A Voyage Round my Blogroll - Part the Second

Here's the next instalment in a new regular feature where I introduce the bloggers on my blogroll, letting you know why they are there and how I got to know them.

First up is Sara's Always win when you're singing blog. I first came across Sara Tustin as she then was when she was in SDP Students standing for the NUS Executive in the 1980s. I was much too scared to even dare speak to someone as important as she was way back then, but then in the 90s we were both involved in the first Liberal Democrat internet conferencing and got to know each other better then. She's solidly liberal, and someone who's instincts I trust.  She is also the domestic goddess of the Liberal Democrats and in between baking up a storm to send to by-elections (an army marches on its stomach after all), she posts recipes as well as fantastically insightful political stuff. She has a good grip on real life as this piece in which she takes a London councillor and assembly member to task for thinking he's worth his massive salary.

I first came across Meemalee's Kitchen a few months ago during the finals of this year's Masterchef. MiMi is writing  a Burmese cookbook and her food blog contains recipes, restaurant reviews and a lot of Masterchef stuff. She is hilarious and irreverent. She's also a great person to chat to on Twitter - and she likes Doctor Who. What's not to love? Now that Celebrity Masterchef is up and running, she is going to be unmissable.

Rocky Larusso spent a year as an intern in Willie Rennie's office in London a few years ago. He came up to visit the constituency office and was great fun. He recently starting blogging and his first posts have ranged from the re-opening of Kentish Town baths (saved from closure by a Lib Dem campaign), the AV referendum and his recent holiday in Stockholm, where he chatted with Swedish young people about state control of alcohol sales and its effect on binge drinking.

Jeff at SNP Tactical Voting, despite his move to London, remains one of the giants of the Scottish blogosphere. He's not tribal - in fact, he's not even that sure he believes in independence, but he's always interesting. He's a fair bit to the right of me both economically and socially and caused controversy the other week with this post suggesting that a ban on Islamic veil might be a good thing.

If you want a liberal slant on legal issues, then Jack of Kent is the best place to go. He doesn't always come up with the conclusions you want to hear, but he is always meticulously researched and writes in a much more readable and engaging style than you'd expect from a lawyer. He's been involved in a number of libel cases on a pro bono basis and has recently written on the decision not to prosecute Ian Tomlinson, the Gray/Hilton libel case which has significance for bloggers and the recent Twitterstorm surrounding Gillian McKeith. The one I'm choosing to link to is the post in which he defends Cllr John Dixon, the Welsh Liberal Democrat Councillor who has been put up before the Standards people for calling scientology stupid.