Good morning. You join us here on LDV as we wish happy birthday to Philip Seymour Hoffman and Michael Foot, and as the nation of Egypt and the Rastafarians commemorate the birth of Haile Selassie.

It’s also polling day in Norwich North. Will April Pond become the 64th Lib Dem MP? Will we make our second by-election gain in the 2005 Parliament? Find out first on twitter – as the blogosphere’s reporter on the spot Nich Starling will report, live from the Norfolk Showground.

Two big news stories

Kingsnorth tactics criticised
The Guardian reports the report into police behaviour at the environmental protests earlier in the year at Kingsnorth, with Lib Dem MP David Howarth quoted:

This is yet another example of the disproportionate use of stop and search, and shows how, even on the report’s own narrow terms, this tactic is totally counterproductive.

Battle to save Britain’s wind industry
The Independent leads with a story of a coalition of trades unionists and green campaigners attempting to save Britain’s only major wind turbine plant, on the Isle of Wight.

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: “This closure exposes the hollow truth of Labour’s climate change strategy.”

Rebuilding a stable green economy, presumably including green collar jobs in the wind turbine industry, is the first of the major strands of Nick Clegg’s Fresh Start.

Two must-read blog posts

What’s the point of FPC? Ask Nick Clegg!

A frustrated Lindy Loo reveals Nick Clegg has gone a little off-message in his presentation of the pre-manifesto. Another big bust up due at conference?

Mark Reckons chats to Brenda Barbara Tucker

Not the character from the Archers, but a staunch anti-war protester currently living in Parliament Square:

She explained that as far as she is concerned, the entire political system has failed. She thinks that we are led by war criminals and all who support this system are also complicit. She said that parliament does not have legitimacy and that the whipping system is anti-democratic. Eventually she hopes that enough people will decide to opt out of the system and then things will have to change.