Forgive me reader, for I have sinned. It’s been a month since my last instalment of LDV Catchup, the post that summarises the “don’t-miss” moments of Lib Dem Voice.

In the news this month: the G20 protests and policing. Video footage emerged of Ian Tomlinson’s last moments. The Lib Dems demanded a criminal enquiry. Stephen gave a summary of Lib Dem bloggers’ reactions. Alix investigated the disappearing CCTV whilst “Dr Pack of this parish tracked the IPCC through various dimensions of reality with the assiduity of a timelord.”  For our other stories on this, see this link.

Former Liberal MP Clement Freud died; Mark paid tribute.

Alistair Darling revealed his optimistic budget.  We had an open thread and Nick Clegg’s response.

The Lib Dems monstered the Government on the issue of the Gurkhas.  Tim Prater summarized the story so far (up to before this week’s vote); Alix brought you the news of the first Opposition Day motion government defeat in years; Richard brought you footage of Joanna Lumley with the Gurkhas.  Read all our Gurkha stories at this link.

MPs expenses continued to be a hot topic: we have the text of David Heath’s speech to Parliament and Brown’s “spectacular step in the wrong direction“.

Also in the news: Smeargate, which Stephen dismissed masterfully, and defended Clegg’s silence on the subject. When the story still wouldn’t die, he cast Paul Staines as “not the messiah, just a very naughty boy” and gave us a longer perspective with the meat of opinion polls to back it up.

In the category of “You couldn’t make it up?!” Helen told us of Government plans to replace a successful wind farm with a nuclear power plant.  And while we’re on Helen making stuff up, a quick nod to that post with the recherché neologism hashjacking.

Big, mad database catchup

Helen lists suspicious groups that include all of us.
Mark shows us what the future will look like. 
Chris Huhne warns about RIPA.
Helen is suspicious of anyone without a mobile.
Stephen gives a practical way of beating database Britain.
Helen found a lovely article showing “People fix society if you let them”
Chris Huhne won quote of the day for his remarks about Blunkett and ID cards

Hot topic catchup
Posts generating a lot of comments this month include:
In praise of Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor by Joe Taylor
What’s your view on nuclear power? 
Lib Dems to raise personal tax allowance
Lib Dem PPC defects to Tories 
Should Lib Dems want Labour defectors to join us? 
What must happen for the Lib Dems to overtake Labour?

The month in “Independent View”
Lib Dem Voice have a strand of publishing where we invite people who are not Lib Dems to write an article on a topic of interest to the people who come and read this blog.  This month, the following people took us up on our offer:
Rob Smith on the politics of electoral reform 
Lucy Parsons on convincing politicians of the need for spending cuts
Emma Jane Cross on preventing child on child violence
Jim Killick on “Statebook” – Knowledge is power 

 Op-ed roundup
Here’s a full list of guest-contributors this month. All are welcome to submit articles – see here for more information
Chris Ward: Lib Dems must lead the way in improving scrutiny of council surveillance
Patrick Murray: Martin Salter put loyalty to Brown before loyalty to the Gurkhas
Prateek Buch: Just how free are we? 
Andrew May: We need a proper public debate on the future of protest policing in our country 
Kasch Wilder: He’s just not that into you (Or Why the Rt Hon. Oliver Letwin MP has to go)
Jo Swinson: Experiences of a Female MP: Overcoming the Ultimate Old Boys Club
Andrew Lewin: How the Prospect of a Hung Parliament could bolster a Liberal Democrat Election Campaign
Patrick Smith: What’s happening to our honey bees? 
Joe Bouke: Why the Liberal Democrats should propose a flat tax 
Huw Dawson: We must fight against the end of our internet 
Greg Foxsmith: Six lessons to be learned from the G20 policing 
Paul Walter: Cameron’s “mouse fart” proposals to reform democracy 
Geoffrey Payne: A question on the old economic model 
Edwin Loo: On Immigration and being yellow 
Geoffrey Payne: The great home care scandal 
Chris Ward: Chris Ward likes this… 
David Morton: Don’t drain us!
George Turner: Reform severance pay
Anthony Hook: Legal aspects of the McBride case 
Matt Wood: Dirty tricks politics is destroying democracy 
Edwin Loo: There is no Conservative Future in London  

The month at CommentIsLinked@LDV

Tom Brake reporting from inside the kettle
Brian Paddick on policing
Vince Cable on the 7.15 cattle truck
Chris Huhne’s Q&A
Nick Clegg’s greater test
Jonathan Fryer’s hope for the Middle East
David Howarth’s question about policing
Vince Cable’s budget
Ming Campbell on Ghurkas and Brown
Vince Cable doesn’t buy Darling’s miracle
Vince Cable is a Parliamentary Eunuch

See also
Golden Dozen #111 112 113 114 
Haggis Neeps and Liberalism #4
Y Barcud Oren #7