There appears to be no escape from day editor duty for this walrus, but it’s the last Friday before Christmas, Parliament has adjourned until 7 January, and most of you are beginning to think about presents, turkey and things that rhyme with holly. However, my colleagues in LDV Towers are still beavering away, and there’s still quite a lot happening, so let’s see what we’ve got today.

We’ve got some good news from Lincolnshire, with a marvellous by-election gain, and the pan-European Liberal manifesto for next year’s elections has been published. Whilst some of our readers probably won’t like it, it’s not bad at all in my opinion. But see what you think when I report on it this afternoon.

Tessa Munt has been expressing her views on working with the Conservatives in the Daily Mirror (I wouldn’t think that many Tories will see it, so she should be safe there!), and we can pass on news of a list of the top 10 active MPs on Twitter this year. Which three Liberal Democrats do you think might be on that list?

There’ll be more results of the recent member survey, courtesy of Stephen Tall, and we also have another maiden speech from the Lords, this time it’s Rumi Verjee, and I happen to think that it was one of the more powerful such speeches from this year’s intake.

Bill le Breton is back with some thoughts on the impact of the US Federal Reserve’s move on quantative easing, and Jemima Bland has some facts for anyone worried about the hordes of Bulgars and Romanians supposedly heading our way. Keep calm and drink rakia, is what I say.

* Mark Valladares is today’s acting Day Editor. There are worse things in life…