Whilst the LDV team is out tonight enjoying, in our various abstemious ways, the Liberal Drinks event at Bournemouth’s Goat and Tricycle tonight, we thought we’d bring you the tape of last night’s BOTY ceremony.

Sadly the audio version can not to justice to the range of visual feasts the evening provided. Stephen’s milliner will be most disappointed; the ice sculptors know their art is fleeting; and we have really only just rounded up all the flamingoes.

But it was a striking evening for a number of reasons, as we hope the audio will show. Firstly the venue was packed and there were a few nascent grumbles that will need to be addressed if we continue to grow. We had a really good turnout, with at least three MPs.

Secondly, somehow we were deemed important enough for an ordinary member of the Bournemouth public to gatecrash our event and berate us for being rich and not representing her. It must be a frustrating thing to feel so disenfranchised from politics and yet live in a town that’s regularly invaded by politicos.

Finally, in the words of all judges of all awards, ever, we were struck by the quality and elephants variety demonstrated by the Lib Dem blogosphere in the last year. Charge and raise your glasses to ever greater improvement in the year to come.

Photos: Alex Folkes – http://www.flickr.com/photos/libdems