Not surprisingly, comments about abandoning London didn’t go down too well with her ward’s residents back in London, some of whom complained. Her response?

“I’m slightly confused to why people are saying this. This is not why I wanted to join politics, I hate all these malicious lies.”

How does she reconcile saying she’s moved out of London with also saying the attacks on her are malicious lies? Here’s what the local newspaper reports:

Coun Salvoni said this was just a sales tactic though and that she was still spending a lot of time in the borough while her husband mainly stays in Cornwall.

A sales tactic? Ah, that’s all ok then, isn’t it?

Yet even within policy wonk circles based around SW1, the Government Digital Service (GDS) is frequently little more than a vaguely recognised acronym. It should be much more than that, for two major reasons.

First, for the insights it can offer for working out how to improve public services whilst saving money across the public sector more widely. I think there is much still to be learnt about what the GDS is getting right, but the early signs are that they do not fit into a neat, convenient pre-packaged set of ideas that fit one place on the political spectrum. For example, the GDS is doing things in-house, rather than contracting out to the private sector. Yet it is doing things in-house by paying high – even controversially high – salaries to get the most talented into its ranks. High pay and spurning privatisation? Both right and left wingers could take plenty of pot shots – or rather, could – if it weren’t for the record of success.

Second, the GDS is at heart about data and information – and power increasingly lies with information. Outside a mature democracy the balance of power between information and physical force is often a bloody, tragic struggle – witness events in the Middle East. Within democracies such as our own, power – both political and more widely – is increasingly only tangentially dependent on the ability to deploy physical power and instead increasingly dependent on data and information. Liberals of all stripes have always known this – and hence the party and its predecessors’ proud record of fighting to free up government information through local government changes and Freedom of Information legislation.

Even the physical presence of the police to block protesters is now often muted by the flow of photos and video footage broadcasting how the police are behaving out to the wider world. A police spokesperson rubbishing reports of police violence now has to face the evidence that floods around them.

So it’s great that the Social Liberal Forum have put on a session (which I’ve been invited to speak at) on the ownership of information at its July conference. If you haven’t yet registered to come, I hope you can and do.

The power of information should sit at the centre of our vision for a liberal society after 2015, so whether or not you can join that particular debate in person, do join the wider debate electronically!

* Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.

1. The incomes of those in their 60s and 70s have continued to rise since the recession. In contrast, median (middle) income among peoploe in their 20s fell by 12% between 2007-8 and 2011-12, after adjusting for inflation- the largest fall of any age group. [IFS]

2. Turnout at British general elections dropped by 45 percentage points between 1964 and 2005 amongst the under 25s. It dropped by only 2 percentage points amongst the over 64s.

You’ve talked a lot in your report about the importance of our political culture and that within political parties. You’ve also generously noted the constraints our electoral system place on efforts to change the male-domination of politics.

However, appointments to the House of Lords are within the gift of political party leaders. Do you think therefore that party leaders, and more specifically Nick Clegg in the next few years, should consistently appoint more women than men to the House of Lords?

And the answer I hope she would have given?

Yes – and given the amount of historic baggage we all still have to deal, it would be a mistake to think that it is enough to appoint the same number of women as men, or just one more.

Also on YouTube.

Its prime purpose is to give fans a different and exciting view of the action. In addition, letting them see a sport the same way a referee sees it is likely to increase people’s respect for the skills of good referees – thanks to seeing controversial incidents from the angle and at the speed with which the referee saw it.

This coming Thursday (20 June) is World Refugee Day and it's interesting to see the UNHCR turning to Pinterest to promote the day:

Imagine your family had 1 minute to flee your home. What 1 thing would you take with you? Inspired by the photographer Brian Sokol's original project 'The Most Important Thing', we asked refugee families, celebrities and members of the public to contemplate this heart-wrenching decision. Here are their stories. Please read and then pin a picture of yourself with your most important thing or upload one to this board.

There's a sutble touch of celebrities (such as David Tennant here), and even with those the campaign emphasises the human, individual side – a very important message given the way refugees and immigration often get conflated in wider public debate. When that happens, it always risks letting widespread warmth to the idea of helping people who have to flee violence and hardship get undermined by debates over the job markets and the like. (Although, in fact, the evidence repeatedly shows that immigration boosts the British economy, so if there is going to be any merging of the issues in public debate it should be that being generous in granting asylum is likely to be good for the economy too.)

Here's a video from the UNHCR about the day:

Regular readers will, I'm sure, be pleased to note that the UNHCR is also using Thunderclap to promote World Refugee Day  

Note: This is a sponsored post via Ebuzzing.