I’m pleased to announce that I am now the proud sponsor of Jennie Rigg’s blog.. for a month, anyway.

Ryan Cullen needs money. Lib Dem Blogs got suspended again, and he’s decided enough is enough – he can’t afford to keep paying the costs of running the site and is soliciting donations.

In the meantime, the best thing that you can do, if you want to support lib dem bloggers, is to link to other people’s blog posts.

I’m trying to get a feed aggregator going that might, assuming I can get it working, simulate some of the Lib Dem Blogs experience but the number of blogs are many and I’ve only had the patience to throw together about 40 or so. I’m working on it as we speak.

Please do donate cash to Lib Dem Blogs though

UPDATE: If the Yahoo Pipes thing works then it might well be possible for Ryan to significantly reduce his running costs – so it’s worth figuring out even if some kind benefactor dumps all the money he needs on him before the day is through.

UPDATE 2: Experimenting here: Lib Dem Blogs Grab Bag Alpha Feed. It’s not all Lib Dem Blogs.. it’s ones I read, ones I recognise, ones that caught my eye. I don’t know if this works. I don’t know how often it updates, or even if it ever updates. Still, it’s something for now.

Mark “Reckons” Thompson’s statistical analysis appears to show a correlation between seat safety and the likelihood that expenses will have been abused. Everyone’s quite rightly impressed by this, including Polly Toynbee and now Guido. First comment post-Guido link? “Ow my head hurts now.”Priceless.

I wish to sound a note of caution, however. We’re not quite at the point where we can say that this is now a fact to be deployed by people like Guido and Polly to support their arguments.

The sample size is taken from the hundred or so MPs that the Telegraph have covered so far. Expenses abuses don’t immediately leap off the page and announce themselves, so the the Telegraph has tackled the data in a very specific order: Biggest Names First.

They’ve apparently had a team of over 20 journalists working on the story full time (in full ‘research mode’). They’re not going to tackle the data in alphabetical order. They’re going to start with Cabinet members, then Shadow Cabinet members, big beasts, big names.

The thing about big names and cabinet members is that they’re more likely to be in safe seats than not. Could this be the real source of the bias towards ‘safe seats’ observed in the statistical analysis of the currently limited data sample?

The Telegraph have announced their intention to investigate every single MP and that’s important – it means that just because we haven’t heard about an MP doesn’t mean that they’re clean. There’s still something like 530 more MPs to go, the vast majority of which no-one’s ever heard of.

What will be interesting is to redo the statistical analysis once we know about all the MPs and the ‘Telegraph looking for big names first’ factor will have been neutralised. I still think what Mark’s done is amazing – it’s just not fact yet. To his credit he’s not yet claimed it is – but others are beginning to, and that worries me.

I have been challenged to complete a meme using the old “Chicken?” technique by Constantly Furious. Lib Dems, you see, aren’t capable of hate so it might be funny, you see, to tag us with a ‘Eight Things I Hate’ meme. We’re all very middle of the road, you see.

Okay then. You asked for it.

#8: Micras

Nothing pushes my irrationality buttons more than these awful little cars. It feels like whenever I’m driving along and I get stuck behind another car going below the speed limit, it’s always a Micra. I am bedevilled by the things. Everywhere I go. Always.

Irrationality index:7/10. Strong corrolation between Micra ownership and people who are never in a hurry to get anywhere in particular, however I never notice fast Micras, or slow other cars – just slow Micras.

#7: Hebden Bridge

A small collective of aging eco-hippy socialists manage to dominate the political agenda of this Yorkshire Mill Town to the point where you’d think everyone is an aging eco-hippy socialist. This simply isn’t true. Hebden Bridge has some normal people living there (that the collective call ‘straights’)

Irrationality index:8/10. It’s ridiculous to hate a town just because of a minority of highly vocal and political hippies. It’s actually very charming and beautiful and the people are mostly very friendly. Still, if I ever get on Calderdale Council my first proposal will be the Hebden Bridge By-Pass and guaranteeing planning permission for a branch of McDonalds to open there ASAP.

#6: Joel Schumacher

Batman and Robin. Batman Forever. Phonebooth.

Irrationality index:2/10. Nothing irrational about hating something that’s genuinely awful, although hating the guy because of his work seems a bit extreme when I could quite easily just ignore him and his dire output.

#5: Ska (or anything that I think is Ska)

I can’t explain this one. I just have a think about reggae beats mixed with trumpets and a post-punky vibe. It makes me crazy. I was once listening to Patti Smith’s Horses and went ‘proper mental’ because it sounded like Ska to me. I’m told it’s not Ska, but it pushed the same buttons.

Irrationality index:10/10. Hating a genre of music is inherently irrational, but hating music that’s not even in that genre but you think it is is actually border-line crazy.

#4: Fussbudgetry

I cannot stand people double checking things, like double checking the oven’s turned off, double checking the front door’s locked etc. I have no problems double checking things myself, but other people doing it? Makes me really irrationally angry.

Irrationality index:10/10. I need to learn to let go of the fact that someone else “wasting their time” is their problem not mine.

#3: Trade Unions

The fundamental premise behind Trade Unionism – using force to bully whoever you want to get what you want – strikes me as basically immoral. I will never understand it.

Irrationality index:2/10. Trade Unions have a role to play in helping organisations understand what their employees would like. As employee advocacy, as sources of advice, as resources for legal recourse they’ve got a role to play. But force to get what they want? It disgusts me.

#2: The Celebrity Cult

Another one I’ll never hope to understand. Love for celebrities seems to come from the desire to be a celebrity. By elevating the completely worthless, so the doors are opened for all. No skills, no talents, no abilities, no training, no practice, no learning… just blam – instant adoration and wealth, and all you have to do is be yourself, do interviews, do photo shoots… that’s it. All you gotta do is get noticed and this wonderful life can be yours.  If Jade Goody can do it, so anyone can do it, and that gives us all “hope.” Actually, it just makes me want to run around screaming, “HAS EVERYONE LOST THEIR MINDS?”

Irrationality Index: 1/10. The Celebrity Cult is indeed worthy of hatred, neatly encapsulating virtually everything else I hate – willful ignorance, fashionable stupidity and shallowness with intent to bore. One irrationality point for actually caring.

#1: Socialism

Running counter to liberal thought, collectivism holds that it’s okay to sacrifice individuals for the greater good of the collective, and believe that it is morally okay to use force to make this happen. In manifests in policy terms in different ways – sometimes it’s about taxing and controlling otherwise private businesses, other times its a lot worse. Government as a means of helping yourself to whatever you want and using it for whatever purpose you want. Invariably requires authoritarianism to make work as there always remains a persistent and stubborn section of the population that will never willingly submit.

Irrationality Index: 0/10. A system that depends on force? It’s perfectly rational to want to rid the world of Socialism with every fibre of my being. It’s Europe’s curse. It’s Britain’s curse.

Done.

Poor Michael Martin. Unloved, unwanted and acting as a big fleshy roadblock to reform of the House of Commons. The search is on for a new speaker, one who will bring Order and Dignity to this unruly bunch. It’s time get get tough. It’s time for discipline. It’s time to show these politicians who’s boss (that’s us, by the way).

It’s time for the Top 10 Replacement Speakers list!

Let’s memeify this: I tag Martin (haha!) and Stuart Sharpe!!