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The very observant amongst you will have noticed, I hope, that I've been very quiet for a couple of weeks.  Well, since this marks the anniversary of this Drupal version of my blog, I decided to give it a make-over.  Partly this was prompted by having been nominated in summer for the best designed Lib Dem blog, because the previous "look and feel" was not terribly technically tinkered with standard Drupal theme.  So I wanted to have a play and see what I could achieve "under the bonnet" of Drupal.

So, I've reached the point where I'm into that last 20% of any project that will take 80% of the effort, so I figured I might as well "go live" on the new theme and continue to tinker in the background.  So, things will change a little over the coming days and weeks as I spot things I don't like, but please let me know if there's something not working, or not working as expected.

...shame I'm not waking up to this today:

Lots of things to catch up on over the next few days: my feelings about the new leader and his new team, not least.

You'll notice that the whole idea of static "blogroll" type lists has apparently gone.  All of you to whom I linked are still linked, I just need to go through the various links and tag them with categories and they will then show up in the "related links" slot when you view relevant content on my site.

You'll get the hang of it, I hope! 

Remind me again, was it not Frankenstein's monster that was brought to life with jolts of electricity? So, is giving Cardinal O'Brien a pacemaker not "an unprecedented attack on the sanctity and dignity of human life" after all...

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Cardinal O'Brien gets pacemaker:

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland has had a pacemaker fitted following recent heart problems. Cardinal Keith O'Brien was fitted with the device under local anaesthetic at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. The 70-year-old, who suffers from a heart murmur, had experienced dizzy spells in recent weeks and fainted prior to Palm Sunday mass.

On Friday he will attend a public meeting to campaign against the government's Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. At his Easter Sunday mass the cardinal accused Prime Minister Gordon Brown of "an unprecedented attack on the sanctity and dignity of human life", and warned the research could lead to experiments of "Frankenstein proportions".

...a great post on the Libertarian Party blog today should help get you over your myopia, with a smile at least:

As many of you will know, tomorrow at noon is the deadline for conference motions for autumn Federal conference. I've been a bit behind the game recently, but would like to submit the following motion. If you are a conference rep and feel you can support this (I'll accept friendly amendments too - via the comments if you like) could I ask you to let me have your details (email address, name, membership number and local constituency) as soon as possible. I need nine more before tomorrow - it is being circulated in other forums as well though.

Unfinished business: the Liberal reform agenda post-1909

Conference celebrates:

1. the recent hundredth anniversary of the development of the old age pension
2. the recent sixtieth anniversary of the birth of the National Health Service

which were the inspiration of Liberal thinkers, economists and politicians, even if not always implemented by Liberal governments.

Conference notes that:

1. in the next few months we will be celebrating the hundredth anniversary of Lloyd-George's 1909 "People's Budget"
2. in the century since then the dominant ideological and political battles have been between socialism and corporate welfarism
3. Liberals have throughout promoted distinctive and superior alternatives such as:
   i. shifting the burden of taxation away from economically productive and beneficial processes such as work and trade and onto the unearned advantage gained through monopoly, externalities and the exploitation of finite natural resources, including land
   Ii. the post-war "ownership for all" policies which emphasized that it was through a more equitable distribution amongst workers of the capital assets they help to create that the problems of poverty are most likely to be defeated
4. many of the problems that Asquith, Lloyd-George, Beveridge and others sought to address appear to be as intractable as ever
5. successive Labour and Conservative governments, through their respective socialist and class warfare or corporate welfare and protectionist policies, have signally failed to address the root causes of inequity and deprivation at home or abroad so begun by our Liberal forebears a century ago.

Conference therefore:

1. reaffirms the superiority of the Liberal tradition of political economy in offering uniquely sustainable mechanisms to address the ongoing root causes of poverty and deprivation whilst allowing the maximum freedom for individuals to pursue their ambitions and achieve their fullest potential on a level playing field.
2. calls on Liberal Democrat policy makers to rediscover if necessary and embrace the still very relevant ideas and policies of that Liberal economic tradition and to work towards the completion of the "work in progress" begun by the Asquith's pioneering government a century ago frustrated by the vested interests that continue hold considerable influence today to the detriment of the majority.