Caron's Corkers 23 November

It's been ages since I've done a roundup of good things to read - and there's plenty of it around at the moment.

The first thing I read when I woke up on Sunday morning was a tweet from Evan Harris, former Lib Dem MP and all round hero, linking to this Observer debate on whether religion is a force for good in the world. I felt that Evan and AC Grayling  made a good case for the no side. Evan made the point that

"a liberal, secular democracy is the best protector of religious freedom, because it says that we need to guarantee the absolute freedom of belief. There is no theocracy that has ever provided for religious freedom, let alone emancipation of women and equal rights for gay people."

The Divine Ms Duffett interviews David Laws as his book, 22 Days in May, is published. This has whetted my appetite to read the book, so if Amazon could just get off their backsides and send me the copy I pre-ordered, I'd be really happy, thank you. Anyway, her chat with David is much better than the company she was keeping last week.

Cicero rarely cheers and warns us of further economic uncertainty. I would love to think he was wrong, but the evidence of a quarter of a century of knowing him is that he is right.

I can't possibly ignore a post entitled Where Lib Dem Bloggers Trump the Nats - especially when I think the Trump is there for a particular reason. I'm one of Menie, are you?

Andrew tells us about how George Lyon MEP has helped overturn a barking mad European directive.

James Taylor is worried at the prospect of a demo outside Scottish Liberal Democrat HQ in Edinburgh tomorrow after reading the Facebook page. Maybe those protesting should remember that the Scottish Liberal Democrats ensured that there have been no upfront tuition fees in Scotland and we recently reaffirmed our commitment to that policy. Let's hope the demo is more like the one Iain Roberts faced the other day where both sides are prepared to listen. I also hope that those protesting tomorrow remember that the people who work in that building are not responsible for government policy, and they work long hours for very little pay. None of what they are angry about is the fault of those workers.

And finally, on a very sad note, this week both Clair of Kids, Craft and Chaos and I are remembering friends' babies who passed away at this time last year. This is the letter she wrote to little Catriona. It's heartbreakingly beautiful.