Tim Farron, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, will make his fourth visit of the campaign to the Witney by-election as it races into its final week.

He will be joined this week by two of his party predecessors, Paddy Ashdown and Ming Campbell, both of whom led the Liberal Democrats to major by-election upsets. Nick Clegg also hopes to make another visit.

Late on Sunday night in the by-election HQ I was with the team looking at canvass returns that show we are on the verge of a strong result on Thursday.

How strong is up to you.

I'll be blunt - campaigning in West Oxfordshire takes a lot of people. My first successful by-election was in Brent East in 2003. You could fit Brent East into Witney constituency twenty times over.

Responding to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruling today which found that UK security agencies unlawfully collected data of British citizens for over a decade, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said:

"Allowing the state to collect endless amounts of personal data is not just a gross invasion of a privacy, it is a waste of precious resources.

Who Decides? is like an excellent after dinner speaker - not too long, with plenty of laughs and a bit of knowledge imparted.

The book intertwines Lib Dem peer and former MP Lord Tyler's amusing recollections of collective decision making during his political career (including Parliamentary committees, candidate selection meetings and party management bodies) with extracts from the guide to understanding, managing and exploiting committees published in 1962 by the former government chief psychologist, Edgar Anstey.

Our future trade relations are the major battleground in the Brexit process. Unfortunately the public debate on trade remains poor, fuelled by the Brexiteers' misleading, if not self-delusional, narrative of how the global world trading system works.

Brexiteers tell us the EU is more dependent upon us because we import their cars, cheeses and wines so we shall secure a good deal. When Brexiteers are reminded about our large trade deficit, International Trade Minister Fox blames our "fat and lazy" businessmen. Brexiteers argue we shall be free to conclude our own trade deals. However, a free trade deal with the EU will afford less market access than what we enjoy now as part of the Single European Market. It is no wonder why business organisations have responded with an open letter asking the Government to ensure we retain full Single Market access.

Cardiologist Malcolm Finlay has left Labour and is backing Liz Leffman in the Witney by-election. He had a go too at handing back his Labour membership card to the visiting Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn:

Hundreds of supporters have been flocking to the Witney Lib Dem HQ this weekend. I was there Saturday and delivered a whole village. It was fantastic to see our hub throbbing with activity. One of the main things hapening this weekend is the delivery of a constituency-wide newspaper, the West Oxfordshire Chronicle.

Mental health trusts in England are still having their budgets cut, despite government assurances they would be funded on a par with physical healthcare, figures suggest. Analysis by the King's Fund think tank, seen by the BBC, suggests 40% of the 58 trusts saw budgets cut in 2015-16.

It found six of them had seen budgets cut three years in a row. An NHS spokeswoman said mental health services were "wider" than trusts, and care was funded in other ways. Mental health spending overall was up 8.4% in 2015/16 compared to the previous year, the NHS said.