A game every Lib Dem should play...

There's a cracking (if stomach churningly violent) new drama on C4 called Utopia.  It's basically about how quickly individuals can be traced and found by a mysterious, dark organisation operating on the edge of society. No, not the Tories...

Anyway, now C4 have produced a website where you can feed in some questions about your on line habits and lifestyle, and they'll tell you just how easy you would be to track down...

My time was 17 hours and 35 minutes. this puts me at the 'sitting duck' end of the spectrum..

Have fun...and be slightly afraid....

Boy: Now that's what I call an official spokesman

I don't know who this was* but hats off: if you're going to make a statement, make it like this...

In response to "Why isn't Nick Clegg attending the Privy Council?...' The Telegraph reports the following:


“I can’t believe we are having this ------- conversation again,” an aide to the DPM emoted in a tirade worthy of Malcolm Tucker in the television series The Thick of It. “The ------ fact is he can’t ------- be everywhere, but I know you are going to go off and write that the DPM has ------- snubbed the Queen once a ------- gain.”

Blimey

* but I can guess

Hmm. What an odd place to make an Anti Europe speech: The Netherlands.

Unless it turns out David Cameron is as fluent a Dutch speaker as the Deputy PM, The Netherlands seems like a very odd location for David Cameron to choose to make his big 'give us our ball back' speech on Britain in Europe.

Unless of course it turns out The Dutch PM backs him.

Sadly, this tweet from Paul Waugh seems to suggest that isn't the case...

Another triumph for the No 10 media machine...

By the way, aren't they meant to be trying to get us all to talk about pensions today anyway? So why announce this news today?....

Update

Has Mark Ferguson hit the nail on the head...

Nick: this is how you should have said 'sorry'.

Yes I know it's not real.

Yes, I know he doesn't get nice music swelling under his words.

Yes, I know President Bartlet is the best leader who have lived.

But replace the words 'milk subsidy' here with tuition fees.

The rest all works. And it is actually true- we did put children above students.

Anyway; enjoy




 PS sorry about the subtitles. Can't shift them. anyone know what language?

ooooooohhhhhh. I'm being petty aren't I?.....

Now look, it's this Liberal Voice of the Year business....

First off, congrats to Sam Bowman. He won fair and square by a country mile and that's fair enough.

Neither do I have any truck with this stuff about 'it's a fix, it's the result of a twitter campaign'. There's nothing in the rules (to my knowledge) about campaigning - and after all I posted a blog post and tweeted in support of my own nominee.

Neither am I trying to say Sam shouldn't be delighted to have won, and having won he can say what he likes about that victory. I wouldn't for a moment try and stop him.

But, couldn't he be just a tad more gracious than this...

You can of course tell me I'm being oversensitive, I probably am....


UPDATE

Fair enough, Sam has tweeted this to me pretty much straight off in reply:

Happy to accept that he was joking and that I am indeed being oversensitive.

And Sam's comment is probably made to look worse by the comment below it, which he clearly couldn't do anything about.

Please vote for Malala Yousafzai as Liberal Voice of the Year

Tomorrow is the closing date for Liberal Voice of the Year. For those unfamiliar with the award...

"we launch our search for the Liberal Voice of the Year to find the individual or group which has had the biggest impact on liberalism in the past 12 months. This is the sixth annual award, and as is our tradition, we’re looking beyond the ranks of the Lib Dems to find the greatest liberal who’s not a member of our party"

If you haven't voted yet, could I ask you to click on this link and vote for

Malala Yousafzai: a school student known for her education and women’s rights activism in Pakistan. She was shot in October in an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen while returning home on a school bus. 

Here's an extract from an excellent BBC review of her campaigning - and the high price she has paid for her efforts.

Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai first came to public attention in 2009 when she wrote a BBC diary about life under the Taliban. Now recovering from surgery after being shot by the militants, the campaigner for girls' rights is in the spotlight again.

Malala was 11 when she began writing a diary for BBC Urdu.

Her blogs described life under Taliban rule from her home town of Mingora, in the northwest region of Pakistan she affectionately calls "My Swat".

I am afraid - 3 January 2009

"I had a terrible dream yesterday with military helicopters and the Taliban. I have had such dreams since the launch of the military operation in Swat. I was afraid going to school because the Taliban had issued an edict banning all girls from attending schools. Only 11 students attended the class out of 27. The number decreased because of Taliban's edict.

On my way from school to home I heard a man saying 'I will kill you'. I hastened my pace... to my utter relief he was talking on his mobile and must have been threatening someone else over the phone."

By 2009, the Taliban controlled much of the Swat Valley and applied their austere interpretation of sharia law.

"When the Taliban came to Swat they banned women from going to the market and they banned shopping," Malala told the BBC last year.

Continue reading the main story

"Malala Yousufzai was one of the few brave voices who spoke out", writes The Daily Telegraph's Pakistan correspondent Rob Crilly.

"She did it anonymously - to do otherwise would have brought immediate death. But her blog for the BBC Urdu Service detailing the abuses meant no one could pretend an accommodation with the terrorists was anything other than a deal with the devil."

Halima Mansour in the Guardian heralds Malala as a young "Pakistani heroine" for her bravery and independence.

"Malala doesn't want to play to some western-backed or Taliban-loved stereotype. She shows us that there are voices out there, in Pakistan, that need to be heard, if only to help the country find democracy that is for and from the people, all the people."

As has been recorded, she was ultimately shot by the Taliban, and has only just been released from Hospital (but will remain in Britain while her long term treatment for her terrible injuries will continue).

There are many worthy candidates on the list this year for Liberal Voice of the Year. But none are as brave or as worthy as Malala. Please giver her your support

Ed Miliband has just had a pop at Liam Byrne. I wonder if he even realises it?

Just seen this tweet from the New Statesman's George Eaton, quoting Ed Miliband this morning:

This must make uncomfortable reading for the Labour spokesman on Work and Pensions, Liam Byrne, who has spent some time doing just that, as has been ably pointed out by Sunny Hundal at Liberal Conspiracy. Here's a few choice examples....

So Ed M? Are you going to condemn the language of your own Work and Pensions Spokesman?