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Karen Wilkinson

Opinion: Legal Aid – the new NHS?

By Karen Wilkinson | Published Sun 25th September 2011 - 2:45 pm

The aspect of Conference I most value is the opportunity to hear first hand from Ministers, MPs and Lords the thought processes and details of what we are doing in Government and to see them listen to the feedback from those who are delivering the relevant services on the ground.

A fringe debate on the NHS I attended this week was a great example of that – an open, constructive, intelligent exchange of differing views which left a clear sense that our party in government is listening and acting and has a plan.

Contrast that with the fringe meeting convened by

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

Memo to LabourList’s Paul Richards… Feel free to keep obsessing. It’ll lose you the next election.

By Stephen Tall | Published Fri 23rd September 2011 - 7:40 am

I think it’s safe to assume that LabourList’s Paul Richards is not Nick Clegg’s greatest fan.

What prompts me to leap to this conclusion? Well, I guess if you headline your article profiling the Lib Dem leader ‘A snivelling, venal, ruthless social climber’ you’re making some kind of statement.

I’d highly recommend reading Paul’s post in full if only to gain an appreciation of the impotent fury, this red mist, which is clouding the Labour party’s judgment. Here’s a flavour:

Some make the mistake of saying that the reason why Clegg so naturally fits into a Tory government is because he

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , | 20 Comments
Helen Duffett

Blog of the Year Awards 2011: The Winners #LDBOTY

By Helen Duffett | Published Sat 17th September 2011 - 10:35 pm

What’s loosely termed the awards “ceremony” for the 2011 Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year Awards has just drawn to a glittering close. As the last firework fades in Birmingham’s night sky, I’m delighted to announce the winners:

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Posted in Best of the blogs | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment
Lynne Featherstone

Lynne Featherstone’s speech to conference

By Lynne Featherstone | Published Sat 17th September 2011 - 6:45 pm

Conference – the Liberal Democrats have now been in Government for more than 500 days.

And I know what you’re all thinking. You’re thinking – this is tough.

And I know that it hasn’t always been easy; and that at times the reality of this Coalition business is very tough.

But that is the point. That is what we are here for.

Because who are we – if not the party who makes the hard calls?

We are the ones who opposed Iraq – when no one else did;

Who championed the Green agenda – when no one else did;

Who warned of the banking crisis – …

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Posted in Conference | 3 Comments
Helen Duffett

Blog of the Year Awards 2011: The Shortlists

By Helen Duffett | Published Fri 16th September 2011 - 10:10 am

Nominations for the Liberal Democrats’ Blog of the Year Awards 2011 closed on 2 September. Since then, the judges Helen Duffett (that’s me), Richard Flowers, Olly Grender, Katie Razzall, Stephen Tall and Martin Tod have been poring over the entries for the six categories.

It’s been a big task, and a fun one, to distil so many excellent examples of Lib Dem blogging and e-campaigning into lists of the five best.

Congratulations if you’ve been shortlisted, but if you haven’t: remember that the shortlists are based on the judges’ subjective opinions. The awards are intended to be a fun way to celebrate the talent in the Lib Dem blogosphere, whilst introducing you to some blogs you might not have read before.

First, a reminder that the winner of the Best non-Liberal Democrat politics blog category will be decided by a public vote here on Liberal Democrat Voice, so please have a read of the nominated blogs and then head on over to the sidebar to cast your vote.

Next, a plug for the awards ceremony itself. If you’re coming to party conference in Birmingham, do come along to the Andante Suite, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Birmingham, from 9.45pm on Saturday 17th September.

Now, without further ado, here are the shortlists: (Drumroll, please)

Blank

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Posted in Best of the blogs | Tagged | 11 Comments
Helen Duffett

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By Helen Duffett | Published Thu 15th September 2011 - 12:53 pm

Why not get our latest headlines by email? Hundreds of Lib Dem Voice readers already do.

Some people like regularly visiting Lib Dem Voice to see the latest stories. Others like to look out for us on Twitter or subscribe to our RSS feed and check that way. And some even read us on their Amazon Kindle.

But if you prefer email, you can sign up for our daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day’s posts from Lib Dem Voice. It has convenient links to click through to the full article, and a note of how many comments each post has got.

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Mark Pack

LibDem conference accreditation: what others have been saying

By Mark Pack | Published Mon 5th September 2011 - 9:38 pm
Despite its length, my blog post over the weekend about the security checks being carried out for Liberal Democrat conference, didn’t go through all the issues in equal detail. So here to make up for some of the areas I wrote less about are some excellent blog posts written by others:

…

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Posted in Conference | Tagged , , | 7 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Interview with Mike Moore MP – Action in Government, ideas for the future

By Caron Lindsay | Published Mon 5th September 2011 - 1:51 pm

Interview: Mike Moore MP –  Action in Government,  ideas for the future

It can’t be much fun being Alex Salmond these days.  The euphoria of May has subsided, and he’s  realised that there’s nobody else to blame for his majority Government’s actions.  On top of that, wherever he looks, he sees the grin of Wilie Rennie,  ready to highlight any example of anglophobia, of  dodging , delaying, ducking and diving. The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader has had accolade after accolade in the press for providing such high quality opposition to the SNP …

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Posted in Op-eds, Scotland | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments
Helen Duffett

Have you nominated your Lib Dem Blog of the Year?

By Helen Duffett | Published Tue 30th August 2011 - 10:23 am

Time’s ticking till close of nominations for the Lib Dem Blog of the Year Awards 2011, so here’s a reminder of the categories and an exhortation to vote!

Nominate up to 3 favourites in any or all of these categories:

  • Best new Liberal Democrat blog (started since 1st September 2010)
  • Best blog from a Liberal Democrat holding public office (The Tim Garden Award)
  • Best use of blogging / social networking / e-campaigning by a Liberal Democrat
  • Best posting on a Liberal Democrat blog (since 1st September 2010)
  • Best non-Liberal Democrat politics blog
  • Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year 2011

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    Posted in Best of the blogs | Tagged | Leave a comment
    Helen Duffett

    Reminder: Lib Dem Blog of the Year Awards 2011 – nominations now open

    By Helen Duffett | Published Wed 24th August 2011 - 10:23 am

    As announced last week, it’s time to nominate your favourite bloggers, campaigners and social networkers in the BOTYs – the sixth annual Lib Dem Blog of the Year Awards.

    This year’s awards are as follows:

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    Posted in Best of the blogs | Tagged | Leave a comment
    Mark Pack

    So you think you know how to improve campaigning? Come to Conference Dragons’ Den

    By Mark Pack | Published Mon 22nd August 2011 - 1:55 pm

    Autumn conference in Birmingham will see a new type of campaigning event which sounds rather fun: a Dragons’ Den style fringe meeting at which people pitch their ideas for new approaches to campaigning.

    The panel will be Alistair Carmichael MP, James Gurling (Chair, Campaigns & Communications Committee), Hilary Stephenson (Director of Elections and Skills) and Kirsty Williams AM. It will be on Sunday 18th September at 1pm in Room 103 of the Jurys Inn.

    Submissions are open to any party member except for Campaigns Department employees.

    Step one is to submit your idea by Monday 12th September to Tim Pollard on [email protected]. …

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    Posted in Conference | Tagged , , , | 12 Comments
    Helen Duffett

    Lib Dem Blog of the Year Awards 2011 – nominations now open

    By Helen Duffett | Published Fri 19th August 2011 - 1:26 pm

    BOTY 2
    The Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year Awards, run by Lib Dem Voice, are back for their sixth year. As usual, they’ll be awarded in a budget lavish ceremony at the party’s autumn conference in Birmingham.

    Click on the following links to see last year’s Shortlist and the Winners.

    This year’s awards are as follows:

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    Posted in Best of the blogs | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Lib Dem Blog of the Year Awards 2011 – nominations now open
    Nick T

    A different species of politician? Nick Clegg’s biography serialised in the Mail

    By Nick T | Published Thu 18th August 2011 - 2:57 pm

    The forthcoming biography of Nick Clegg by Liberal Democrat councillor Chris Bowers was serialised in last weekend’s Mail on Sunday.

    Here’s just a brief extract :

    For a few terrible weeks, Nick Clegg came face to face with his ultimate nightmare. One after the other, his wife and his little boy had fallen gravely ill — and doctors warned that they might not pull through.

    It began when his son, Antonio, then aged two, became feverish and listless. When he was admitted to hospital, Clegg insisted on spending every night at his side.

    According to the doctors, Antonio was suffering from pneumonia. But,

    …

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    Posted in News | Tagged , | 13 Comments
    Helen Duffett

    How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

    By Helen Duffett | Published Mon 15th August 2011 - 12:54 pm

    Why not get our latest headlines by email? Hundreds of Lib Dem Voice readers already do.

    Some people like regularly visiting Lib Dem Voice to see the latest stories. Others like to look out for us on Twitter or subscribe to our RSS feed and check that way. And some even read us on their Amazon Kindle.

    But if you prefer email, you can sign up for our daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day’s posts from Lib Dem Voice. It has convenient links to click through to the full article, and a note of how many comments each post has got.

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    Posted in Site news | Leave a comment
    Caron Lindsay

    Opinion: CentreForum’s parenting report is a step in the right direction

    By Caron Lindsay | Published Sun 7th August 2011 - 2:55 pm

    Liberal think tank CentreForum has produced a report, Parenting Matters, which advises the Government to do more to promote better quality parenting, specifically targeted at those families who need it most.

    Much of the publicity surrounding the report concentrated on its “5 a day” campaign which suggests that parents should:

      1. Read to their child for 15 minutes
      2. Play on the floor with their child for 10 minutes
      3.  Talk to their children for 20 minutes every day with the television off
      4. Adopt positive attitudes to their child and praise them frequently
      5.

    …

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    Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , | 15 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    LDV doesn’t do statporn, but if we did (July 2011)

    By Stephen Tall | Published Sun 7th August 2011 - 1:00 pm

    … We’d say a big thank you to the 34,668 ‘absolute unique visitors’* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in July. This brings our absolute unique visitor readership for the last year to date (1 July 2010 – 30 June 2011) to 509,455.


    The 5 top-read stories during the month were:

    1. Opinion: Nick Clegg didn’t suck up to Murdoch – that’s why his minions tried to destroy him (28) by James Percival
    2. Opinion: Verdict from the first Mayoral Hustings – it’s a two horse race (40) by Simon McGrath
    3. What does the Inverclyde result mean for the Scottish Liberal Democrats?

    …

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    Posted in Site news | Tagged | 4 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    Top 10 tweeting MPs: congratulations to Lib Dem @julianhuppert in at No. 6!

    By Stephen Tall | Published Sun 31st July 2011 - 2:20 pm

    Who are the top 10 Twitterers in the House of Commons? That’s the question the Mail on Sunday answers today, following a survey by Westminster Public Affairs.

    The list looks not at number of followers, but at the volume of tweets each MP has sent out. Heading the list is Labour’s Kerry McCarthy with well over 27,000 tweets. Cambridge’s Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert — elected to Parliament just last year — comes in at number six, having sent over 10,000 tweets, and now with over 4,000 followers.

    My Co-Editor Mark Pack has compiled a …

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    The Voice

    The LDV Friday Five: 22 July 2011

    By The Voice | Published Fri 22nd July 2011 - 5:00 pm

    It’s Friday. It’s five o’clock. Here’s a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week:

    5 most-read stories on LDV this week

    1. LibLink | Vince Cable: I declared war on Murdoch… now everyone agrees with me (25 comments) by Helen Duffett
    2. Police and Crime Commissioners: Lib Dem candidates start here (17 comments) by Helen Duffett
    3. Opinion: David Laws takes another step on the road to redemption (26 comments) by Mark Valladares
    4. Opinion: Stephenson resignation – the bar just got lowered (22 comments) by Richard Morris
    5. Opinion: Cameron’s ten big mistakes – more please! (21 comments) by Paul Walter

    5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

    1. What’s your favourite Murdoch smear of the Lib Dems?
    2. The next battle after Murdoch?
    3. Materials for local campaigning – your views wanted!
    4. FOI requests er… request
    5. Elected Police Commissioners

    5 from the LDV archive

    (22nd July, 2007-10)

    1. An Interview with the Whips Office – comfy chairs will be provided… (0 comments) by Dominic Addington, from 2010
    2. Moving to an elected second chamber – a loss of expertise, or just privilege (9 comments) by Alex Runswick, from 2010
    3. Tall photographer stopped again by police (7 comments) by Helen Duffett, from 2009
    4. CommentIsLinked@LDV… Nick Clegg: MPs’ holiday betrayal (0 comments) by The Voice, from 2009
    5. Join us on Facebook! (1 comment) by Alex Foster, from 2008

    5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

    (excluding Liberal Democrat Voice or its variants)

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    Posted in Friday Five | Leave a comment
    Chris Huhne MP

    Chris Huhne MP writes: Electricity market reform: keeping the lights on in the cheapest, cleanest way

    By Chris Huhne MP | Published Wed 20th July 2011 - 10:42 am

    Last week I unveiled the coalition government’s proposals for the most radical reform of the electricity market since privatisation in the 1980s. The plans set out in the White Paper aim to keep the UK’s lights on and consumer bills down and shift the economy away from a high-risk, high-carbon future.

    With a quarter of the UK’s generating capacity shutting down over the next ten years, as old coal and nuclear power stations close, it’s clear that we have a Herculean task ahead of us. Over the next ten years, more than £110bn in investment is needed to build the …

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    Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 13 Comments
    Helen Duffett

    How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

    By Helen Duffett | Published Fri 15th July 2011 - 12:53 pm

    Why not get our latest headlines by email? Hundreds of Lib Dem Voice readers already do.

    Some people like regularly visiting Lib Dem Voice to see the latest stories. Others like to look out for us on Twitter. And some like to subscribe to our RSS feed and check that way.

    But if you prefer email, you can sign up for our daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day’s posts from Lib Dem Voice. It has convenient links to click through to the full article, and a note of how many comments each post has got.

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Site news | Leave a comment
    Mike Tuffrey

    Mike Tuffrey writes… My kinda campaign … working towards success in 2014

    By Mike Tuffrey | Published Wed 13th July 2011 - 11:53 am

    Ol’ blue eyes himself, Frank Sinatra, used to sing about “My kinda town…” Rest assured, I won’t be singing. But let me tell you about London – my town – and the kind of campaign I intend to run as our candidate to be Mayor of London.

    The test of success in the 2012 campaign isn’t just the number of votes we win in the Mayor contest – it is how many Assembly members we get elected and how many councillors, councils and MEPs we get elected in 2014.

    Our very best London-wide campaigning in the past – such as that led …

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    Posted in London, Op-eds | Tagged , , | 4 Comments
    Helen Duffett

    The News of the World and giving readers what they want

    By Helen Duffett | Published Sat 9th July 2011 - 5:54 pm

    No, not a trailer for your super soaraway Lib Dem Voice on Sunday, but a quick quirk-alert on reader figures at our site this week.

    It’s one of my jobs at Lib Dem Voice to keep an eye on the stats, including visitor numbers, popular posts, search terms and lots of other data.

    These give us blogging ideas, help us to plan (and sometimes crow), and are another strand of audience feedback – alongside the comments threads, survey responses, emails and phonecalls, and of course the articles themselves that people submit.

    So I thought I’d briefly share a surprising finding from …

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    Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , | 8 Comments
    Richard Flowers

    Opinion: Nick Clegg should call for an independent inquiry into phone hacking

    By Richard Flowers | Published Wed 6th July 2011 - 9:23 am

    Yesterday, Nick Clegg called the phone hacking allegations “Grotesque” and “beneath contempt”. Today, he needs to tell the Prime Minister self-regulation by News International has failed and it is time for an independent judicial inquiry.

    As Liberals, our first position has to be protection of the individual from an over-mighty vested interest. It is clear that individuals within News International in particular and the wider press in general have taken the power of the free media and abused it. That needs to be stopped.

    If we cannot appeal to the Prime Minister’s moral values, we can at least appeal to his …

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    Posted in Op-eds | 8 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    LDV doesn’t do statporn, but if we did (June 2011)

    By Stephen Tall | Published Sat 2nd July 2011 - 12:05 pm

    … We’d say a big thank you to the 39,604 ‘absolute unique visitors’* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in June. This brings our absolute unique visitor readership for the last year to date (1 July 2010 – 30 June 2011) to 522,590.


    The 5 top-read stories during the month were:

    1. Andrew Reeves passes away (38) by Mark Pack
    2. Response: Chair of Federal Conference Committee on increased security measures (153) by Andrew Wiseman
    3. Why Simon Kelner is wrong to defend Johann Hari (27) by Stephen Tall
    4. Opinion: Why you should be taking Lembit Opik seriously (61) by Richard Clare

    …

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    Posted in Site news | Tagged | 2 Comments
    Caron Lindsay

    What does the Inverclyde result mean for the Scottish Liberal Democrats?

    By Caron Lindsay | Published Fri 1st July 2011 - 6:51 pm

    As Helen Duffett reported early this morning, the Inverclyde by-election saw Labour holding on to the seat, but with a dramatically reduced majority over the SNP. This was always going to be a tight fight between those two. You would think that Labour would be the likely victor, but the SNP came within 500 votes of unseating them in May’s elections. With the SNP in majority control at Holyrood, how would they fare in this first electoral test?

    Scotland has felt very different since the Holyrood elections. The political environment feels a lot darker. In the run up to the …

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    Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , | 25 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    LDVideo: That Ed Miliband TV interview car crash in full

    By Stephen Tall | Published Fri 1st July 2011 - 3:55 pm

    Poor Ed Miliband. The Labour leader would have been hoping public attention today would be focused on his his party’s defence of its Inverclyde stronghold — instead, everyone’s watching his car-crash TV interview in which he reformulates a soundbite repeatedly in order to insert the words ‘negotiating table’ and ‘these strikes are wrong’ into every sentence.

    The result? A distinctly odd, unnatural, automated interview which fuels the ‘Awkward Ed’ media meme.

    Part of me feels a little sorry for Mr Miliband. Clearly he was under the impression that only one line would be extracted from the interview; not unreasonably he was keen to ensure that it was the line which conveyed his key message rather than the news editor’s. Such is the challenge for all politicians in our ‘say it in 7 seconds’ media culture. But, as Iain Duncan Smith found to his cost as Tory leader when he nervously chuckled his way through a Radio 4 Today Programme interview, it’s these kinds of moments which stand out in the public consciousness.

    Anyway, enough analysing: just sit back and enjoy.

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    Posted in YouTube | Tagged , | 8 Comments
    Mark Pack

    30 things every would-be politician should do this summer

    By Mark Pack | Published Thu 30th June 2011 - 10:53 am

    Inspired originally by Journalism Grads: 30 Things You Should Do This Summer and prompted by Stephen Tall, it’s become a summer tradition for me to run a list of 30 suggestions for would-be politicians, particularly those new to public office or seeking it in the next few years.

    As ever, a new summer brings a new lick of paint for the list, with a few updates here and there and my thanks to those who commented on the previous lists:

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    Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 7 Comments
    Lee Dargue

    Opinion: The Social Liberal Conference was a major success

    By Lee Dargue | Published Mon 20th June 2011 - 9:41 am

    The SLF conference was a major success. Yes, it was “full” – David Hall-Mathews careful not to refer to the event as “sold out”. Yes, lots of people debated and tweeted like crazy on subjects ranging from NHS reforms to the history of the American fridge. But it wasn’t the numbers or amount of talking we did which was the most important. It was the fact that there is still a groundswell of progressives alive and well in the Liberal Democrats. In fact, since entering government with the Conservative party, and with a recent “win” (yet to see how it …

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    Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments
    Iain Roberts

    Thank you EARS, but the VAN is coming

    By Iain Roberts | Published Sun 19th June 2011 - 3:20 pm

    Back in March, Mark Pack reported on a momentous move in the Lib Dems: from the EARS election software to Voter Activation Network, or VAN, which is used by Democrats in the US and the Canadian Liberal Party, amongst others.

    EARS has done sterling service for the party over the years. I first used the DOS version of the software in the mid-nineties, when it had already been around for a few years. Younger readers may not have encountered the joys of the paper “Shuttleworths” that were used before EARS: sheet after sheet of knock-up lists, laboriously …

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    Posted in News | Tagged , | 54 Comments
    Mark Pack

    Chris Huhne: we need smart regulation in the energy sector

    By Mark Pack | Published Sun 19th June 2011 - 1:25 pm

    Yesterday Chris Huhne spoke at the Social Liberal Forum‘s conference on smart regulation for the energy sector:

    It’s a pleasure to speak at the first conference of the Social Liberal Forum.

    We Liberal Democrats have always prided ourselves as a party of ideas – and they’re needed more than ever now that we’re in government. Whatever your view of The Orange Book back in 2004, it did at least trigger a debate about Liberal ideology, about what it means to be a Liberal Democrat in today’s Britain. I was pleased to contribute both to The Orange Book and to its

    …

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    Posted in News | Tagged , , | 8 Comments
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