By Helen Duffett
| Mon 27th September 2010 - 12:08 pm
The BOTYs were quite simply the glitteringest event of the whole Liberal Democrat conference last week, and Lib Dem councillor and blogger Jonathan Wallace was there to film them.
If you look carefully, you might just spot the tail feathers of the last flamingo, as it was startled away by popping flashbulbs. Alas, the heat of said flashbulbs also melted the ice sculptures before Jonathan could film those too, but the video’s well worth watching for the great speeches from winners and presenters alike:
It’s not just been the public making up its mind over the last 24 hours – a number of political bloggers have also declared who they’ll be voting for in the last day. Mostly, this is along party lines, as you might expect. But some have stood out from the crowd – here are three which have caught my eye …
Until this election I have always voted Conservative. … By background I am a tribal Tory, from generations of Birmingham working class Tories and Tory-Unionists dating back to when
Good morning and welcome to the Voice’s early morning roundup of news and views. It’s 5th November, an anniversary we can all remember, when Guy Fawkes didn’t quite manage to get his suggestions for MPs’ expense reform through Parliament. It’s also Art Garfunkel’s birthday – he’s 68 today.
2 Big Stories
Bloody betrayal raises fresh doubts about Britain’s campaign in Afghanistan
The Times carries the story most papers are leading with this morning.
The killing of five British soldiers by an Afghan policeman raised fresh doubts yesterday about Britain’s mission in Helmand.
Senior political, diplomatic and military figures warned that public support for the British presence was in danger of collapse without a clear and freshly defined strategy.
A Conservative MP accused of paying more than £100,000 of public money into his own company announced last night that he would stand down at the general election.
David Wilshire called the allegations “deeply hurtful and unjustified” and predicted he would be cleared by the Commons standards watchdog.
But in a brief statement, he said he had reluctantly decided it would not be “sensible” to seek re-election as the MP for Spelthorne.
By Stephen Tall
| Thu 24th September 2009 - 7:35 pm
Alix Mortimer of the LDV parish rounded up some of the best commentary on the Lib Dem conference here on Sunday – let me try and bring the story up-to-date …
First up, James Graham has had an active conference, popping up a couple of times at the Guardian’s Comment Is Free blog. One was penned jointly with Neal Lawson of Compass – A camp site not a big tent – and made an unabashed pitch for social liberals and liberal socialists – whether they count themselves as Lib Dems, Labour, Greens or even nationalists – to come together in a progressive alliance. Here’s the mission statement:
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 Bournemouth, do head along to Old Harry’s Bar in the Marriott Highcliff Hotel from 9.45pm on Sunday 20th September.
Now, without further ado, here are the shortlists: (Drumroll, please)
Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said that the Tories would cut the rate at which NHS spending was increasing.
The health service would have to “tighten its belt” and accept small increases in its budget, he added.
Afghanistan Rescue Mission Debated
Meanwhile, questions emerged overnight as to the British military intervention to rescue journalist Stephen Farrell:
Military officials tonight defended the decision to launch a dramatic raid to rescue a British journalist from the Taliban, in which his Afghan assistant and a soldier were killed, against angry criticism in
By Stephen Tall
| Tue 1st September 2009 - 9:00 am
It’s six weeks since Total Politics asked blog-readers to vote for their Top 10 favourite blogs in their annual survey promoted here on LDV, as well as at LabourList and Iain Dale’s Diary. More than 1,500 people voted, and here is the full list of the Top 75 Lib Dem blogs in the Total Politics list:
Yesterday we brought you news about the bizarre battle between American rightwingers spreading misinformation about the NHS, and British users of the NHS who were actually quite proud of it.
24 hours later and Tweetminster (which monitors the twitter updates of MPs and PPCs and provides a service where you can search them) reports
65 #welovethenhs tweets from MPs & PPCS. 8 from @UKLabour MPs & 4 PPCs, 3 from @LibDems MPs & 3 PPCs, 1 from @Conservatives PPC
Our own Nick_Clegg was amongst them, as was Prime Minister Brown (whose tweet looks like it’s had help from …
Andy Burnham on “conflicting advice” about swine flu
There’s even conflicting advice on whether “conflicting advice” is actually conflicting…
From the Guardian:
“There isn’t conflicting advice. The advice has been clear all along that women who are pregnant should take extra precautions as they would anyway – they should really follow the advice about hand hygiene, they should consider avoiding crowded places. This is the advice we have given out all the way.”
David Cameron’s ‘new look’ Tory MPs are the most extreme for a generation
From the Mirror:
David Cameron’s claim to have modernised his party is today exposed as a
BNP shunned at European Parliament opening The Times reports on the British National Party MEPs taking their seats yesterday at the opening of the European Parliament:
The new members, Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons, avoided the European anthem and were allocated places 780 and 781, towards the back of the Strasbourg chamber with kindred MEPs from the neo-fascist parties of Belgium, Bulgaria, France and Hungary.
They were immediately shunned by their fellow non-aligned MEP, Diane Dodds, the Democratic Unionist, who refused to take up seat 782 next to Mr Brons. It remained empty throughout the opening session of the
Even to suggest today there are 2 Big Stories other than The One Big Story seems a trifle daft – the news that spread late yesterday evening of the death of Michael Jackson has dominated, and will continue to dominate, news coverage this weekend. RIP the ‘King of Pop’, of course, but spare a thought, too, for Farrah Fawcett, whose death was also announced yesterday, and has been rather overshadowed. If Michael’s death can be likened to that of Princess Diana’s in August ‘97, I guess that makes Farrah the Mother Teresa of June ’09. Anyway…
Simon R Focusing on health is good because it's something that is of direct concern to almost all voters. Social care might be less so in electoral terms because, altho...
Nigel Jones The first question we should be asking is how over the next five years we can speak and act for the improvement of people's quality of life; if we only focus on...
Roland @Joe burke - "that Poland “forced” Hitler to invade by being “uncooperative” with Nazi demands to take territories including Polish city Gdańsk, the...
Joe Bourke In the Ukraine war Russia is the aggressor state that has invaded its neighbour. The territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine was guaranteed by Russia,...
Matt (Bristol) Hi Caron, are you arguing that belief in and acceptance of the concept of self-ID for gender and commitment to change existing legislation to reflect that, shou...
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Jago Hazzard on the complicated history of Turnham Green
Suitably inspired, I return to Suffolk
Investment, investment, investment.
Definitely a Lib Dem conference!
Ed Davey tries to name all the Lib Dem MPs while on a roller coaster
Fraser's West End ward surgeries later today #dundeewestend
What's next?
Simon R 
Nigel Jones 
Roland 
Joe Bourke 
Matt (Bristol) 