… nearly. Turns out there wasn’t much Lib Dem branding on this blog after all, although there’s a bit of graphics work still to do.

As of 10am, this blog will no longer appear on Lib Dem Blogs, will never again get a ‘Golden Dozen’ from Lib Dem Voice and I’m no longer in the running for Lib Dem Blog of the Year awards. I’m not sure when my membership of the party itself is due to expire but I’ll make the decision to renew when that time comes.

It’s a liberating feeling.

What I have no control over is where people list me in their blog-rolls. I suspect over time that one will fix itself – I’m not going to worry about it too much.

Quote of the day comes from Alex Massie of the Speccie in his post entitled, “Gordon Brown is a Rescue Donkey“.

Bottom line: There are a lot of people in this country who give money to donkey sanctuaries and pet rescue homes and while this may not be the demographic Labour would choose to target, it’s one the Tories might be alienating.

Oh dear.

Another one of my pet theories about Brown is that whatever he’s most determined to have us believe and think is usually the exact opposite of what he most fears us believing and thinking.

For example, when he first became leader he was obsessed with proving how strong and substantial he was – which, in hindsight, was because he was the exact opposite. He has proven to be weak, lacking real support in his party or friends outside it and shockingly light on any real vision or ideas for his leadership.

He’s like the small child standing in front of the toy he’s broken in an attempt to hide it – and inadvertently drawing attention to it.

Nowadays the message is what a fantastic legacy Labour have left, what a wonderful golden era of achievements and successes it has been.

Draw your own conclusions.

Dan from Wikio has been in touch looking for a loving, tender home for the preview of their latest Overall Blogosphere.

Some quick comments: The Craft blogs are taking over (a good thing)! Lib Dem Voice down, Labourlist up! Alex Massie on the rise! Mark leapfrogs me again, the rotter.

So without further ado…

A not so subtle response to this and this.

A group of children, broken up into two gangs: They have one bucket of toys, with only enough toys for one of the gangs.

To prevent fighting (and broken spectacles) they take turns every week to elect a new leader. Invariably leadership alternates between each of the gang, although sometimes one gang can hold the bucket for many weeks at a time. Gang A’s leader, if he wins leadership of the whole tribe, always grants the bucket of toys to his gang, and Gang B’s leader always decides to give the bucket to her gang.

Round and round they go, the bucket of toys passing between each gang.

Then there’s a few children that aren’t part of either gang. They’re a minority, because not being in a gang means no access to the bucket – so they decide to offer up a better solution for organising their affairs: Why not have a competition or some kind, each week, to decide who gets each of the individual toys in the bucket? Another suggests: Why don’t we get some more toys, or come up with new games? The non-gang children already invent games and so their ideas seem completely obvious. Obsessing about the bucket is stupid, isn’t it?

The leader of each gang considers these suggestions, then disregards them: “That would mean some of my gang would go without toys, and some of their lot would get toys they don’t deserve. When they’re in charge, we get nothing, so why should we give them anything? No! Never!”

The non-gang kids realise that the only way to end the ridiculous situation with the bucket is to get one of their own elected as a leader. A discussion is had as to the best method to achieve this, and opinion is divided – there are two proposed solutions:

1) Promise to give half the toys to each gang

2) Always stick up for the gang currently without the bucket

Sadly, the creativity the non-gang children display inventing games does not seem to stretch to any other options. 6 months later, having still to win leadership even once, they spend most of their time being asked, “Will you support Gang A or Gang B?”

The moral of the story, such as there is one, is that if you try to play someone’s else game, you’re going to get spanked.