I've been added as one of a handful of bloggers helping out at Liberal Conspiracy with their daily "NetCasts", and Thursday (for now at least) is my day in the sun. You can check out my offerings on the last 24 hours best blogs over at Liberal Conspiracy.

However I also wanted to mention a few blogs here that didn't quite make it in to my list of 6 or 7 items, and intend to do so each week here (if the quality of articles is out there!).

Lib Dem Voice - Mark Pack questions the way the Tories are picking their next Henley MP. Read the comments for the wider argument about how the Lib Dems do it too!
Political Betting - In an issue obviously close to Mike's heart, he wonders why it's taken so long to get the transparency needed for a controversial Ken Livingstone poll.
Alisdair's Blog - Get past the garish header and you have a 15 year old that manages to sound sensible on the subject of the new cluster bomb treaty.
Dizzy Thinks - Dizzy takes a look back at the websites of the main political parties as far back as before the 1997 general election. How times have changed...

You can also click below to continue reading and see the full list on this site if you so wish!

Click "continue article" below to see my response to consultation that can be found here on depictions of child abuse in non-photographic images and media.

So not long after the fuss in japan over changes to their child pornography laws it seems that our government is taking the next step in this countries long and rather despicable history of over baking legislation to protect people around the subject of sexual acts. That is to say that they are now asking for consultation on legislating against potential future crimes that don't appear to have ever really been committed yet, as well as undermining the entire artistic and creative sector by placing strict limitations on just how expressive they can be.

And, of course, it is working...the BBC itself leading barely with any other news than that of how paedophiles can film our little boys and girls and then turn the film in to a cartoon so as to avoid being prosecuted over child abuse. This is because the consultation paper itself is a form of propoganda, carefully worded and crafted to implant in to peoples minds the fear of what could happen, regardless of how likely, before asking us if it'd be ok to legislate against it.

News is coming out that one potential route to "overcome" the issue of MP expenses and the outcry over what they spend their money on is to...well...properly hide their actions from us so we can't outcry any more!

However this isn't the worst of it, as they are saying they'd like to do this by giving every MP £23k "for their second home", in a move that would both mean that receipts and accounts would seemingly not have to be kept for what they are spending our taxes on, but also meaning some MPs will receive more money every year than they usually spend on their housing needs, effectively wasting even more of our money on what looks amazingly like a pay rise.

It was released on Monday, a report that gave a detailed look at the idea of moving towards a system of carbon trading between individuals rather than green taxes. I've said in the past how much I like the ideas Tim Yeo puts forward, an MP that despite being a Tory seems to put forward (at least recently) very liberal and socially motivated suggestions...and given this is something that tackles my already documented annoyance with green taxes I just have to write about this particular scheme!

Let's not be coy about it, this is about as bad as it's been for Labour for over two decades. Every day there seems to be more bad news, and where there isn't bad news coming about Labour tearing itself apart there's almost always simply better news about the other parties. That is, until today.

Today marks the time that the Tories are starting to think about getting serious, and with that comes a true fleshing out of the variety of proposals that they have merely drifted over in the past. Good news for the Tories? Not when it shows the same anti-youth, authoritarian instincts of the current government in a traditionally poorly thought out Conservative manner

According to the Times the answer is emphatically no. If you enjoy a government that slaps itself on the back for any minor achievement and backs itself up at every pitfall, a government that criminalises our children and refuses to undertake previously promised constitutional reform, and a government that refuses to help pensioners out of the same rut that they were in a decade ago on fuel pricing while overspending on the irrelevant and economy sapping event otherwise known as the Olympics, then perhaps you'll be happy to hear that Miliband (David kind) is planning in "secret" to run for PM when the opportunity arises...backed by every sheriff of Nottingham that currently resides in power.

Gordon Brown has responded to the absolutely DEVASTATING result in Crewe and Nantwich by claiming that he is "listening", a desperate sense of language that almost pleads with the electorate to trust him going forward in to the future...and rightly so. He should be pleading, he should be begging, in fact he should be display a whole host of traits that are both simultaneously apologetic to the electorate that he and his government have betrayed so badly in the last 6 months and non-conducive to him remaining the leader of this country.

First of all, let me say that it's been a pain being away, but starting a new job and the culture shock that that a busy working life has brought has meant a re-evaluation of my time. Me and Gavin are discussing the future for Politalks, but for now it's on the back burner so that I can have time to actually blog properly again.

And so here I come back with news of even more erosion of civil liberties on the horizon! Yes it seems that either ministers in this government are happy to stare the impending defeat of their rule at the next general election down til the very last, desperate and crushing end, or they are so incompetent they've not yet let their minions know that stories about how they might want to spy on every single phone call and email we make could be a little bit of a vote loser.