10:25 am

An email pings into LDV’s email inbox from the Lib Dems’ director of election communications, Jonny Oates, stating categorically that Nick Clegg did not express a preference for dealing with the Tories over Labour.

Now it has been known, just occasionally, for Nick to speak a little faster than he thinks. But, as I posted here, yesterday Nick really was crystal clear about how he would approach the vexed question of a ‘hung Parliament’ – and still the media managed to distort his remarks! In rebutting today’s inaccurate press reports, all Jonny had had to do is reproduce the …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 69 Comments
Stephen Tall

Clegg asserts Lib Dems’ ‘hung parliament’ equidistance. (The headline you won’t read in today’s papers).

By Stephen Tall | Mon 23rd November 2009 - 10:10 am

It’s a long time since LDV has carried a ‘Media Moron Watch’ feature … but if we were still running it, the spoils today would be shared by pretty much every newspaper. Here are the headlines from the so-called quality press today:

From which headlines a disinterested reader would conclude the following: Nick Clegg has categorically ruled out doing a deal …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 30 Comments
Stephen Tall

Daily View 2×2: 23 November 2009

By Stephen Tall | Mon 23rd November 2009 - 7:45 am

It’s the 23rd November – which means great celebrations in (parts of) the Lib Dem blogosphere at the 46th anniversary since the first broadcast of Doctor Who. And it’s happy birthday, too, to Zoë Ball and Kirsty Young.

2 Must-Read Blog-Posts

Why we should not be afraid of a hung parliament (Mark Thompson)

A hung parliament is the sort of scenario that the Lib Dems been waiting for for years. It would finally give us a chance to wield some real power and exert our influence on policy and politics in a way that had been denied to us previously.


Cagoules, Coat Hangers and Cake – A taster of the Bloggers’ Unconference (Caron Lindsay)

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Posted in Daily View | Tagged , , and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #144

By Stephen Tall | Sun 22nd November 2009 - 8:15 pm

Welcome to the 143rd of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (8th – 14th November 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, partly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget, by the way, you can now sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox – just click here – ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down:

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Posted in Best of the blogs | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

A look back at the polls: October ’09

By Stephen Tall | Sun 22nd November 2009 - 8:05 am

We tend not to be too poll-obsessed here at LDV – of course we look at them, as do all other politico-geeks, but viewed in isolation no one poll will tell you very much beyond what you want to read into it. Looked at over a reasonable time-span and, if there are enough polls, you can see some trends.

Here, in chronological order, are the results of the 19 polls published in October – the number is extra high again this month because of the daily YouGov tracker polls which ran during party conference season. (And many apologies for the delayed appearance of the round-up; it was my LDV colleague Iain’s post today which reminded me this needed publishing).

Tories 41.0, Labour 29.0, Lib Dems 17.0 (2 Oct, YouGov)
Tories 40.0, Labour 27.0, Lib Dems 20.0 (5 Oct, YouGov)

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Posted in Polls | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

The LDV Saturday caption competition – Nick Clegg’s microscope

By Stephen Tall | Sat 21st November 2009 - 12:30 pm

There’s no prize at stake – just the opportunity to prove you’re wittier than any other LDV reader …

nick clegg microscope

Here’s Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg campaigning in Winchester – what do you think he might be saying/thinking?

The winner of the most recent caption competition, Nick Clegg’s desk-job (according to The Voice’s judging panel of one) – Andy Mayer.

Posted in Caption Comp | Tagged | 16 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo … Balls, Murdoch & Jon Culshaw’s Brown rap

By Stephen Tall | Sat 21st November 2009 - 8:30 am

Welcome to the latest LDVideo instalment, featuring three of the most memorable video clips doing the rounds on the blogosphere.

First up is Ed Balls – the guy might have a debating style reminiscent of a school bully demanding tuck money, but here he completely out-smarts tongue-tied Tory education spokesman Michael Gove:


(Hat-tip: Sam Coates).

The second clip shows Rupert Murdoch furiously denying suggestions that he alleged President Obama made a racist remark, followed by Rupert Murdoch alleging that President Obama made a racist remark:

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Posted in YouTube | Tagged , , , and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

The LDV Friday Five (ish): 20/11/09

By Stephen Tall | Fri 20th November 2009 - 6:25 pm

What could be simpler: five categories, each with five links. And it’s Friday.

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

1. NEW POLL: Who do you least want to be Prime Minister in a year’s time: Gordo or Dave? (43) by Stephen Tall
2. How do the messages on the main political party websites compare? (10) by Mark Pack
3. A Labour gain, but no revival (25) by Iain Roberts
4. Lib Dem Voice publishes exclusive general election prediction (43) by Mark Pack
5. Nick’s Sheffield Hallam opponent quits as Tory candidate after just 10 days (15) by The Voice

5 recent Lib Dem tweets

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Stephen Tall

+++ OFFICIAL: Lib Dems cleared by Electoral Commission over Michael Brown’s £2.4m donation

By Stephen Tall | Fri 20th November 2009 - 11:11 am

Here’s the full statement just released by the Electoral Commission:

Donations by 5th Avenue Partners Limited to the Liberal Democrats: statement

20 Nov 2009

The Electoral Commission, the independent elections and party finance watchdog, today announced the outcome of its investigation into donations made by the company 5th Avenue Partners Ltd to the Liberal Democrats. Donations totalling over £2.4m were made in 2005.

The investigation considered whether there had been breaches of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA). In particular, it looked at whether the company, reported as the donor, was a permissible donor. It also considered whether the company

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 34 Comments
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