Hello! As Christmas is nearly upon us and I will go AWOL from the weekend until the new year, I thought an update may be warranted. I’ve been in Los Angeles for the past week so maintaining the Conspiracy has been somewhat difficult.

So firstly, a happy Christmas and New Years to all of those of you who celebrate. I’m expecting a whole load of presents so of course I celebrate!

Secondly, I have somewhat ambitious plans to expand Liberal Conspiracy in the new year and thanks to all of you have emailed in their comments and suggestions. There are two off-shoot blogs planned - one covering right-wing bias in the media (incl the BBC) and another covering trade-union news (sadly neglected in our mainstream media). There will be more debates, campaigns and input from people not used to blogging too.

The Facebook campaign against extending the 28 days period has attracted an amazing 3,500 people so far, which is brilliant. We would still encourage people to join and sign the Amnesty petition. I am also looking for volunteers to help find out which Labour MPs oppose this legislation. Please get in touch if you can make a few calls as part of this campaign.

The new year will also bring more coverage of the US elections on LC. I’ll be here until after the Iowa Caucus anyway; plus Aaron and Garry are keen followers among others. This is also the theme adopted by the Fabians for their yearly conference and its secretary-general (and LC contributor) Sunder Katwala has started a blog exploring The World After Bush.

I’m sure there will be ongoing updates by other contributors over the next fortnight but Aaron and I are taking a well-deserved break. Have a good one!