That’s the verdict of the Director of the Adam Smith Institute, Dr Eamonn Butler, in an interview with Politics.co.uk, following today’s publication of Lib Dem proposals to combat poverty and inequality:

“It looks like they’re thinking in the right direction. It sounds like fresh thinking and that’s always welcome from politicians because it’s so rare. The Liberal party does seem to be getting more liberal. It went through years of trying to be Labour and now it’s getting more liberal. There’s a need for that in politics because of all this ‘nannying’.”

For some Lib Dem members, …

This from BBC Online:

The Liberal Democrats have unveiled plans which they say would lift five million people out of “relative poverty” and end “dependency culture”. The party plans to introduce incentives for working, saving and studying. It also says it wants to remove higher earners from the Tax Credits system and cut the number claiming means-tested benefits by 10 million by 2020.

There’s some more detail over at the ePolitix website, here – but nothing yet on the party’s website: will update when there is.

Update: the party press release, with further details of the proposals, is here.

Update 2: …

And it’s causing ructions in Bideford Town Council in Devon. The full Mail story is here, while the North Devon Gazette’s report is here.

Putting aside the faux-outrage of the Mail’s typical nudge-nudge coverage – complete with large, provocative photos – there are some interesting issues here:

– should the fact that Cllr Bushell operates a sex-line from home preclude her from standing for elected office under the Lib Dem banner?
– did she tell her local party about these activities before seeking election as a Lib Dem?
– how did the Bushells get elected as Lib Dems when not (it seems) …

The Herald has the story:

The party’s accounting unit missed a deadline to hand over final figures to the Electoral Commission. Parties can face a hefty fine over failure to submit accounts. … A Lib Dem spokeswoman said a copy of the draft accounts was submitted to the commission on the Monday after the July 7 deadline and blamed the delay on an “administrative error”.

Clearly the Lib Dem leader has been putting a lot of thought into this, and has shared with BBC Online the following order of likelihood of the date of the next general election:

October 2007 – 15%
May 2008 – 35%
May 2009 – 50%

Well, as Alan Hansen would say, you’ve got to play percentages.

A Lib Dem councillor has defected to Labour in Oxford, the fourth defection from the group in 15 months – two to Labour, two to the Independents (who later became Tories). Oxford city council is currently run as a Lib Dem minority administration.

Declaration of interest: I’m a member of the Lib Dem group in Oxford (with no intention of defecting, I hasten to add). One thing unites all four defections – they were without warning, and had nothing to do with policy disagreements raised within the group. Defections are motivated by many things; sadly, it seems rarely to be …

The Government’s revelation that 2.5 million foreigners have moved to the UK in the past five years has drawn this response from Lib Dem shadow home secretary Nick Clegg:

“Whilst these figures do not show how many of these workers have already returned home, they certainly confirm that the numbers are considerably higher than the Government first estimated.

“A liberal open immigration policy only makes sense if you also plan for its consequences. It is clear that the Government has failed to plan adequately both in terms of housing and funding for local services.

“It should be remembered, however,

…

Labour’s top fundraisers and donors may have been saved from chokey by the Crown Prosecution Service last week, but they still have to run the gauntlet of the House of Commons’ Public Affairs Committee.

The committee halted its investigation into ‘cash for honours’ to avoid prejudicing any trial proceedings, but now there are no such restrictions. Among those likely to be called give evidence are Met assistant commissioner John Yates, the top cop who led the police investigation.

Lib Dem MP Paul Rowen said in today’s Daily Mail: “My view is that there is a lot more to this than meets …

Chris Huhne is extensively quoted in today’s Guardian following his revelations that the Labour government failed to overhaul flood defences and drainage after problems were highlighted by a Department for the Environment review three years ago.

“The government has been looking at an integrated approach for more than three years, but did not act on its own analysis in 2005. Ministers have been in and out of the revolving door at the department, and now we are to have another review to look at exactly the same issues again.”

The full Guardian report is here; the official Lib Dem press statement …