This evening I attended the launch party of the Liberal Conspiracy, the latest brainchild of Sunny Hundal of Pickled Politics fame. Sadly, they didn’t supply us with sparklers or have any of those rubbishy indoor fireworks you used to be inflicted with at children’s parties, but a fun time seemed to be had by all.

As far as I can tell, I was the only Lib Dem there; to what degree I was the only Lib Dem who attended or the only Lib Dem who was invited was not clear, although I understand that a lot of people were at the Hackney Empire.

Sunny’s ambition is to produce nothing less than the hub of the liberal-left. First impression? It includes a lot of people I like and respect, but seems to lean more towards the left than the liberal, and that this is reflected by their ideals as well.

For example, the FAQ states:

You can join in as long as you somewhat share our broad goals and aims (social justice, equality, eradicating poverty etc.)

Where’s the emphasis on liberty? And:

The Labour party may represent the best vehicle for our political goals as they are in power, but our allegiance is towards liberal-left policies and ideas than specific parties.

Sure it may, but it may not. The inference I read in that statement is that the Labour party does represent the best vehicle for the liberal-left. From what I’ve seen so far, the left tail is very much wagging the liberal dog; indeed, their definition of liberalism doesn’t appear to get much more sophisticated that the Nick Cohen-esque critique of it meaning little more than moderate and middle class. Not so much a political philosophy as a belief in the importance of being nice.

The thing is, that’s almost the same definition of liberalism that I’m pretty certain David Cameron is thinking of when he calls himself a liberal conservative.

As for me, I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently and am reconciled to the fact that I am leftwing. I’ve been resistant to this, partly because it gets ingrained into you during your Liberal Democrat indoctrination that the party defies such lazy characterisation. At my first LDYS conference, Simon Hughes went on about how the party was “not left, not right, but forward!” I think I’ve heard him make the same speech at least once a year ever since.

Ultimately, equality is a leftwing concept and I believe in equality. As we’ve seen on this blog, it isn’t a concept that is without controversy within the Lib Dems. I plan to be returning to it soon following Andy Mayor’s laying down of the gauntlet this weekend (I have to say that I find it ironic being accused of being a paid up member of the “Church” of Leftology from someone who is demonstrably a member of the long dead cult of Manichaeism^*, but that’s par for the course I suppose).

But even someone who is as unforgiveably leftwing in Andy’s eyes as myself believes that in the final analysis equality must always be subordinate to liberty. I wonder if the Liberal Conspirators feel the same way? Is it, in short, really liberalism - left or otherwise - that they really want?

I’m hopeful that they do. Sunny has showed himself to be on the side of liberalism time and again in recent years. If they plan to make progress, the robustness of liberalism will beat the mushiness of moderatism hands down, and we shouldn’t read too much into an FAQ on day one of a project. Lib Dems (of a liberal-left persuasion of course) could do worse than to help them hone themselves, and we know a thing or two about campaigning as well.

^* I’m in despair at Lib Dems at the moment who seem determined to dumb down. The response on Lib Dem Voice to Chris Huhne’s interview on GMtv was to crow about his use of the word Gadarene. Many of his sternest detractors were Oxbridge graduate public schoolboys for fuck’s sake.

If you watched that interview unsuspectingly on the telly, I doubt you would even be aware of Huhne making a Biblical reference. I may have my criticisms of Huhne’s campaign and ability to communicate, and I know that to an extent this is Clegg-heads playing games but is it really so outrageous for party leaders to occasionally let it slip that they are rather more widely read than Janet and John?

Plus, nobody laughed at my bacon joke which was frankly fantastic. Philistines^**.

^** Presumably in Clegg-head Wonderland, that is too elitist a reference as well.

Is it just me or do both Chris Huhne and Nick Clegg sound pretty croaky at the moment? They both sound as if they are still recovering from the cold that was going round party conference.

If they are, they have my sympathy. I got that bug and it was bloody nasty.

In their infinite wisdom, the Electoral Reform Society have asked me to be a judge for their blogging competition, which is currently going on. Don’t worry, I won’t let it go to my head.

Top prize is £700, which isn’t to be sniffed at. So why not have a go?

After Pop Kylie, Indie Kylie and Disco Kylie… Roxy Music Kylie? Goldfrapp Kylie?

(pardon me while I try shoe-horning this pun in place… ugh… there)

A welcome return to Craig Murray, still unbowed despite Alisher Usmanov’s attempts to shut him up. I think we should thank all the newspaper and broadcast journalists out there who have bravely and tirelessly reported this case beyond simply mentioning that Boris Johnson has been taken down as well. Does anyone know anyone?

At Labour conference and struggling to type using a godawful metal keyboard which appears to not have a control key (clearly they have a problem with Labour delegates having even that level of power). Blogging will be lighter than last week, at least until I figure out how to access the free internet access.

Meanwhile, you might want to visit my guide to Lib Dem bloggers over at Our Kingdom.

Oh, and I get a name check on Iain Dale’s guide to political blogging on the Torygraph. It’s all gravy.

Anyway, Britain’s Got Talent Finalists the Kombat Breakers are about to start playing in the foyer so time I headed off in the opposite direction.

At the risk of not having anything particularly new or interesting to say, I thought I’d better add my voice to the growing throng condemning Alisher Usmanov’s successful bid to shut down Craig Murray and Tim Ireland. It illustrates the vulnerability the blogosphere has to punitive libel laws such as the ones we have in this country; similar action against a newspaper would be much more difficult (although legal action against a newspaper’s distributor has been attempted in the past). Many of us are hosted by small companies who are incredibly vulnerable to the merest threat of legal action. Does such a thing exist? I can only find a single reference to one Out There - and that is to a call for a US version.

UPDATE: The BBC have reported Usmanov buying a blocking stake in Arsenal, but have not covered this angle. Curious, no?

I’ve spent all day being asked by journalists “why is your blog called Quaequam?” To start with, it isn’t. It’s called Quaequam Blog! - the blog and exclamation mark are important. Secondly, it has nothing to do with latin (I should hire Ros Taylor as my personal spin doctor - she always makes me sound so glamourous) - those Grammar school years were totally wasted, trust me.

Frankly, I think I signpost the origins of “quaequam blog!” fairly explicitly on this blog these days. The clues are all these. Ultimately, the real reason I call this site Quaequam Blog! is that for 99.9% of the population it is completely obscure while 0.1% understand it immediately. All hail obscure, pointless in-jokes!

It turns out that the Guardian didn’t jinx it for me after all. What’s more, I appear to have a web exclusive here (which is rather sad as I should be out celebrating come to think of it). So, just to let people know, I won the Best Blog Post and Best Blog at the Lib Dem Blog Awards this evening.

Ros Taylor, better known as the Guardian Backbencher and Comment is Free Honcho presented me with both awards. The other winners were: Hug a Hoodie (Best New Blog), Mary Reid (Best Blog by an Elected Representative AND Best Designed Blog) and Liberal Mafia (Best Humourous Blog). The latter failed to collect his award but sent a rather fetching horse’s head. In addition, Matt Davies got a special commendation for Best Blog by an Elected Representative while Hug a Hoodie got a special commendation for Best Blog Post.

So, thanks a lot to the judges (Will Howells, Lynne Featherstone, Stephen Tall and Ryan Cullen) and thanks a lot to every one who nominated me. Commiserations too to everyone who was nominated but didn’t win on this occasion (I hope they’ll forgive me if rather than listing them all I just link to the list of nominations).

I’d like to say I’m above such petty baubles, but in reality I’m deeply shallow.

According to Patrick Wintour in his Guardian Guide to the Conference Season, this blog is the top tip for winning tomorrow’s Lib Dem Blogger of the Year Awards. Aw, shucks.

What’s more, this apparently makes me the Lib Dem equivalent of Arnold Schwartzenegger. Meet me on muscle beach, I have clearly some catching up to do.

Sadly, he then goes and spoils everything by suggesting that Land Value Taxation defeating local income tax is one of the things that “might go wrong” in conference this week. As any fule kno this is one of the things that could go right, so I won’t be making any space on my mantelpiece* just get.

*Not that I’m expecting it to be an actual, physical award. Or that I actually have a mantelpiece.