Happy Monday morning everyone. Just 213 years ago today saw the Last Invasion of Britain: look away now if you don’t want to know the result. We beat the French. The 22nd February is also the birthday of three of this country’s greatest entertainers: Kenneth Williams (1926), Bruce Forsyth (1928) and Terry Eagleton (1943).

But enough of such tarrying, and on with the main event …

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:

• Everyone mourns Purnell: Giles Wilkes ponders post-Purnell politics

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• The (non) religious basis of Liberal Democrat support: Mark Pack looks at some intriguing polling.

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 Lib Dem Stories

Lib Dems criticise £20m Whitehall flight bill

The BBC reports:

The Liberal Democrats have criticised government departments for spending more than £20m in a year on UK flights. The party said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) spent the most – nearly £16m on 175,000 domestic flights last year. Overall government departments spent more than £21.8m on more than 210,000 flights in 2008-09, it said.

The party’s shadow energy and climate change secretary, Simon Hughes, is not impressed:

Civil servants are spending staggering amounts of taxpayers’ cash flying around the UK. Ministers need to get a grip. Government staff should set an example, and use trains and video-conferencing more so they fly around the country less. The Civil Service Code needs to change so that environmental factors are considered when travel bookings are made.”

Vince attacks “Tory electioneering at its most cynical”

Vince Cable, the Lib Dems’ shadow chancellor, has given short shrift to his Tory oppostie number George Osborne’s suggestion of a “people’s bonus” for UK taxpayers from the now-state-owened banks:

Dangling this prospect, when UKFI has said it will take at least 5 years before the likes of RBS are back in private hands, is Tory electioneering at its most cynical. They have no understanding of the economy they are aspiring to run.

“The nationalised and semi nationalised banks should be re-privatised when the conditions are right to maximise tax payer return. Selling shares off at a discounted rate will not achieve this. These banks should be set the concrete objective of ensuring lending to sound small and medium sized businesses who are the drivers of our economic recovery.

“Actively encouraging people on very low incomes to invest in a volatile share market beggars belief and shows just how removed the Tories are from everyday reality. A young couple on low income is more concerned with putting food on the table than speculating on the stock market.

“If the Tories were actually committed to helping people on they would be trying to instil fairness into the tax system instead of coming up with this ill conceived attempt to buy their vote.”