TotalPolitics (in association with Iain Dale) now have published their list of top MP blogs, as voted for by over 1500 readers.
In the top 30 are Lynne Featherstone, Willie Rennie, John Hemming, Steve Webb, and John Barrett.
Only one party leader features in the list, and that’s Nick Clegg.
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Not  a week goes by without a dozen invites to various groups on Facebook.  (Well, maybe the week my ISP turned my email off without warning…) Here’s a selection that have crossed my path in recent days:
We agree with Vince Cable and Compass. Lets have a high pay commission.
Ever since the collapse of Northern Rock, Vince Cable has led the way in support of demanding an end to excessive pay and bonuses for greedy bankers who are more interested in short term profit than the long term interests of the economy.
Recently the Left Leaning think tank Compass has proposed a “High Pay Commission” to stop this kind of nonsense. We welcome Vince Cable’s support of this proposal and urge political leaders from all political parties to do the same.
According to Vince Cable; “There is no justification for massive pay and bonus awards in financial institutions, the most important of which are guaranteed or owned or have been rescued by the taxpayer”.
It’s not the first time that Compass have spread their net to include Lib Dems; but I have to say I’m a little angered at them taking my council email address and writing to me every day.
We’re supporting Jonathan Fryer to become an MEP in 2014
Nothing beats a good bit of organisation.
Jonathan Fryer responds: “Thank you so much everyone for your support duing this year’s campaign. We put in a tremendous amount of effort and it is sad that this time, it didn’t quite pay off. But being an MEP is the only job I really want and with your help, I will get there in 2014!”
This group’s 2,000 strong membership is demanding:
Help us reform parliament in Britain and Change Politics for Good: I want the right to sack my MP I want to know MPs can’t be bought off by party donors I want the right to find out what government is doing I want the power of government to be cut down I want my vote to count Visit TakeBackPower.org and read the full plan for reform: 100 Days to Save Democracy. Sign the petition, spread the word and join the campaign online
The 100 days may be over, but the demands are still unmet.
Liberal Democrats for the Single Transferable Vote
The Single Transferable Vote electoral system has long been the electoral system of choice for Liberal Democrats across the UK, but it is unfortunate that the Party leadership seems too ready to compromise on this policy and sign up to the inferior Alternative Vote Plus system.
‘Liberal Democrats for the Single Transferable Vote’ is a group for Liberal Democrats who believe our Party and its members, supporters and activists shouldn’t compromise at this early stage for the Alternative Vote Plus system.
This group wishes to influence the Party leadership by arguing that Liberal Democrats should campaign to influence the voters of the benefits of the Single Transferable Vote system.
A Real Woman has been in touch to tell me about new Lib Dem policy proposals for Real Women.
As readers of the Voice should know by now – Jo Swinson MP penned a piece on Perez and photoshopping last week – the Lib Dems have a policy paper on women’s rights. The full paper is available at http://www.RealWomen.org.uk, and here’s the summary from the front page:
Women face pressure from all directions these days. Hit hard by the recession, trying to juggle family commitments with work and home life, it’s easy to feel like you’re running just to stand still. The media screams out an endless list of things still to do: get a bikini body in 20 days, plan the perfect children’s party, how to look 10 years younger. Despite great strides forward in equality, women still get paid less than men, and generally still end up taking more responsibility for childcare and looking after elderly relatives. This can be hugely rewarding, but combining this with a job can seem almost impossible.
There’s a lot the Government could do to give a helping hand. Making employers check for pay discrimination would help women get the money they deserve. Providing 20 hours per week free childcare would allow parents to make real choices about returning to work. Enabling everyone to ask for flexible working would help to change the rigid work culture, and make it easier to juggle different commitments. And it would be nice to inject some realism into the media’s portrayal of women, instead of the suggestion that nothing less than perfection will do.
Today’s email was asking us to spread the word:
We want to make sure as many women as possible (Liberal Democrat or not) to benefit from the policies in Real Women and the advice contained on the site.
Help us spread the word about Real Women:
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The Lib Dem MP for Dunbartonshire East has submitted herself to a gruelling grilling at the hands of the readers of the Independent.
Among the questions – such taxing ones “that thing you just did, isn’t it a huge waste of time?” – “no”; “don’t you think you were too young to be an MP?” – “no”; and “who’s your bestest friend in all the Lib Dems?” – I will leave you to visit the story yourself to see the thrilling answer.
Amongst the questions there are some better thought out ones and some interesting answers, so it’s well worth five mins of your time.
It’s August, so thoughts turn to holidays.
Last year, this photo from a friend on Flickr led me to the Landmark Trust for the first time.
I started off on their website, and liked what I saw but thought that their prices were slightly on the steep side. They point out that if you divide them down to per person, per night, they are not at all unreasonable, and a closer inspection showed that they were rather more affordable out of season, and still more so massively out of season.
Their handbook is a rather gorgeous, coffeebook tome, and I think it’s worth the tenner it costs. I bought it the first time with the intention of giving it to a friend for Christmas, months away from the event; and unfortunately after that we agreed not to give gifts, so I ended up with it for myself.
There was a bit of cross-over between Landmark and my bellringing friends. Landmark manage all of the property on Lundy Island, which has a church with ten bells and few neighbours, and is therefore a good location for ringing the more antisocial peals and quarters.
This year, an email arrived saying that their website is now searchable, and so it is. I have been playing with it for a while. The information on the site duplicates the info in the handbook, but hopefully will grow to be more – and more responsive – than the printed copy.
If you are interested in booking, then there is a very helpful group on Flickr with lots more photos available than in the handbook. Scroll down on the group’s homepage to find a clickable index with a page for each of the Trust’s properties.
The photo group answered some of my questions. We have now booked a November weekend with friends in an isolated house with fireplaces – something to keep my pyromaniac side happy, anyway. But I still have questions. We’re planning a bumper foody weekend – but what is the kitchen kit like? Is there really no heating but the open fires and the woodburning stoves? And is there no television? (fingers crossed!)
See also
The English Buildings blog – that I started reading thanks to Liberal England – recently paid a trip to Leominster.
How can I describe Leominster? My family are from there on my father’s side, but I was born and spent the first part of my life in Tenbury Wells – more specifically Burford. So technically, is Leominster my home town? The town where I spent the second half of my childhood?
Anyway, it’s a town I’m very familiar with and it’s also a town that few people visit and fewer can pronounce. (It’s “lem-ster” – and not even all of the people who live there know that, apparently). So it was a little surprising to see English Buildings had been there at all and I was interested to see what famous building they might have chosen. The famous Grange, the enormous priory church? Some of the big old Victorian mansions up the Bargates?
In fact, they chose Lloyds Bank in Corn Square, a building I probably passed every day when I lived there, and that just fit into the square and seemed a little unremarkable.
I’d certainly never noticed the key feature that English Buildings highlighted – the extra carving over the portico. Next time I return, I shall have to make sure I look out for it.
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Is it the epic historical film from last year?
Do you see a triangular number and a pair of twin primes (149 and 151)?
Or do you recall how Jo Shaw, the Lib Dem PPC for Holburn and St Pancras revealed in the Telegraph last week that that’s how many children are added to the UK’s DNA database each and every day.
Almost 1.1 million youngsters aged between ten and 17 have had their profiles recorded by the police since 2000, with a large proportion aged under 15, the Daily Telegraph can disclose.
And around one in six are likely to have never been convicted of any crime.Ministers are currently reviewing the database but proposals would still see the profiles of innocent people kept for up to 12 years.
Youngsters who commit one minor crime will be kept on until they reach 18 while those guilty of sex or violent crimes will be kept indefinitely.
Jo Shaw, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary campaigner for Holborn & St Pancras who obtained the figures, said: “Labour’s approach to tackling crime is unfair, heavy-handed and ineffective.
“Storing the DNA of thousands of innocent young people as young as ten is unlikely to solve our crime problems, but is a costly way of stigmatising young people. If you’re innocent, you shouldn’t have your data on who you are kept for years.”
Niles's Blog 