Daily View 2×2: 14 March – featuring exciting bollards and Mandelson saying “Vote Lib Dem”

It’s Sunday. It’s 9am. It’s time for photographs of bollards, but first the news.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

• The Mood at Lib Dem Conference: Nick Thornsby takes the pulse
• The Saturday List: Lib Dem Constituency Songs: Will Howells does politics. Will Howells does music. This time he does politics and music at the same time.

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

Sarkozy faces heavy loss in French regional poll

Reuters reports:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy faces a regional vote on Sunday that opinion polls suggest will result in a heavy loss for his center-right UMP party in the last ballot box test before he comes up for re-election in 2012.

Unemployment in France is running at more than 10 percent, public finances are under growing strain and a series of controversies over issues ranging from lavish executive pay to immigration and security have undermined Sarkozy’s popularity.

“Rarely has a regional election been so national,” the left wing daily Liberation declared in an editorial on Saturday. “The last vote before the presidential election in 2012. It can change the political landscape.”

Sarkozy has said the election will be about local issues and he has ruled out a major reshuffle if the results are as bad as expected, but he said last week that he would be “attentive” to what voters say and some cabinet changes are possible.

Vote Lib-Dem – Mandelson

The Western Morning News reports:

Lord Mandelson has made a direct appeal to non-Tory voters in the Westcountry to support the Liberal Democrats in a bid to hold back a Conservative landslide in the region.

The Business Secretary and key architect of Labour election strategy told the Western Morning News that the Lib-Dems “have more in common with Labour than with any other party”.

Sunday Bonus

It’s a blog. It’s about bollards. It has photos of bollards. Including a particular fine rising bollard. Go read it. NOW.