Save the Aggregator

Come on guys!

At the time of writing Ryan Cullen needs £20 of donations to keep the Lib Dem Blogs Aggregator alive. For many of you today is payday so make a little contribution.

I already had earlier in the month, the joys of being back in paid employment.

Update over lunch and we're back on the web. Thanks to whoever it was that made the necessary donations.

Never, say Never to second looks - Argyll and Bute Update

Earlier today Argyll and Bute Council issued this statement in relation to their decision banning Martha Payne's taking pictures for her Never Seconds blog from yesterday.

Published Date:
15 Jun 2012 - 10:53

Argyll and Bute Council wholly refutes the unwarranted attacks on its schools catering service which culminated in national press headlines which have led catering staff to fear for their jobs. The Council has directly avoided any criticism of anyone involved in the ‘never seconds’ blog for obvious reasons despite a strongly held view that the information presented in it misrepresented the options and choices available to pupils however this escalation means we had to act to protect staff from the distress and harm it was causing. In particular, the photographic images uploaded appear to only represent a fraction of the choices available to pupils, so a decision has been made by the council to stop photos being taken in the school canteen.

There have been discussions between senior council staff and Martha’s father however, despite an acknowledgement that the media coverage has produced these unwarranted attacks, he intimated that he would continue with the blog.

The council has had no complaints for the last two years about the quality of school meals other than one from the Payne family received on 6 June and there have been no changes to the service on offer since the introduction of the blog.

Pupils have a daily choice of two meals from a menu which is designed with pupils, parents and teachers. Our summer menu is about to be launched and includes main course choices like meat or vegetarian lasagne served with carrots and garlic bread or chicken pie with puff pastry, mashed potato and mixed vegetables.

Pupils can choose from at least two meals every day. They pay £2 for two courses and this could be a starter and a main or a main and a desert. Each meal comes with milk or water. Pupils can have as much salad and bread as they want. Salad, vegetables, fruit, yoghurt and cheese options are available every day. These are standing options and are not a result of any changes in response to the blog site.

As part of the curriculum for excellence, pupils in all our schools are regularly taught about healthy eating and at lunch breaks staff encourage pupils to make good choices from what is on offer. We use a system called ‘Nutmeg’ to make sure everything is nutritionally balanced. Our staff also get nutrition awareness training so they know how to provide a good healthy meal. There is portion sized guidance which we adhere to and it is matched to the age of the child so they get the right amount of food. Second portions would mean too many calories for pupils.

In Lochgilphead Primary School we are piloting a new pre-ordering scheme which is designed to encourage class discussion around meal choices and also improves the accuracy of meal choices. The pupils use a touch screen to select their lunch option and the data is downloaded in the kitchen so they know how many portions of each meal are required. As they place their order, the pupils are given a coloured band which relates to their meal choice that day. They wear it during the morning, and at lunchtime they hand it to the catering assistant, who will give them the corresponding meal.

The council’s focus is now on supporting the school in the education of young people in Argyll and Bute.

What a difference two and half hours more careful consideration brought to the situation they have since changed that statement on the same page to this from the council leader

Published Date: 

15 Jun 2012 - 10:53

Updated: 14:19 - 15 June 2012

Statement from Cllr Roddy McCuish, Leader of Argyll and Bute Council

"There is no place for censorship in this Council and never will be whilst I am leader.   I  have advised senior officers that this Administration intends to clarify the Council's policy position in regard to taking photos in schools. I have therefore requested senior officials to consider immediately withdrawing the ban on pictures from the school dining hall until a report can be considered by Elected Members. This will allow the continuation of the "Neverseconds" blog written by an enterprising and imaginative pupil, Martha Payne which has also raised lots of money for charity.

But we all must also accept that there is absolutely no place for the type of inaccurate and abusive attack on our catering and dining hall staff, such as we saw in one newspaper yesterday which considerably inflamed the situation.  That, of course, was not the fault of the blog, but of the paper.

We need to find a united way forward so I am going to bring together our catering staff, the pupils, councillors and council officials - to ensure that the council continues to provide  healthy, nutrious and attractive school meals.  That "School Meals Summit" will take place later this summer.

 I will also meet Martha and her father as soon as I can, along with our lead councillor on Education, Michael Breslin to seek her continued engagement, along with lots of other pupils, in helping the council to get this issue right.   By so doing Martha Payne and her friends  will have had a strong and lasting influence not just on school meals, but on the whole of Argyll & Bute."

This statement supersedes all other council statements on the matter already issued.

You somehow think that if the latter statement had been the way the council decided to proceed on this matter intially, listening to Martha and other children about the state of school meals under their influence that maybe people would never have heard of Argyll and Bute. Some would still think it is spelt Argyle or something to do with Plymouth, and Martha would not have soured to her target by over 400% of fundraising for Mary's Meals most of that in the last 24 hours.

But seeing as the council leader says there "There is no place for censorship in this Council and never will be whilst [he is] leader" before totally replacing the previous disingenuous statement with his own, I'm sure he won't mind me copying them both here in full. I only do that so that we can see how someone in the press departments knee jerk reaction was so poorly letting down the children and end users of school meals provision earlier today.

Wikio Top Lib Dem Blogs, November 2011

Mark Pack earlier this week announced that his normal look at the Wikio Rankings of top Lib Dem Blogs would be delayed, possibly by two weeks. Knowing how impatient you lot are, here is the list. There are only 16 in the top 100 this month as both Stephen Tall and


1 (6) Liberal Democrat Voice No change
2 (16) Jack of Kent No change
3 (21) Craig Murray Up 27
4 (25) Caron’s Musings Down 6
5 (41) Mark Pack Up 9
6 (43) Liberal England Down 2
7 (53) Paul Walter Up 6
8 (64) Peter Black Up 1
9 (67) Liberal Vision Down 6
10 (78) Mark Thompson Down 18
11 (80) George Potter No Change
12 (81) Nick Thornsby Down 22
13 (88) Spiderplant Land Down 22
14 (89) Stephen Glenn Up 6
15 (94) Miss S B Down 20
16 (95) Lynne Featherstone  Down 1

Some blogging elsewhere - all about language and the words we use

I've done a little bit of blogging elsewhere in recent day.

Over on LGBT Lib Dems NI

Dave for equality in marriage we need equality in language

Looking at the language used by several in talking about the government proposals and how the Prime Minister and his party still have a way to go to understand equality.

Anglican Archbishop of Armagh calls for  “reasoned and rational” same-sex discussion

Although the Church of Ireland Archbishop does understand that language needs to be inclusive and discussions on this issue need to be reasoned and rational.

Solas successfully argue against religious marriage altogether

Scottish faith group Solas may have brought a whole other argument to the table over equal marriage when they brought the European normative of civil marriage not religious to the table in their response to the Scottish Parliament's consultation.

While over on Lib Dems NI

Irish language row in Stormont

Looks at a different area of language and when is asking a question not asking a question in the views of the person presiding in the chair.

If your not following LGBT Lib Dems NI or Lib Dems NI please do you may miss out on something I write.

Wikio welcome me back into the top 100

Well thanks go to Mark Pack for bringing this to my attention, but the wikio ranking see me back inside the top 100 political blogs. With some difficulty getting Wikio to accept the new address initially, taking time out from blogging really cutting stuff while I worked for Yes! to Fairer Votes with an array of parties and the fact that some people still link to http://linlithgow-libdems.blogspot.com instead of

http://stephensliberaljournal.blogspot.com


hasn't made things easy. But I am back at number 95 I'll be looking to see how that improves over the next few months see if I can get back into the top 50 once again.

Lib Dem Blogs (and bloggers) in the Total Politics Top 100

Today is the last day of Lib Dem Conference which also coincides with the announcement of the Total Politics Top 100 Blogs and Bloggers.

It is meant to have been a year that the Lib Dems were falling away, yet Lib Dem Voice is up from 27 to 12 the year AFTER Cleggmania. Caron is up at 25 from 44th last year, that spot being taken by the late Andrew Reeves who was only 106th last year. In between them is Liberal England at 38 also a riser from 62. Fraser Macpherson's blog Dundee Westend is another climber from 165 to 92.


This blog despite relocation is up slightly from 65 to 63, which considering I spent half the year working on the AV campaign is some going, though I am tipped for top Northern Irish blog by Slugger O’Toole rising to 49 after last year's fall to 100. 


Liberal Vision the Lib Dem blog most in bed with the Tories out of the ones in the top 100 has sunk from 55 to 72. 


New this year was the added category of blogger. Mark Pack and Stephen Tall at 20 and 79= represents Lib Dem Voice, Caron comes in at 29, Andrew at 43, Jonathan Calder of Liberal England at 49. I come in at 55 (just 4 behind Melanie Phillips and one ahead of Olly Grender so I'm awaiting by BBC Question Time invites). Mark Thomspon at 66, Andrew Page at 70, Peter Black another of those in 79th, Fraser Macpherson 94 and Martin Shapland at 98 round out the Lib Dem representation.


Mick Fealty of Slugger is at 62 so we have split the honours for who is top in the two categories. Also Jeff, James and Malc of Better Nation come in at 47, 67 and 76 resepectively, the blog being 21.


So well done to all. That is quite a lot of good Lib Dems blogging and being read and appreciated by a wide audience.


Thank you one again for your readership and your votes.

Number 2 Northern Ireland Blog

Yesterday I discovered that I am, at least according to the Total Politics: Guide to Political Blogging 2011 the second most popular Northern Irish blog. That means that I am the top individual blog in the land of my birth and current residency.

Considering the role I had in Northern Ireland for half of the last year restricted me a little in what I could blog I think this is no mean feat, and speaks volumes for what I wrote when I was able to express myself fuly.

So once again thnaks for voting for me.

Humbled, yet thanks for reading and voting

I'm was very humbled this morning when I read the Total Politics Top 35 Lib Dem Blogs. Considering I parked my personal blogging (ok not very well but the output was down) from early November until May for the Yes! to Fairer Votes Campaign I didn't really blog hard hitting stuff the whole year. Therefore to find myself up two places on last year behind only Lib Dem Voice, Jonathan Calder (with Lord Bonkers) and Lindsay and Reevesey (deceased) is shocking and humbling all at the same time.

I may have been  reduced in output over the last year (423 Sept 2010 to Aug 2011 compared to 885 for the same period the year before) but I clearly have written enough of my usual hard punching stuff in that time to make you continue to appreciate it. So thank you one and all.

With our late colleague Andrew Reeves behind Caron in this list, yet he appeared at 7 in the Scottish list, it is clear that she is de facto a Top 10 Scottish Blogger and should display that badge on her blog as well. Sorry to Andrew Page for that dropping him down one spot but as he has taken over my number 7 spot in the Lib Dems I'm sure he'll not object with a top 10 finish. Indeed 5 of the top 10 lib Dems would have had the words Scottish Liberal Democrat on their membership cards, which is braw!

 The top five together one last  (and first) time

Realised that there was this picture

l-r: Andrew Reeves, Helen Duffett (Lib Dem Voice), me, Caron, 

Mark Pack (LDV), Jonathan Calder (Liberal England)

1 (1) Lib Dem Voice
2 (3) Caron’s Musings
3 (6) Liberal England
4 (10) Andrew Reeve’s Running Blog
5 (7) Stephen’s Liberal Journal
6 (5) Mark Pack
=7 (4) Liberal Vision
=7 (-) A Scottish Liberal
9 (18) Cllr Fraser Macpherson
10 (2) Mark Reckons
=11 (17) Peter Black AM
=11 (-) The Potter Blogger
13 (36) Spider Plant Land
14 (-) Jack of Kent
15 (23) Birkdale Focus
16 (8) Jennie Rigg
17 (-) Nick Thornsby’s Blog
18 (11) Cicero’s Songs
19 (-) Olly Grender
20 (-) A View From Ham Common
21 (15) Millennium Dome , Elephant
22 (-) View From The Hills
23 (-) A Brief History of Liberty
=24 (-) Eric Avebury
=24 (14) Lynne Featherstone
26 (-) Liberal Burblings
27 (16) A Lanson Boy
28 (73) Jonathan Fryer
29 (26) Lib Dem Child
=30 (71) David May
=30 (-) The Rambles of Neil Monnery
32 (-) Too Liberal
33 (-) Ginger Liberal of Medway
34 (-) Solution Focused Politics
=35 (33) Liberal Bureaucracy
=35 (46) Virtually Naked 

Update this page at Total Politics has since been taken down. Another anomoly spotted is the fact that Andrew Page is ahead of Fraser Macpherson's  blog on this list but behind him in the Scottish list. It may be that the lack of Scottish Labour and Scottish Unionist Conservative Alligned with David Cameron's Party Blogs in the Scottish list has not thrown up this issue, until the Lib Dems noticed an issue. Lib Dems making a change in Total Politics Government too.

Update 2 the Full top 100 has now been posted and I appear to also be at number 78 with Liberal Democrats of Northern Ireland.

Update 3 I've also noticed that I also blog on the 57th ranked Labour Blog as part of the Mars Hill Blog team.

Blogged Elsewhere: 9/11 the Mars Hills Collective

Yesterday morning Paul Burgin who set up the Mars Hill Blog and earlier this year invited myself and others to transform it into a group blog, invited us all to share what our memories were of 9/11 ten years ago. Obviously with being on my way to a wedding and leaving my laptop behind I didn't get around to it today.

I wrote about mine from my point of view working away in an office Edinburgh.

Paul recalls his recollections after just coming off shift in a coffee shop and his boss telling him one plane had hit the World Trade Centre.

Tim Roll-Pickering recalls his isolation on the day and his disbelief at being told after the World Trade Centre had been destroyed what had gone on in his 'ordinary day'.

Raeven recounts the strangest student orientation period probably ever.

These are just four accounts of the many of us who knew exactly what we were doing and how we responded to hearing the news that day 10 years ago.

Vote Andrew Reeves 1

Yeah it is that time of year where I have to decide whether I should be upfront and blatant of like Uriah Heep and ever so humble. This year for the Total Politics Blog Awards I have have no such qualms.

GIVE YOUR NUMBER ONE TO

Andrew Reeves

Yeah I've lost a great friend and the world has lost a great blogger. Many of my readers will probably also have been readers of Andrew's blog either because you follow me since I'm a fellow Lib Dem, spent time in Scotland or are a fellow politico. If you did you should also have been aware of Andrew Reeves' blog. If not Caron has a good summation of what he covered over the last year until his untimely death in early June. As she says "Andrew wrote punchy, pugnacious posts which made their point with all the subtlety of a pneumatic drill." The most fitting tribute I could have for him is to finish behind him for the first time in the Total Politics Blog Rankings.

So follow the link the survey you have to fill in at least 5 blogs for your vote to count but you can vote for 10. Just remember.

Andrew Reeves' Running Blog 1

Of course as you have to vote for at least 4 more a preference for me would be appreciated.

Andrew Reeves in ten Blogposts

Is it possible to sum up a man in just 10 blog posts, all his passion, vigour, emotions and concerns? No of course not and I'm not even going to say I will. However, what I have done below is put together a collection of ten of Andrew Reeves's blog posts that show the depth of the man, he wasn't all politics and campaigning.

Many of us who knew Andrew always heard of Roger, his husband since January 28th and partner for many years before, but very few of us ever got to met Roger. I even canvassed for Kevin Lang at their front door and got no reply, so called Mr Reeves from my mobile to be sure we could rely on his vote. However, I'm sure the proudest moment of Andrew's life was the day he an Roger got married so I have to start with his report on that day.

Of course in recent months we know that Andrew had another man in his life, Richard Kerrigan, his personal trainer at the David Lloyd gym just down the road from his flat. Those of us know knew Andrew were impressed by the progress his health regime was making. We along with him were convinced it would lead to him having many happy years left with us. Anywhere here is Andrew's blog about that first glance across the sweaty gym.

His mother meant a lot to Andrew. Her sad loss in 2009 was a spur for him to raise money for charity. But it also gave him an empathy with David Cameron when his father passed away last year.

Like me Andrew loved his sports, like me he was a sports fan who, as the header to his blog reads, "happens to be gay". He was a fellow football fan, if one who supported Chelsea can be called, and like me was rather annoyed at  what Sepp Blatter, recently reinstalled dictator of FIFA, had to say about gay fans going to Qatar for the 2022 World Cup, where having man to man sex is illegal.

Andrew loved it when he was asked to write up match reports for the Edinburgh Capitals ice hockey team. Sadly a passion we shared but never got to go see a game together, there was always talk of going to a Capitals v Belfast Giants match. Next time they are in town I will go in honour of my friend. But here is a match report of a game we would have been supporting opposite sides.Victory for Capitals in close match

Andrew would love the fact that his death caused him to trend on Twitter in the UK, especially in light of the fact that just before Christmas the service suspended his account when he retweeted and erroneous ITN staffer's tweet from the business account. Back then the support was immense and no wonder that his sudden passing led to similar outpourings. This is almost like a thank you to all of us for the love we showed him again today.

Looking through Andrew's posts I recall how much his loved the Eurovision Song Contest. Here is what he said about the first time that Graham Norton hosted the show. His Tweet Paper the Andrew Reeves Daily came out today and included this Eurovision song listening to it today the words are somewhat appropriate for Andrew, not that he ever ran scared but listen closely.



Of course there was always a cheeky side to Andrew and he was never one to big up a salacious headline. He would even ejaculate it over and over again on Twitter to make sure you came to have a look at it, including this bit of good news for the men of Glasgow.

But of course Andrew was a campaigner and put his heart and soul into it 110%. You have any doubts about that read this account of just one 12 hour part of his life during the campaign last year. It shows he was human after all.

And finally I'm returning a compliment here. Shortly after I moved to Northern Ireland the top 75 Scottish Blogs for last year were announced. Andrew wrote "Stephen Glenn leaves a great legacy in the Macblogosphere - and although only over the sea, we miss him loads." The same to you Andrew, the same to you. Sadly you are not just over the sea, so our missing of you is more permanent than my transient one.

Fittingly On this saddest of weeks there were three blogs (including this one) dedicated to Andrew in the Lib Dem Voice Golden Dozen top 7 as well as his last blogpost.

Update: Although this made the Lib Dem Voice Golden Dozen and was a sign of how much Andrew was loved and will be missed by many, via Facebook I recieved this comment from his partner Roger, which made me shed a tear when I read it, but made the tears of going over Andrew's blog worthwhile to create this post.

Stephen. Thank you so much for this. I have cried and laughed at it. I never used to read Andrews blog much. But this was fantastic. He loved to blog. He even said on Wednesday he should blog more, but he didn't have the time. Thank you again Rogx

Stephen's Six for Saturday Episode 1

I'm going to bring you best of the Northern Irish blogs from the past week in sort of a Saturday blog review going forward. Here is my first weekly offering of the best Norn Iron had to give.

The first two posts reflect on the Queen's visit to the Republic during the week.


Conall McDevitt MLA has recounted a poem by Percy French about the last Queen's speech in Dublin, Victoria in 1900, and gives us a poem along the same lines as it by Seamus Murphy to mark the latest one.

A hUactaráin, sez she
And everyone, sez she
It’s great to be here, sez she
I mBaile Átha Cliath, sez she
After 800 years, sez she
And it is a fair city, sez she
More bustling than pretty, sez she
As for traffic, well please, sez she

read more

 Gerry Adams TD reflects on some of the events disrupted by Her Majesty's visit to look at why it is for the people of Ireland to decide their own future

"no matter how we shape our society, the new Ireland must embrace our islands diversity in its fullest sense. This includes English and Scottish influences, the sense of Britishness felt by many unionists, as well as indigenous and traditional Irish culture and the cultures of people who have come to Ireland in recent times.

"Ireland and England are not strangers to each other. We should build on what we have in common while at the same time respecting each other’s sovereignty and independence." read more

Another big story of the week was Ken Clarke's comments about rape, I'll leave it to Paula Bradshaw to give a reasoned response.

"Kenneth Clarke’s attempted explanation of his comments about ‘serious rape‘ have only made an already bad situation worse. His line today was: ‘I phrased it very, very badly because I upset a lot of people who want to give more priority to rape‘ – a line which strikes me immediately as insincere and disparaging towards people who justifiably lobby on single issues with reference particularly to women."  read more

Michael over at Lib Dems NI looked at the IDAHO events here in Northern Ireland and beyond.

Today we’re all in IDAHO. No, we’re not in the United States for the day, we’re commemorating International Day Against Homophobia. For a number of us, this started at the weekend when we attended the IDAHO service in St George’s Parish Church, in Belfast’s High Street on Sunday afternoon.
Those of us in church on Sunday heard from The Rev’d Brian Stewart, Rector of St George’s that

at this time each year we join with brothers and sisters throughout the world who are concerned that Christian conscience cannot accept that God’s love embraces only heterosexuals. read more

On an environmental note here is an account of the Rethink Waste Event held at the Europa last weekend.

"the event was a fantastic opportunity to shares ideas and to get feedback from how other parents, grandparents and individuals go green in the home. It was also an great means of getting some professional insight from those who work in waste management" read more

Finally here is Ed Simpson's take on Melanie Phillips comments on Question Time on Thursday.

"As ever, she was on her usual form, making statements of certainty backed up by anecdotal evidence. This time, she was absolutely sure that Overseas Aid was not actually doing any good, rather it was only serving to  make matters worse. Her solution to this was simple - stop all overseas aid immediately. " read more

That's it for this week. I'll bring you another six next Saturday, I hope to bring as diverse a spectrum of opinion every week.

Blogging (Here) May Be Light

I know I only said that on Thursday and I mean it again. I have some rather exciting news which I will blog about tomorrow probably after a few of the finer details are sorted out.

So don't say I haven't warned you. I do love blogging as a medium and I do intend to get back to it as soon as I possibly can with the same gusto as ever. I'm just warning you that may be some changes around here over the next few months and this page may not have new content as regularly as you are used to over most of the last five years.

I am also turning comments moderation back on. Basically because if the amount of time I may be able to commit to the blog is limited I feel it best not to take risks with the comments left by others. I hope you understand.

But I promise you this blog is not dead. Keep it on your blogroll or aggregator, stuff will pop up from time to time. All posts will remain visible as will comments, the moderation of which may take a little time.

Fair ye well, but stay tuned.

Busy Day for Northern Irish Bloggers

Considering that both Michael and I were taking a 'break' from blogging over the weekend (somehow we still managed the odd one here and there). Today was almost as if we were unleashed back unto the world with a vengeance or possibly it was displacement theory while we're both waiting to find out who may have got a certain job. I'd also managed to wake up three hours before my alarm clock.

Anyway speaking of the job Michael and myself both managed a post about the Alternative Vote, hmm, I wonder why? On the subject of AV Michael also had an issue with Nick Clegg and Simon Hughes' email to members yesterday evening, I know I heard his disgust as he read it. I on the other hand looked at what Nick said, or rather didn't say about the emails that had gone to him about tuition fees. I'd also blogged about prisoners being given back the right to vote. While Michael blogged about getting another Golden Dozen, so I guess I need to up my game again or else he might just overhaul me.

Northern Ireland formed the remainder of the blog posts, firstly the bomb alert in North Belfast affecting the community where Michael lives, some waylaid campaign literature of mine. However, the most pertinent question after the discovery of the body of another of the 'disappeared' what effort to find the perpetrator or this and other disappearances?

Last night I did blog that I was off to "rescue a friendship, hopefully" well a peace treaty was signed in the Pizza Hut at Victoria Square. However, I was truly concerned at one point on Sunday. Although we have also just had another pleasant evening after an LGBT Consultation Forum meeting.

PS By the way this is also a post from Michael as indeed is this.

The Browne Report - Just What He Said

While I was sleeping it appears that my friend and fellow Northern Irish blogger Michael was having some fun with Wordle and The Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance Browne Report.

He's also done a nice Wordle of my short story on the Browne Report as well.



Update: There is now a Facebook Group called Lib Dems Against Scraping the Cap, joining other PPCs, AMs and others.

UUP Leader Elect Elliott : My Reader

Last night the Ulster Unionist Party elected Tom Elliott MLA for Fermanagh and South Tyrone as their new leader. This morning he said:

"What I want to see is a party that actually represents the population of Northern Ireland.

"I want to see for the Ulster Unionist Party the same as I want to see for the people of Northern Ireland - that is a working together, that is an integration, not a carve up between two parties or two sections of our community.

"I want an all-embracing party that actually represents Northern Ireland."

However, how all-embracing a party can it be if the leader of the UUP is not prepared to attend Pride events of GAA sporting events. As my friend and colleague Mícheál pointed out not in certain communities. 3000 Versts asks questions about what direction the UUP is going to take, again asking will it retreat back to Orange Order and the 'unionists'. Over at Slugger O'Toole there is still a warning that the party need to take off the brake and come out of reverse, something that must not be forgotten simply by the size of Elliott's victory.

Slugger carries this analysis of the result, much in line with the feeling on BBC Northern Ireland's Hearts and Minds last Thursday:

"The DUP will be happy tonight. Alliance will be happy that the UUP won’t be steering too far into their centre ground. And the SDLP will be upset that they’ll still not have a credible ally in the centre ground – the UUP and SDLP tend to succeed together and fail together."

So the reforming campaign of Basil McCrea had fallen by the wayside. Does it seem that the UUP have taken the lesson from the 2010 election that being too liberal is not the way to reach out to Northern Ireland? If it is and Elliott retracts to the right the fight for certain parts of the community of Northern Ireland will become harder once again.

Will You Still Need Me, Will You Still Read Me Now I'm 65

Ok I know the Beatles song is 64, and no I haven't slipped in a few extra birthdays. But hey best I could do because somebody should have given me a slightly higher ranking. Yes I'm looking at you (only joking). Thank you everyone who voted for me in the Total Politics Poll.

Total Politics have announced numbers 51-100 in their poll today and I'm delighted to say that my good friend Caron is not to be seen on that list. Why? Because she was convinced she wouldn't be in the top 50 so this morning I put all the lists thus far into a spreadsheet and proved that I was right and she was wrong.

I personally would love her to be number 42. Then I will certainly have to get my Towel out to celebrate.

However. It is quite tight with three Lib Dems in the 60s Liberal England is at number 62, I'm at 65 hence the title of this post and Jennie Rigg is at 68 (she may be wishing she were one place lower for a jokey title).

Doctor Packula is just ahead of us lot at 57 and Liberal Vision just ahead of him at 58. Meaning that there are 8 Lib Dem in the top 70. Sara Bedford's blog Always Win When You're Singing is in there too at 94 and Andrew Reeves the remaining blog from the Top Ten Lib Dems was at 105 in yesterday's list.

As for the Scots:

53 Cute Greek Baby
61 Bright Green Scotland
65 Me
73 Two Doctors
74 Subrosa
80 Malc in the Burgh
96 Alex Massie

Worryingly though with Slugger O'Toole only being at number 100 (down 49 on last year) I am in essence the top Northern Irish blogger.

BOTY Time is almost here again

For the next hour if you sit anywhere near a Lib Dem blogger be nice to them.

Why?

Well the lovely Auntie Helen had earlier this morning gone and ruined all our mornings by telling us that the BOTY (that is Lib Dem Voice Blog of The Year) shortlists will be announced at 12:30
I'll give my opinion later on who is in, who is cruelly omitted and where I think the little golden men will be heading home to after Saturday night's award.


In the mean time, too many hooks remained tentered. Too many bottoms remain squeaky and in an hour's time some carefully polished willies may be put away again for another year without being waved.

Scottish Success in the Top 75

Earlier this evening Total Politics announced the top 75 Liberal Democrat blogs from a poll of over 2,200 blog readers. There was some good news for the Scottish Blogosphere.

First up the top woman is one of the Scots as Caron is at number 3. Little did I know when she first asked me 'How do I start a blog?' that she would climb to this height, only Lib Dem Voice and Mark Reckons.

She is not alone in the top ten this year. As with Scottish list I take her number 7 and Andrew Reeves is number 10 a climb of 9. Our top Councillor Fraser Macpherson from Dundee also in the top 20 at 18 up 13 luckily for him. So that is 20% of the people who can use this button are Scots.

Elsewhere however there are other Scots. Our general election candidate for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock James Taylor with his Liberal Thought blog is the one I'm envious of with his number 42 spot a new entry. He was omitted off the Scottish list but should have been another in the Scottish top 50. Liberal Youth Scotland climb 3 to 54, Edinburgh Cllr Paul Edie enters in the 69 position*, while Montrose Cllr David May is at 72, Aberdeen Cllr Ian Yuill is at 73 and former Angus candidate candidate Sanjay Samani brings up the rear at number 75.

That is ten of the top 75 hailing from north of the border. A very real sound of gunfire from up here, a real strengthening from 5 years ago when I was one of the few Scottish voices in the Lib Dem blogosphere.

Although I've also just heard that Mícheál has just submitted his blog to Ryan at Lib Dem blogs, so seeing as he's spurred on by the friendly competition I may not be the top Lib Dem blogger in Northern Ireland this time next year, just as for the last two years I haven't been top in West Lothian despite being second in Scotland.

But thank you for everyone who voted for me and all the other bloggers on this list. I now also know that if I'd been elected I would now be in the top 10 MPs blogs as well, ho hum. Of course last year I came 11th, 11th and then 101st overall. With two 7ths under my belt this year wouldn't it be strange if I was 77th overall.

* You didn't think I'd avoid double entendre there did you?

Is Group Blogging the New Black?

I was having a little joust with James Mackenzie (aka Two Doctors) on Twitter last night, I mockingly said that I wasn't going to say the nice stuff I was planning to say about his, Jeff and Malc's new venture Better Nation.

I jest of course because I have enough in common with all three of them to make our disagreements just that, a disagreement, a point of contention and not full blown out warfare. It'll be interesting to see how their group dynamic develops as co-editors having seen them together over the odd pints. It would be a shame to lose any of the three of them from blogging and that was the danger that Malc and James were facing over recent months so this new impetus may be the boost to revitalise their creative juices.

Of course I'm also embarking on a new collaborative project, not as James thought with Caron and Andrew as he suggested; like Freedom Central is for the Welsh Lib Dems but for Scotland. No instead I'm getting together with Mícheál setting up the Lib Dems in Northern Ireland blog.

Not of course there hasn't been talk of setting up a Scottish equivalent of Freedom Central. Stephen Tall editor of Lib Dem Voice talked to me about it at conference last year and I talked to Alison Goldsworthy about it there too. So why haven't we got around to it in Scotland?

I think firstly and the three of us have talked about it at times. We are very strong as individual bloggers. By that we are all prolific, hard hitting and bring a personal slant to the issues even if all three of us post on the same subject you will get three very unique perspectives. Secondly such a tool would be to encourage the other Scottish Lib Dem Bloggers. With the notable exception of Fraser Macpherson one of the top 10 Councillor bloggers in the UK, that is in a constant state of embryonic flux. There are some good ones out there like James Taylor, and Paul Edie, but the youngsters Ruaraidh, Callum and Kieran have all given up.

Whereas with Mícheál and me there is a challenge to highlight the Lib Dem brand over here. With a wealth of experience gained in different areas and fields. There is also the obvious media face and the backroom organiser between the two of us. Yes the deal has been struck that if/when I stand in Northern Ireland we know who the agent will be. There are two different styles yet similarly to with Caron and Andrew compatible. I think the boost of my returning has got Mícheál's creative juices running which I hope Better Nation will also do for Malc and James. We'll see how both those projects pan out

As for the Scottish Lib Dem collaboration it remains loose Alliance, with interlinkage and retweeting of stories. Plus, and this is a little secret, occasionally feeding one of the others, in the big three, a story because they would do it more justice because of the way they write.