Consider yourself our mate, consider yourself one of the (Liberal) family...

The 56th Congress has spoken. The applications for membership have been considered, and we now have some new sister parties to work alongside.

The new Full Members are

Democratic Front Party, Egypt
Radicali Italiani
Democrat Party, Thailand
Partido Justicia Nacional, Peru

The new Observer Members are

Alliance Democratique pour le Renouveau, Burundi
The Singapore Democratic Party
The National League for Democracy (Liberated Areas), Burma
Civil Will Party, Mongolia
El Ghad Party, Egypt
Liberal Democratic Party, Bosnia and Herzegovina

In my day, we were delighted by the influx of new members from Eastern and Central Europe and from Latin America, and the notion that liberalism might put down roots in places such as Burundi, Egypt and Mongolia was but a fondly held dream.

Some of them have stories to tell of imprisonment, harassment and violence, all of them appear committed to the concept of a liberal, democratic community and they serve as a reminder of the freedom and liberty that we occasionally take for granted.