Lynne Featherstone

Writing about Iain Dale's bid to become PPC for Bracknell the Daily Mail has resorted to its usual approach to those it disapproves of. 'Isn't it charming how homosexuals rally like-minded chaps to their cause' is one of the homophobic remarks made by the Daily Mail in guise of Ephraim Hardcastle . Of course - this is free speech and the Mail can say it - but Iain Dale is quite right to hit back and show the remark up for what it is - homophobia.

Well - I see that the Total Politics top MP blogs are with us again - thanks to Iain Dale's devotion to measuring everyone and everything in blogworld! Anyway - this year I come in at number 8 - which is still in the top 10 - albeit a descent from the giddy heights of number 5 last year. Apparently this is voted on by 1,500 people or so - so that's pretty good going. Thank you!

A big thank you to Iain Dale's readers for his 2008 political poll where, whilst I trail Vince Cable miserably (and rightly), I am a) in the frame and b) second! as Lib Dem MP of the Year! Thus I continue my saga of always the bridesmaid but never the bride! I also notice that his magazine Total Politics has me as one to watch - and that's what my teachers used to say - ' better keep a close eye on her' - although I think their meaning may have been different...

On my own side - I likewise see (thanks to those who have brought it to my notice) that in the Liberal Democrat Voice poll I again am trailing Vince! Well - the man is a star and being even near licking distance of boots is honour enough! But there is still time for you to vote...

Iain Dale's doing his annual best blog competition, so here are my top ten political blogs which I'm sending in.

First there are the regular 'must reads':

1. Liberal Democrat Voice
2. Iain Dale
3. Guido Fawkes (Love Iain and Guido, or hate them, or love and hate them both - they are a pretty much essential read, frequently breaking stories that are then ones we all pay attention to.)
4. Liberal Conspiracy (The content isn't as much of a 'must read' for me as the previous three, but Liberal Conspiracy has the best discussion in the comments. It's the place where pieces from myself generate the most interesting discussion compared with the other sites where my words sometimes appear.)

(And yes - no Labour equivalent there. The Labour 'home' style sites aren't quite there yet - at least for an outside like myself.)

And for the other six:

5. Labour MP Tom Harris (Frequently disagree with him - but a great blogging style and manages to be interesting and thought provoking despite also being a pretty much always on message Labour minister. Not an easy combination to pull off!)

6. James Graham's Quaequam (A previous Liberal Democrat Voice 'Blog of the Year' winner and one of the best pugnacious bloggers around - showing how you can be very robust in your arguments without simply lapsing into empty insults.)

7. The Times's Red Box (I feel it's a bit of a cheat to include a blog that is really a newspaper online, but this is an excellent example of this genre at work.)

8. Dave Hill (Really came to prominence for many people during the London elections this year - and continues to shed light on what is happening in London government.)

9. Helen Duffett (Helen's worked in my office helping with casework. I'll let you judge whether that means her excellent blogging is because of or despite this link!)

10. And of course, the best blogging pink dog in the world, Pink Dog (Where else would I find out about spoon crime?)

You can cast your own votes too by sending your top ten to toptenblogs Modesty forbids me to include my own blog in my top ten, but don't let that put you off voting for me!

Yesterday Iain Dale interviewed me about Prime Minister's Questions and the Budget for Friction.TV. You can watch the result here - it was just a bit windy!

It’s 80 minutes into an Arsenal-Tottenham football derby. Tottenham lead 1-0. Arsenal are piling on the pressure. The Tottenham manager shouts at the ref, “OK, that’s it – can we have the final score now please?” The ref agrees, all the players troop off the pitch 10 minutes early and Tottenham get the three points.

Sounds absurd doesn’t it (and I don’t just mean the idea of Tottenham beating Arsenal!)?

But that’s what passes for normal in the world of Palace of Westminster politics when it comes to general election dates. The Prime Minister – and the Prime Minister alone – gets to choose the date. Now – in theory Parliaments last for five years and the monarch has to agree to any earlier election, but in practice – the PM always gets his or her way - and they shouldn't.

Which is why, even though the immediate fuss after Gordon Brown's general election that wasn't has died down, I've returned to the topic in my latest magazine article - which you can now read on my website.

It mentions www.fixedterm.org.uk - which is a cross-party campaign on this very topic, including the likes of bloggers Iain Dale (Conservative), Stephen Tall (Lib Dem) and Sunny Hundal (of Liberal Conspiracy), MPs Ed Vaizey (Conservative - and my frequent sparing partner on The Westminster Hour) and former Lib Dem leader Ming Campbell, and journalists including Benedict Brogan of the Daily Mail. If you agree with me on the issue - do go and sign up to support it. And if you don't - read my article, and perhaps you'll be persuaded!

As Liberal Democrat Voice has pointed out, readers of Iain Dale's blog have voted this the third best Liberal Democrat blog. Details over at LDV; thanks to those who voted for me - and congratulations to the LDV team and to Nich Starling for grabbing the two places above me.

Interesting poll by Iain Dale on his website of how his readers think MPs of all parties have been performing in the last month. 1,256 blog watchers voted and they rated the performance of a selection of MPs over the last month.

Both our Liberal Democrat leadership candidates are in the top quarter, Chris at 10 and Nick at 21! Not bad for a Conservative originated contest on a website with a heavily Conservative readership!

However, both might like to look at the methodology of the occupier of the No. 1 spot for guidance when our new leader is declared and take a leaf out of the Cable book of stealing the limelight - for it is indeed Vince Cable who comes out as the top rated MP over the last month. Well done all three.

Earlier today got the figures on the funding proposal Haringey Council is getting from the Labour Government. I've been campaigning on fair funding for Haringey's schools since I discovered that our schools get £736 per child less than those in neighbouring boroughs. Well the new funding proposals adds insult to injury. The gap will widen further to a £1,000 differential. I am seeking an urgent meeting with Ed Balls.

It was also the launch of Stroud Green School Children's Centre today. This is after a series of delays, changes in staff, etc etc - and even today the Service Level Agreements weren't signed. However - putting all that process mess out of the way - today was a lovely occasion with children helping with 'planting' a tree and a whole class singing to entertain us. This is part of a program to create 18 children's centres in Haringey. Ten down - eight to do.

This is the first one to be constructed in a primary school and cost half a million. It's much needed in the community but because of Haringey's delays they missed the September term time start. But they open in a week or so - and there are some very lucky children who will be going there.

Iain Dale and I were then the speakers on 'new media' for the NCVO. Always enjoyable to share a platform with the uber-blogger! Then to Parliament for a series of votes before heading over to the Haringey Civic Centre for a Police consultative meeting.

Packed chamber as the IPPC had come back, as they had promised, to talk to local people, campaigners and the Sylvesters (Roger Sylvester's parents) about their report which basically resulted in no recommendations for discipline from the police - or indeed anything much.

Well - you can understand in Haringey where we have had a number of black deaths in custody - and no action on any of them - that the people in attendance were not best pleased. Actually it is really traumatic to see and hear the pain still in the room - eight years on - because they feel that justice has not been done. It is too hard to understand how a man could be dragged naked into the freezing night and die.

At least the Haringey Community and Police Consultative Group gives a forum where the anguish can be voiced - but it's pretty cold comfort for a family who don't believe justice has or will ever be done for their son's death.

Earlier this year I wrote a piece for Iain Dale's Guide to Political Blogging in the UK about why I think MPs should blog. I'd not got round to uploading it to my website previously but with the question knocking round on various blogs as to whether or not the Liberal Democrat leadership candidates should be engaging online (e.g. by commenting on blog pieces) now seems a good time to get round to that:

I started blogging back in 2003 because I could not bear the ‘you politicians you’re all the same’ type of comment. I wasn’t an MP at the time I started blogging – but I was a local councillor (Haringey) and also on the London Assembly, and I wanted to tell the people who elected me what I was doing and what I was thinking about what was going on in my working world – the world they had elected me to. I wanted to create a relationship with readers of my blog, that would give them an insight not just into how I spent my day on their behalf – but also some sense of me as a human being.

You can read the piece in full on my website.