Welcome to Casting the net, Liberal Conspiracy’s daily web review. Apologies for the lateness of today’s instalment. My internet connection has been down all day. Obviously other work has piled up too, so let’s crack on…

Highlights
Robin Lustig/BBC – The Lustig predictions for 2008
BBC4’s World Tonight presenter, Robin Lustig, gives his predictions for ‘08. No US Presidential picks though, shame on you Robin.

Dave Hill/CiF – The ghost of Christmases past
Christmas has always been flexible to changes in society. So let’s not get too defensive, eh?

Freemania – Poverty and simplicity
Tom Freeman assesses Labour’s record on tackling poverty: “it’s a mixed bag, but the mix is mostly positive.”

Johann Hari – Cluster bombs are an evil we must ban outright
Will Britain side with humanity or with the big-spending superpowers? Via.

Stephen Tall/LDV – Reshuffle reactions: your essential guide
Stephen Tall has kindly put together a blog review of Lib Dem reactions to Clegg’s reshuffle. So I don’t have to. Excellent.

Stop the BNP – Fight night in Leeds
A despatch from Searchlight spies. The BNP civil war etc. Pure theatre.

Elsewhere
Paul Linford – The importance of faith
Katrina Forrester/OurKingdom – Home grown activism can shape parliament’s behaviour
Oleg Panfilov/Index on Censorship – Russia: Elections of the absurd
Mark Valladares/LDV – Opinion: What should the new leader do in his first 100 days? #5
Labour And Capital – Private equity and governance
tygerland – Huckabee’s breath of fresh air (a bit of fun)

I’m pushed for time, so that’s all I have time for today. If I have missed something, please drop a link in the comments for the other readers to follow. Thanks.

If you would like your blog or site to be considered as source material for future reviews, drop me an email at aaronh [at] liberalconspiracy [dot] org with the relevant url. I can then enter it into my RSS reader and monitor it for suitable content to be included. Likewise, if you have a specific article/post you feel deserves a little more traffic, get in touch.