Welcome to December 11th – only 20 days to go until the end of the year. Four years ago today the top story was the fire at the Buncefield oil depot which injured 43 people and was said to have been the biggest fire of its kind in peacetime Europe.

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:

• Empowering Voices Online

Mary Reid highlights a positive blogging project:

I’ve run a number of blogging workshops in the past, mainly for councillors, but this one is a bit different. It is aimed at people who want to provide a counter-balance to some of the more aggressive extremist and terrorist-supporting views that can be found online.

• Is the return of the monocle a sign that the Old Etonian Tories are taking control or the preparations for a Labour anti-Toff campaign?
  Good question, John Ault – there’s definitely a trend emerging. Tomorrow night, London Underground’s last circular Circle Line service will run (with me on it). From Sunday 13 December, the Circle Line will be shaped more like a…you guessed it… Cue conspiracy theory.

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

Obama defends war as he accepts Nobel peace prize
From the Independent:

“I face the world as it is,” Obama said, refusing to renounce war for his nation or under his leadership, saying that he is obliged to protect and defend the United States.

“A nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies. Negotiations cannot convince al-Qaida’s leaders to lay down their arms,” Obama said. “To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism, it is a recognition of history.”

The president laid out the circumstances where war is justified — in self-defense, to come to the aid of an invaded nation, or on humanitarian grounds, such as when civilians are slaughtered by their own government or a civil war threatens to engulf an entire region.

“The belief that peace is desirable is rarely enough to achieve it,” he said.

MPs’ expenses: Cabinet facing fresh questions over latest claims
From the Telegraph:

Senior members of the Government were among MPs who went on a multi-million-pound spending spree last year in the run-up to a clampdown on parliamentary expenses.

Records released by Parliament showed that MPs claimed £10.7million towards their second homes in the 2008-09 financial year – an average of more than £17,000 for every MP outside inner London.

Following the release of the documents, Gordon Brown announced that he would repay £500 he had claimed for a “summer house” at his Scottish home to be redecorated. The Prime Minister conceded that the claim could be seen as “questionable”.