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In a post dedicated to Paddy Ashdown, Rob Stickland (the new councillor for Yeovil Without) celebrates the Liberal Democrat success in South Somerset: "He was certainly with me during the election day, knocking doors, with rosette plain for all to see, his advice ringing in my mind 'don’t use a car, walk the area show your colours and be proud, let the people see you'."

Mary Reid itemises the Alliance Party's advance in Northern Ireland's local elections.

"I don’t recall ever meeting a monied Jew when I was growing up in Manchester. We certainly didn’t know any. A few comfortable ones, maybe – but the rest of us worked hard to make ends meet, some improving as the country itself became more prosperous, others just getting by." Howard Jacobson reviews the Jewish Museum London exhibition "Jews, Money, Myth".

Robert Macfarlane on the notebooks that underpin his new book Underland.

Running Past describes the damage caused by a V-1 (doodlebug) attack on houses by Hither Green station and the subsequent redevelopment.

"I heard 'Oh Bondage Up Yours!' when it appeared on The Roxy London WC2, a 1977 album of live recordings from the club in Covent Garden. Her voice went through me like a stiletto. I wasn’t sure whether I loved or hated it – but it woke me up." Tracey Thorn celebrates the late great Poly Styrene.

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"The Alliance Party says enough is enough. Over a violent 48 hours it has seen one of its representatives forced from her house, others attacked in their home, the shutters brought-down at a string of its offices, and a party advice centre gutted by arsonists. On the face of it, the rampage is linked to loyalist anger over restrictions placed on flying the Union flag from Belfast City Hall. But Alliance now says this crisis follows ten years of intense unionist political campaigning aimed at stifling the liberal party’s growing appeal – as well as loyalist paramilitary intimidation that Alliance has previously played down." The Detail on worrying developments in Northern Ireland.

Thinking Liberal suggests a way for the Liberal Democrats to avoid wipeout at the next European elections.

Jennie Rigg has been reading the first edition of Ad Lib, the new magazine from the Liberal Democrats.

How are the Republicans getting on after their defeat in the recent US Presidential elections? Not very well, reports The New Republic.

"I guess the favourite Western for most movie buffs (of a mature age) came from this period with many selecting Sergio Leone’s 1966 film, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. While this is a great must see classic movie, for me his 1968 release of Once Upon a Time in the West is the best Western ever." So says Movies My Dad Likes.

The lead-mining country of the North Pennines was an early inspiration for the poet W.H. Auden. Robert Forsythe discusses how he may first have come the village of Rookhope there.