The funniest Michael Gove cartoon you'll read this year...

(Helps if you've seen Independence Day)

Follow this link or click the image below to enlarge...

New Parliamentarians - who's got your vote?

While we'd all* like to see an elected Upper Chamber, it is not to be for now - and so the process continues to try and at least make the House of Lords membership broadly representative of the membership of the Commons

To that end - the Daily Mail suggests 15 new Lib Dem members of the House of Lords will be named this week - and they suggest Rumi Verjee will be one. 

But this turned my thoughts to who the other 14 might be. Remembering that I know absolutely nothing and have no inside information whatsoever (before the Lord Chancellor's office or whatever get on the blower), here are a few suggestions of who might make the list.

Do make your own suggestions. And add your criticisms. And do remember - it's just fun...

Olly Grender
Neil Sherlock
Julian Astle
Mark Pack
Chris Fox
Gerald Vernon Jackson
Ian Wrigglesworth
Fiona Hall
Evan Harris
Richard Reeves
Sharon Bowles
Brian Paddick
James Gurling
Tim Leunig

So? Am I barking mad?

* yes, alright, obviously not you Lord Steel....



UPDATE

A C McGregor makes an excellent point here...

Restanding: It's actually all going rather well...

Since I wrote my post the other day about how few of our MPs I knew were definitely restanding in 2015, I wrote to them all bar the 3 I knew were definite 'yes's to ask them their intentions.

I've had a fabulous response.

Many have asked me not to name precise names at this point due to the vagaries and rules around public statements during reselections - but not one single MP (or their office) who has come back to me has said 'no'. Around 20% have said a definitive yes and others have said 'in progress'.

So given the importance of incumbency to the Lib Dems - good piece here I was directed to by @stephen tall about how Lib Dem incumbency is worth an advantage of between 5 and 15% of the vote - things are moving in the right direction. And fast.

And isn't it good to know how responsive our MPs are to questions like this from members?

Slightly odd thing is. Not one female MP has replied as yet. I hope the 'white, middle class Oxbridge Male' thing isn't going to get any worse...

Nick Clegg and Plan B; no news here, move along...

Here's me in The New Statesman on Friday...

As the IMF calls for  Plan B, everyone has got very excited that Nick Clegg has come out and said he thinks cutting spending on infrastructure went too fast at the start – and maybe needs addressing. "It’s another coalition split" goes up the cry…

But it’s not you know. The change in strategy had already been announced. It’s just everyone missed it.

As I said a few weeks ago, the mid-term review marked a shift in the coalition’s priorities. A seismic shift.

The original coalition agreement made one thing very clear. Every pledge, every promise, every plan promised in the manifestos and the agreement itself, would be secondary to one basic principle – that being that

“The deficit reduction programme takes precedence over any of the measures in this agreement”

and I suspect most commentators think that is still the stated priority of the government. Quite a lot of Members of Parliament probably think that too

But it isn’t, you know.

It changed on 7 January. Now, the new coalition agreement or mid-term review says…

“Dealing with the deficit may have been our first task, but our most important task is to build a stronger, more balanced economy”

Which is quite a different thing.

It sounds like the goal now is investment. It’s growth. It’s a boost to the supply side of the economy.

Nick was just re-stating what’s already been announced.

Plan B.

Who Hoo:

Top of the Lib Dem Voice Friday 5 as the most read piece this week. Comments now 138 plus.

An open letter to BBC Question Time about the Extra Guest slot

Dear BBC Question Time

This BBC Extra Guest business. I like it. I think its a great way of engaging with the programme. But what have you got against the Lib Dems and when are you going to let a Lib Dem blogger or tweeter engage with the audience?

Your last 10 guests have featured (most recent first); a Labour supporter, a libertarian, a green-and-if-not-them-Labour supporter, a neutral, a columnist writing for the Times and The Spectator who happens to be the son of a Tory MP, another neutral,  a Tory verging on the edge of libertarian, a Labour supporting journalist, a Telegraph journalist once of Labour but now backing the Republicans in the US, and Fleet Street Fox (your guess there is as good as mine, she seems equally at home at the Mail and The Mirror).

That's pretty well got all the bases covered - bar the inclusion of a Lib Dem.

It's not like you're short of options. I am of course at this point meant to say that modesty forbids me from pushing myself forward, but blow that, I do write a weekly blog for The New Statesman on the view from the Lib Dem grass roots, as well as running my own award winning blog, and I'd bite your hand off.

But if you don't fancy me - there's the current Lib Dem blogger of the Year, Mark Thompson; or the last year, Nick Thornsby. There's the founder of Lib Dem Voice, Mark Pack. There's the irrepressible Charlotte Henry from Digital Politico. There's the Queen of Lib Dem blogging, Caron Lindsay. I could go on. But you get the idea

So please can you stick one of us in the Extra Guest hot seat.

We'll stir the pot. And you have had two Libertarians and a green before you got to us...

Thanks

Richard Morris

Mark Pack will be banging his head on a desk somewhere over this post....

I have e mailed every Lib Dem MP bar three to ask them where they are , restanding wise, for 2015 (the 3 exceptions being Duncan Hames, Julian Huppert and Nick Clegg - who I knew had all already said they were standing again).

The answers are coming back and I will blog on this shortly...

But....

I used as my source for the task the Lib Dem website, which has a handy list of all our MPs and their contact details.

And guess what.

3 MPS have incorrect email addresses on the site (you get a bounce back) - and 4 don't have e mail addresses listed at all.

I can't help but think we should sort that out....

Update

Big hats off to @Hamishmcallum who came straight back to me on Twitter having updated Stephen Gilberts page.