The latest edition of Liberator magazine (issue no.333 – May 2009) has just landed on subscribers’ doormats. We went to press just before the MPs’ expenses scandal broke so you’ll search in vain for gratuitous finger-wagging about trouser presses. Instead, here’s a summary of the contents:

• The editorial column Commentary looks at Labour’s poor record on civil liberties and at the prospects of a change in Liberal Democrat policy on replacing Trident.
• The insider gossip column Radical Bulletin questions the robustness of the Liberal Democrats’ European election campaign.
• Our lead article ‘The MP caught in the kettle’ is written by Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake, who describes his experiences during last month’s G20 demonstrations in the City.
• ‘Never again’ – Dee Doocey (a Liberal Democrat member of the London Assembly and the Metropolitan Police Authority) says that the policing of the recent G20 demonstrations was wrong and fundamental reform is needed.
• ‘Perfect storm’ – Simon Titley reviews Vince Cable’s new book The Storm.
• ‘We know what doesn’t work’ – Michael Meadowcroft says that we can defeat the BNP if we use more effective arguments instead of clumsily reinforcing its supporters’ sense of exclusion.
• ‘Hitting the glass ceiling’ – Elizabeth Sidney (former president of the Women Liberal Democrats) argues that two decades of progress have still left women poorly represented in the political process.
• ‘Labour’s schools wheeze fails’ – Alasdair Smith (national secretary of the Anti Academies Alliance) argues that, while academies were supposed to be the vehicles to turn round failing schools, instead they have consumed money, damaged local education systems and failed to deliver consistent results.
• ‘Saving Europe’s sick man’ – Howard Cohen (a member of the Liberator Collective resident in Budapest) reports from Hungary, where one liberal party has turned into right-wing populists while another is near collapse. He asks whether a third new one can offer hope to a country with a stricken economy.
• ‘Kingdom of pork’ – Vivienne Jackson (who volunteered with the Israeli workers’ rights body Kav LaOved) reports that, like other rich countries, Israel increasingly depends on a semi-visible community of migrant workers.
• ‘It’s time to kill Trident’ – David Grace (a Liberal Democrat Euro candidate for the South-East) argues that Trident costs a fortune and has no use. He asks whether the Liberal Democrats will now oppose its replacement.
• Letters.
• Book reviews.
• Lord Bonkers’ Diary.
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