Tim Worstall

Britblog Roundup # 56

Apologies for the late appearance of your Sunday afternoon reading pleasure. I was called away to watch the English national team play as if they were the Bath Seconds. Should have stayed here really.

First up has to be Rachel in North London.  A torrid tale in which a clergyman asks his own MP a perfectly civil question and Charlie the Safety Elephant acts the complete toad. The man may be a Minister of the Crown but he’s clearly not a gentleman. Apropos of nothing very much try looking up "sweaty baboon" in Google.

Tiny Judas turns up at Devil’s Kitchen to give us all the views we should have on animals. About the right level of sewaring for that site too.

The Chicken Yoghurt (our favourite avian comestible)  on what it will take to define victory in Iraq. Quite clearly we won’t have imposed western freedoms on the place until the first ASBO is issued.

An interesting report of a job interview from Ramblin’ Man. If they’re not going to pay any attention to the answers why do they ask such questions?

Jonny Void seems tothink that ol’ GWB is back on the bottle again. Video to show it as well.

Atlantic Rift looks at Jowellgate. It’s all so disturbing precisely because we expect better from those who claim to care for the interests of the poorest in society.

Mr. Eugenides is in fine form on Ms. Hewitt:

In an ideal world, I would like to take Patricia Hewitt, tie her up, and slowly feed her into the propeller of a DC-3 - feet-first, naturally, so I could see that condescending fucking face contort in agony. I'd let the blades shear off her legs, and then hand her a mobile and dial NHS 24, see how much fucking use that would be to her with some cretin in a call centre in Clydebank asking her where it hurts, the patronising, incompetent, self-obsessed bitch.

There’s more too.

The Sharpener asks "Why do we hate politicians?" and gives a more considered answer than my own "Saves Time".

Blood and Treasure fills us in on some lost moments of diplomatic history. Did Bismark really do that with a kipper?

The Law West of Ealing Broadway (who’s been having a very good week. Scroll around) on the way the law should be. And actually is while we still have decent judges, so presumably they’re next on the hitlist.

The Yorkshire Ranter makes a superb catch. The guy who decides what corporate computer filters will let the Dilberts of the world see is apparently in exactly the correct job. A vastly better knowledge of some of the seamier corners of the net than the average man. Even if he is the star.

David T on civility. The demands to print hadiths on the subject would really depend upon which hadith’s you chose.

A is for Aardvark emails the Beeb on a matter of national importance. Poo on shoes.

Taking Aim on yet further evidence of police incompetence. Brixton High Street this time, clearing drug dealers of.

SuzBlog brings the news from the LibDem conference. It seems that it can be difficult for a man to have a pee in peace. Odd really, didn’t think that was quite what Mark Oaten was into.

Adloyada has two stories on boycotts. One by a dance magazine the other, swiftly retracted, by Lord Rogers. It appears that, if he hadn’t, his firm could have lost $2.7 billion in contracts. Nice to see a man of principle these days.

Anglo Saxon Chronicle has the answer to the West Lothian Question. And a nice picture of Prime Tone’s Prime Crone.

Perfect.co.uk looks at inequality. Rising or falling? Who’e done most over the past few decades? Could it have been the one PM we’ve had who really did start at the bottom?

The Nether-World has a useful roundup of links on the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. If you’re not aware of this issue yet then this isa very good place to start. And yes, you do need to be aware of it.

Know anything about Ranavalona? No? You should. Philobiblion gets you started. Natalie also has a review of The Odyssey forany of you lucky enough to be in London and able to see it.

Small Town Scribbles with a guide to the middle class. I’d point to it being upper such really, but good n’ funny all the same.

As part of the Blog Against Sexism Day, Girl Uninterupted gives her story. Not a happy one although it does seem to be getting a little better.

A truly lovely story from A Modern Whale. No, it wasn’t all invented in 1963.

Archaoastronomy gives the only rational explanation of the Holy Blood, Holy Grail/ Dan Brown story I’ve seen. Imagine a shorter version of Alan Coren on a good day.

Can you get nostalgic for anything? Yes, even graffiti says pandemian.

Harry Hutton points to the excessive level of violence in Britain today. Well, as much as any of Harry’s posts deal with reality, anyway.

Looks like Twenty Major won most things at the Irish Blogger Awards. Amazing how multicultural Ireland’s become really, him being an ancient Chinaman and all. This was the best blog post of the year. Very good indeed.

And that’s it, this week’s Britblog Roundup. You can make your nominations for next week’s by emailing the URL of whatever you think is the best post of the week to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

Until then:

Toodle Pip!

 

Britblog Roundup # 55

Apologies in advance this week, this is a fairly short Britblog Roundup. I’m afraid my own additions this week have been severely curtailed by the pressure of time. So, please don’t forget that you can make your nominations by emailing the URL of your favourite post of the week to britblog At gmail DOT com. It will thus appear next week.

First up is this from Marcia Adair. Sounds like Mark Oaten was in Manchester a few years back. Or something like that anyway.

Rather more seriously the Metropolitan Police have woken up to blogging. World Weary Detective is therefore closing down. What with the powers that be breathing down his neck it’s just not worth the candle. Yet another sad day for free speech.

Adloyada goes after the BBC for their interview with David Irving from his jail cell.

Caustic Angel with a delightful exploration of the difference between Fat and fat. I’m sure there’s a Dawn French joke in there struggling to get out.

NHSBlogDoctor on the new law in South Dakota banning almost all abortions. As usual with his posts, thoughtful, clearly written, well argued. And as usual with this subject, likely to change no one’s mind at all. A pity.

Chicken Yoghurt with a super little piece about Ms. Jowell and the hedge funds. Or cheques. Or mortgages. Well, whatever it is she didn’t know about.

Craig Murray on the same subject. Best pun so far: Invest in a TESSA. Richard’s comment is great too:

It's all very easy for you to criticise, Craig, but in these perilous times tough choices have to be made. The rules of the game are changing, and if the only way to guarantee the safety and security of hardworking families is for our politicians to pocket £350,000 bungs and then lie about it afterwards, then I for one am glad that we have a government willing to bite the bullet.

Kitty Killer on the decline of the mass television audience. There’s a point in there, a political one.

Matthew is disturbingly funny. I know that us gingers have to laugh at ourselves so as to join in with the rest of the human race but this is, as I say, disturbingly well done.

Natalie Bennett reviews the Searching for Shakespeare exhibition. In short "It’s Brilliant".

Philobiblion on early modern treatments of breast cancer. Both gruesome and informative and a welcome counter point to those who glorify "the old days".

Minerva on the current treatments: yes, discover more of the joys of the NHS.

Gendergeek makes a point about feminism and then, rather unfortunately perhaps to my mind, immediately undermines it. Others may well disagree.

Redemption Blues with a story of a visit to a B&B in deepest darkest England.

Jane Tomlinson with a righteous call to arms. The campaign for Proper Pants for Women.

Uncarved on an interesting little pamphlet. One part of which is a study of the use of the word fuck in Linux source code. Go on, geekier readers, you know you want to.

El Freelancero (someone I should probably be reading a great deal more) on the Ken Livingstone nonsense.

Inkycircus has a very good post, very good indeed, on the relative risks of drugs like the COX 2 inhibitors.

The Future is a Foreign Country lays out his basic vision of the EU and the modern world. I should add that he sent me a copy of his book and I have’t yet got round to posting a review of it, coming shortly.

Sunny at Pickled Politics has an intruiging answer to the problems of animal testing.Simply test everything on humans instead.

Dodgeblogium on another animal experiment, Frogenstein. It’s interactive and you can play with it too!

Ken Owen on the blogs input into the Ming election. Not a lot by his estimation. Might be the slightest froideur between him and his blogging companion over his views on the Huhne site.

And that’s it, this week’s Britblog Roundup. Entries for next week’s to britblog At gmail DOT com and until then:

Toodle Pip!

Britblog Roundup # 54

Welcome to our 54 th iteration of the Britblog Roundup, that selection of blog posts that you, the readers, have said that everyone else should go and have a look at. This is the purpose folks, getting the collective intelligence to point us to the good stuff.

First up has to be Anomaly UK. Mostly because Natalie Solent said that it should be but it’s also true that he’s spotted something fascinating in the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill.  It moves us much closer to the model of governance of the EU andaway from our own historical basis in hte sovereignty of the Crown in Parliament.

Adloyada is less than impressed with the BBC’s coverage of the David Irving case. Looks like she might have actually changed their report by remarking upon it.

The Drink Soaked Trots have picked up on that Word Clouds thing. As always, they’ve done something different with it and applied it to another site, not their own. Lenin’s Tomb actually.

Anglo Saxon Chronicle also takes to the graphics program. Mocking Nestle, something that should appeal to both left and right.

A blog new to me, the void, on yet another piece of idiotic computer rubbish from the government. Looks like a lot of good stuff on that blog so scroll around. This specific piece is about the new website explaining all about drugs to teenagers. Most of what they say is actually wrong especially about the law...slightly worrying when you realize it was written by those who actually make the law.

Mr. Eugenides on further government idiocy, this time in Zimbabwe. Just as an exercise could anyone who manages to find a blog that supports what Mugabe is doing let me know? Is there anyone out there crazed enough, from left or right, who actually supports what is going on?

Nosemonkey digs out the Bagehot to explain quite what violent damage is being done to our constitution. Mkae sure you read the comment by Blimpish as well. Good point that.

A Tangled Web picks up on those numbers from the Spectator about State dependency. If the figures presented are to be believed then there are parts of the country more statist than the Soviet Union itself was.

Curious Hamster parses what El Tone says on the subject of rendition flights. It’s extremely delicately phrased.

Make My Vote Count starts out promisingly, on the virtues of idleness, gets better when pointing out that we’d prefer it if many more politicians adopted said virtues and then....well, the solution won’t be a surprise to regular readers.

The Yorkshire Ranter looks at an FT piece on blogs. Sad really, the piece is so awul, so full of inaccuracies, it could have been written by a blogger (present company excepted,of course).

If I was responsible for this heap of facile crapola I'd throw in the towel and go into public relations.

Fortunately the Pictie papers don’t get sold south of the border whichis why I’ve never heard of Alison Rowatt. As the Devil’s Kitchen points out, this is all to the good.

A certain Mr. AI Dodge is running a site with podcasts of 100 word short stories. Go take a look.

The Law West of Ealing Broadway has changed his name. He also gives us what is at the heart of his blogging:

I have no wish to offend anybody** so I have altered the header, but left everything else unchanged.

**Excluding the following groups that I wish to offend as often as possible:

Some list there actually.

Ken Owen with a personal and almost irrefutable reason for going on the pro-animal testing march yesterday.

The Englishman is waiting for the Black Marias to haul him away. Photographic evidence of his law breaking too. Get ready to bake those cakes with files in.

For those more interested in the distaff side of politics Mind the Gap is hosting the Carnival of the Feminists.

Philobiblion discovers an early pre-emptive clarifications and corrections column. Natalie also reviews Chekhov under the arches.

Antonia Bance on the latest figures for teenage pregnancy and what they actually mean.

Ratlab seems to be well along in the wisdom of years. We all start out appropriately liberal and then become more realistic:

I mean, is it too much to ask that drunken teenagers murder each other on the platform so that the rest of us don't have to wait for the ambulance and police to turn up before our train can pull out of the station?

Charlie over at perfect.co.uk takes on His Maximum Toneness over his piece in The Observer today. A great deal more elegantly expressed than my own response to that piece.

Longrider on the same subject matter. Not only a comparison to Goebbels but "dissembling poppycock" and other such delightful vocabulary. One you really should read.

The big news from Ireland has been the riot in Dublin yesterday. A "Love Ulster" march by Unionists was prevented, violently, from taking place by assorted Republicans and anarchists. Back Street Drivers was there and taking photos and Slugger O’Toole has an additional roundup of stories and reactions.

And that’s it, the end of this week’s Roundup. Get your nominations in for next week’s to britblog AT gmail DOt com and until then:

Toodle Pip!

loyada

Britblog Roundup # 53

Welcome to the first Britblog Roundup of the second year of the run. As always, nominations for the next issue can be sent to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Any subject, any point of view, simply what is, in your opinion, the best blogging from the nations of these isles.

First up is something offensive, vulgar, objectionable and extremely funny. Yes, Harry Hutton is back on form. This had more nominations than anything else this week:

Hitler had his faults, of course, as he himself would be the first to admit. Many of his “Nazi theories” have now been debunked. With the benefit of hindsight his invasion of Russia was ill-conceived, and his scheme to exterminate the “lesser races” has been widely discredited.

But once you accept his premises –lebensraum, the supremacy of the Ayran race, etc.- his actions did have a kind of loony logic. He meant well. Blair, on the other hand, is working single-mindedly for the triumph of Evil. Only when you have grasped this do his policies make any sense.

He’s on a bit of a roll actually so scroll around a bit.

Just as funny is The Religious Policeman. Are emoticons haram? The failed suicide bomber and much else:

I haven't a clue, in Quran class, I was the one who used to skip to the back to see if it had a happy ending.

Simply a wonderful line there.

Great Britain, Not Little England follows on from Harry. Just how do we get rid of the Nu Lab control freaks?

Nosemonkey at Europhobia on just what those very control freaks have done. If Parliament is supreme and people like that are in control of it, what safeguards do we have? None apparently.

Rachel from North London on Operation Crevice. No, the 7/7 bombers were not clean skins, yes, more was known about them than we’ve so far been told.

To change the subject completely, Liberal England on who was the best Miss Marple?

Militant Moderate is angry with Michael Crick’s hatchet job on Chris Huhne. Being bright and financially successful shouldn’t be a bar to leading a British political party (although history doesn’t seem to throw up too many examplars).

SuzBlog does some direct reporting from the campaign trail in the Lib Dem Leadership race. This is something I hope we’ll see more of, bloggers reporting rather than, like most of us most of the time, interpreting.

Perfect.co.uk on the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. That one that does away with the need for Parliament. Just as an aside, that letter to The Times they quote came as a result of a Danny Finkelstein piece on the subject....which came from his reading a blog post about it. We may not be changing much yet but we are informing the debate.

Over at The Filter Norman Foster gets a good kicking for his patronising claptrap. Couldn’t happen to a nicer man.

At "A very clever and exciting place for words to live" we are being treated to a surreal masterpiece. The history of the letters. Seriously odd.

Judy at Adloyada is incenced by the BBC’s treatment of David Irving. Rightly so.

Planet Potato provides a restaurant review. One of the useful type. i.e, avoid this place like the plague. He’d like a little help pushing it up Google.

The Yorkshire Ranter is showing you specifically what not to do (really, you really don’t want to send long faxes to the numbers he gives) in dealing with comment spam. Really, really really, he doesn’t want you to do any of the things he mentions.

Natalie Bennett hosts the History Carnival and also a review of a little known London museum, Ben Franklin House.

Lady Bracknell Lives! Here giving a short language lesson:

However, should an individual say that he is "feeling down", he should be aware that what he is actually saying is that he is currently enjoying a somewhat intimate relationship with a duck.

Gendergeek is less than happy with the launch of the Office Pirates site.

Antonia Bance on the Urban Grimshaw. As she says:

The complete failure of any mainstream service to do anything for these children was shocking. Eventually Urban gets some education, but it’s from the narrator, and finally, from an innovative voluntary project. He’s refused medical treatment and dental care because the authorities can’t keep up with the movements of his chaotic childhood wit hhis drug-addicted mother. The social workers that appear are humourless and unable to adapt their one-size-fits-all approach in any way.

Mind the Gap provides us with the Confessions of a Binge Eater.

Adventures in Ethical Consumerism:

We are a voluntary organisation offering free internet, free events, free workshops, a cheap rehearsal space and a cheap darkroom. We run a cheap & healthy vegetarian/vegan café with an emphasis on Fairtrade, organic and local food & drink. We enrich our lives by freely giving our time to this project. And we believe in the value of providing free and accessible facilities for artists and anyone who is willing to learn.

But are we a bunch of leftists? No. Absolutely not.

Worth checking out that statement.

inkycircus looks at the legalization of organ sales for transplant and isn’t convinced. Mr S&M is convinced and is in favour.

And that’s it, this week’s Britblog Roundup. More fun and games next week and until then:

Toodle Pip!

Britblog Roundup # 52

Clearly and obviousloy  the most important thing in the blogosphere of these isles this past week was the fact that THE BOOK is now online in all its glory. Start here and then simply go roaming. Following the archives by month is probably the best idea.

The second could be that we have now reached one year of these Roundups. This is thus the all singing all dancing anniversary edition and down at the bottom there are a few recommendations for what people think has been the best blog piece of the past year. Having got all of that out of the way, first up is Simon Waldman. Yes, The Guardian’s Director of Digital Publishing on some of the legal risks they are facing with their new Comment is Free site. And why should we care what risks a bunch of pinkoes are running? Because we all face them too, anyone with unmoderated comments does. (Not to mention we’ll then know what to do when we go trolling over there).

Martin Stabe has more on the location technology that they’ll be using on that site. Apparently we’ll all be from Lambeth.

Longrider picks up on the latest innovation by our rulers. Apparently they’ll no longer have to consult Parliament when they change the law.

Judy at Adloyada provides a roundup on those cartoons, the President of Iran and other similar assorted foolishness.

Curious Hamster explains John Reid’s weird comments of earlier in the week with reference to the News of the World story this morning. He knew it was coming.

Chris at Mr S&M notes the combined decline of religion and singing. Certainly the great choral tradition has been brought to a shuddering halt.

Anthony at The Filter decides he hates zoos. And animals. And, well.....

Blogger is buggering about so you’ll have to scroll to find the Anglo Saxon Chronicle’s remixing of those cartoons. Worth doing so, especially the Shakespeare bit.

Natalie Bennett on abortion and the gender war. Unsafe abortions kill 70,000 women a year (and yes, I know the obvious retort here but I’m supposed to be neutral at this point). Also one of her theatre reviews on re running the Presidential election as one for Head Boy.

The Carnival of the Feminists arrived at Gendergeek this week. A useful counter balance to the sort of stuff you get round here on a weekday.

Hopefully someone will be able to tell me what this post at Creepy Lesbo is about.

Purple Elephant’s Corner on the very first stirrings of the sounds of spring (Coldplay in his case).

Innergirl on the problems of...well, while it’s about one specific problem the arguments can be adapted to fit most.

In the "everything turns up on a blog eventually" category, Pig Sty Avenue on how to install a pond on your allotment.

At Mind The Gap a long discourse on the transition from girl to woman. That last paragraph makes total sense and I’d add that most men actually feel that way even if most women don’t but ought to.

Abaculus on waiting for an ambulance. 45 minutes doesn’t sound right for someone unconscious now, does it?

Militant Moderate explains why we ought to like the Superbowl. Yes,I see what he means but still not persuaded.

Nico at Perfect.co.uk on those cartoons and the local reactiosn, also Charlie at the same place on John Reid’s statements about our boys.

Guiido posts over at Liberty Cadre on the Clive James Show and "the moderate voice".

Talk Politics with a trademark long piece on Nationalism and the Middle East.

Naked Blog takes issue with Gealic only education ("fucking nutters" is the description) and the subsequent comments section is to be savoured.

Murky has also picked up on our current slide into totalitarianism with examples and quotes from the relevant Bill.

Jarndyce is hanging up his blogging boots for a bit so keep yourself warm in the interval with his last two posts on, yes, you guessed, the cartoons.

Coffee and PC on one of the few (only?) UK papers to publish any of the cartoons. Yes, a student paper, which he used to edit. Brings on a rather sad re-evaluation of his decision to become a journalist.

Kitty Killer follows up the story about those two students suspended and then expelled for printing a pamphlet. Fluffy Economist’s comment and anger look apt.

AND NOW! THE! MOMENT! YOU’VE ALL! BEEN! WAITING FOR!

What were nominated as the best posts of the past year? Samantha, if you could just stop that Mornington Crescent nonsense for a moment and provide the envelope?

Jarndyce nominated himself so is of course disqualified which is something of a pity as it would’ve been a contender.

International Rooksbyism on violence.

Jim Bliss on drilling in the ANWR is also exceedingly good but as I disagree.....

Well, actually, I don’t have to either disqualify or downgrade his post for the overwhelming joint winners of the best post of the year are

TAA DAA!

Nosemonkey on the London Bombings

and

Rachel from North London on 90 days and 90 nights.

So joy unconfined and lashings of ginger beer for the two winners and the other 450,000 of us UK and Ireland bloggers will just have to try harder this coming year.

Don’t forget that THE BOOK can be read online in all it’s glory here and so until next week:

Toodle Pip!

Britblog Roundup # 51

Yes! Yes! we’ve almost made it to a full year of these things!

(Actually, would it be the 52 nd or the 53 rd that marked a year?)

Get your nominations in for next week’s to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Your nominations for the best blogging on these isles, any subject, any viewpoint.

We’re also interested in whatever you thought was the single best post of the past year for our super-sized anniversary edition. Only one nomination per person please and it cannot be from your own blog. I should also have the book online by next weekend as well.

First up has to be My Thoughts Exactly. Suitable for a day when the ICONS site admits that fox-hunting is a national icon (with over 90% of the vote), a story of the urban version.

Continuing on the subject of urban mating rituals and their consequences Jonny B goes on an outing.

Back to the grubby politics and SuzBlog shows that not all Lib Dems are obssessed with sex.

Judy at Adloyada looks at Hamas’ first demand of the Israeli government....to change the national flag....and shows quite how absurd it is and also linked into both historical and current anti-semitism.

The Anglo Saxon Chronicle adds another to that list of offensive cartoons.

Jim Bliss on one of the implications of the peak oil argument for drilling in the ANWR. (Yes, I know that I think the peak oil argument itself is tosh but he does make an interesting point all the same.)

Diamond Geezer is superb on the instructions for an oik visiting London. Part of a series so scroll around as well.

Jarndyce gets nominated for a post which mentions me....which is close to breaking the rules that I don’t feature. But it is very good so we’ll allow it.

Blood and Treasure with an intensely irritating post. Shouldn’t be allowed, really! No one should have the talent to make earwax both interesting and amusing. Bastard.

Eric over at the Drink Soaked Trots pre-empts The Indy front page. As one of the commentators points out, he didn’t go quite far enough.

Gavpolitics writes a letter to the Emperor Ming. And gets an answer. Well, OK, something dashed off by a secretary perhaps? Err, no, detailed and actually answering the questions asked. Are we sure this man is actually a politician? A very good description of the West Lothian Question.

Natalie Solent at Samizdata. A foul and vile distortion of her rights to free speech. I mean, really! As Jack Straw said we know that we have such rights but to actually use them is another thing. And on this subject, of all things!

The Pootergeek is one something of a roll at present. Much more of this and I think’ll he’ll be sent one of those "How to Write a Mills and Boon" manuals.

The Sharpener sets off an interesting debate. Just why are people so opposed to the idea of profit in health care? (Short note. I’ve got a piece trundling through the editorial process on the same subject. Wrote it before that post, honest.)

Taking Aim on that subject of grotty railway stations. One solution, apparently, would be to have The Queen on permanent tour.

I don’t intend to revisit all of the incredibly insightful pieces on those cartoons. Sorry, reading them all once was enough. But this from The Religious Policeman is simply wonderful. Fabulous, a must read.

Sean at The ToffeeWomble points to a reason why none of hte English papers have published the cartoons. Yes, it’s a business decision.

Also taking the satire track is Twenty Major (now there’s a surprise!)

Natalie Bennett on being single and female. An interesting thought, that we are actually returning to historical levels of spinsterhood (although NB probably won’t like me using that specific word.) She also reviews something in Ancient Greek and Polish but still recommends it.

GenderGeek slams into the rather vapid Amanda Platell programme. Nicely caustic piece of vitriol.

Tom Reynolds (off the EMT and back on an ambulance) starts running a book. Yes, running one, not writing one.

Stuart Bruce on the joys of e-democracy. And why a national plan is failing the very same.

Little Red Boat has something to say to the internet shopping company. No, it isn’t "thank you" either.

Neville Hobson on conferences. Having attended a few myself I see where he’s coming from.

A lovely little thing for the econ geeks at The Filter. Using Free to Choose as a bookmark indeed!

Blogging in from North Carolina Dies Irae is fantastic. Given the people on his sidebar he says he knows he’s English. On solving the problem of insufficient female chavs.

Richard at EU Referendum. Very nicely sarcastic.

Richard Huzzey on, again, those cartoons. Nice analogy with Keith Chegwin’s prick in there, making this, at least as far as I’m concerned, the last word on the subject.

Wat Tyler on an upcoming not to be missed event. National Chip Week.

And that’s it, our Britblog Roundup for this week. Same time, same place on the dial, until next week:

Toodle Pip!

Britblog Roundup # 50

As you can see from the number above our first anniversary is rapidly approaching. Make sure you get your nominations for next week’s in to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

We’ll also take nominations for a bumper extravaganza issue on the first anniversary, issue # 52. While we’ll do the regular weekly one, please also (and only one per person, please!)  feel free to nominate your favourite post of the past year.

First up is Brian’s Brief Encounters. Yes, another work blogger silenced by the bosses for being just a bit too revealing of how things are actually done. Smash the Police State! Clenched fist salutes all round! (Am I revealing my age by saying that "Power to the People" is always inextricably linked for me with Tooting Station? And is that where this blog name comes from?)

Talk Politics on the Dawkins polemic on religious belief. Worth reading for this para alone:

Those who know Gill's work will recognise the style instantly. When you have nothing to say - which in Gill's case is the vast majority of the time - simply break out the big book of ad-hominem attacks and sprinkle illiberally. '[S]plenetic, small-minded, viciously vindictive falsetto rant' rather nicely sums up Gill himself, so much so that one half suspects that his real objection to this documentary lies in Channel 4 having given someone other than himself the opportunity to mount a solid prime-time rant and is therefore merely the literary equivalent of penis envy.

Stumbling and Mumbling on the economic and power implications of the placebo effect. Much more interesting than I’ve made it sound (and make sure you read James Hamilton’s comment).

Guido and The Monkey are pimping their latest pod cast. (Is that quite the right verb there? Ed.)

Tim Ireland is less than complimentary about the first effort. (Less? British understatement.)

A useful lesson in grammar from Lavengro in Spain. Seriously, at least I found it useful, as someone who has never actually studied grammar in any language. Too young for latin and greek at school and no one ever bothered to teach English grammar as it was assumed you’d pick it up from those first two.

Make My Vote Count starts off well and gets better:

Politics, it appears to me, is very much like the weather. Both, despite being issues that affect us all to some (usually exaggerated) degree, make for startlingly dull conversation. Both are heavily polluted by human beings. Both possess a remarkable ability to disrupt the rail network. And both send the less intellectually privileged parts of the nation into a media-spiced spin every time things get a bit extreme.

Francis on those muslim cartoons in Denmark. As he points out, the Religious Hatred Bill might mean that publication in the UK would be a criminal offense. So much for free speech, eh?

On a much lighter note Pootergeek mixes and matches a famous trial of the past with a possible one of the future. It’s the sort of thing Alan Coren would have bought (in a flash) for Punch back in the good old days.

The ToffeeWomble is back from his various freebies on the newspaper’s travel budgets. The last line makes it.

The Parking Attendant picks up on a seemingly minor point about ID Cards. The addition of RFID chips. How much easier that will make identity theft, eh?  (Apologies for the untimely interruption to your Britblog experience.Thunder, hailstorms and lightening: not things the Portuguese internet can deal with without problems.)

Liberal Review has something interesting on where that MSM research comes from:

...several of these searches came from IP addresses (the internet's equivalent of phone numbers) belonging to media organisations, including newspapers and TV networks. Perhaps the most amusing example was someone from ITN searching simply for "Chris Huhne dirt" - an optimistic effort at digging up a story if ever I saw one.

Ken Owen borrows Bessie Smith’s words to provide advice to politicians asked intrusive questions.

NHS Blog Doctor welcomes the US into the NHS. Dunno why I’m linking to only one post actually, you shoud be reading the whole thing.

Jarndyce actually rather likes Cameron’s idea that all of the young should do community service. (My views are a touch more sulphurous but he makes his point well.)

The Sharpener has something interesting but as they’re over their bandwidth I can’t tell you what it is.

Liberal England introduces us to Loulou Harcourt. (Who she? Read it and find out!)

Wat Tyler has news on where the money actually goes in the NHS. Not far enough is the obvious answer.

Stephen Tall takes the mickey out of the Telegraph. Rather well, actually. (Read this first.)

Mad Musings of Me asks if MPs sex lives matter. To anyone other than they or their partners, that is. And if they do, should they?

The Filter on the man who has probably done more to save decent architecture in recent decades than any other. Oddly, no, it’s not John Prescott.

Philobiblion dares to go to a meeting on sustainable cities. Interesting stuff, and I’d add as someone who works on the fringes of the field that there are indeed simple ways on the energy front.

Natalie also gives us a book review on "Underground London". Apposite really as part of it is about those Victorian sewers, one of the unsustainable bits of the city.

The Purple Elephant sings the praises (cough, cough) of those who have designed Cambridge’s new bus system.

The Naijaman on new laws on gay marriage in Nigeria. Amazingly, not just outlawing such, but any gay relationship or even advocacy of their being allowed to be legal!

AI Dodge sends in the review of his band’s recent gig. Not even written by himself!

And finally, something I highly recommend. A long piece indeed, but well worth it. Get yerself round to Redemption Blues. Not just a lovely essay (you can agree or disagree with it but it is wonderfully done) but it has what I think is the very best note about blog comments I’ve seen:

Britblog Roundup # 49

Only three weeks away from our first anniversary edition! Get your nominations for next week’s Britblog Roundup in to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

This week’s first entry simply has to be Mr Free Market and his astonishing discovery of a vicious date rape drug. Simply appalling how such things can happen in a modern society.

Slightly more seriously it looks like Stephen Pollard might have some problems. This post, further explained by the Virtual Stoa, and then this news at Pickled Politics. Could be a libel suit coming which will be interesting news for him when he comes back from Jerusalem (my spies tell me he was on the same plane as Melanie Phillips, make of that what you will).

The big news in today’s papers was of course the Oaten/rent boy story. Which makes this rumination on the various leadership contenders speeches moot, but still interesting, from The Apollo Project. Mikey’s Tent of Reality is on the latest ramifications of the story. Well, speculations, more accurately.  Who and what else is there in the Lib Dem bag of tricks?

If you’re wondering what all the Orange Book stuff is actually about (other than commercial sex of course) then you’re in luck because Joe Otten’s got a series of posts, chapter by chapter, on whether it is in fact right wing or not. (Sadly, he finds it isn’t.-Ed) Actually, this set of posts would repay close study. This is spot on:

Care should be taken when mixing the public and private sectors, that the common good is benefiting from the invisible hand, rather than, as often seems more likely, the dynamism of the private sector is crushed under the dead hand of the state. Initiatives such as PFI are at best only loosely related to the operation of free markets. They are more closely related to corporatism. The private sector does not get things right by magic, but under the pressure of competition. If only the state is buying, stupid buyer that it is, there is no competition, and there is very little reason to expect good value.

If you are interested in what the Lib Dems were discussing before this then Liberal England has the in house news.

If you’re not interested in the Lib Dems but are in the prostitution side of the story then Small Town Scribbles has more on the New Stateman’s discussion of the subject.

Back to Lib Dem politics and Ken Owen is asking who he should vote for.

And to round out our Lib Dem coverage (hey, they are having an election you know) Suzblog looks at Geo. Galloway on CBB.

For something completely and wonderfully different try Nutgroist. A stand-up gig with a difference.

I’ll admit that I don’t quite get this one (just what is "Catchphrase"? ) but I’m told this is the funniest cartoon of the past 10 years over at Staining the Internet.

Arctic Monkeys? Not really my bag (as in papa’s got a new one) but according to No Rock and Roll Fun their secret is that they, err, use the internet.

Our Mr. AI Dodge is unhappy with London Transport. Perhaps rightly so.

If this isn’t an oxymoron, a witty and articulate NHS Manager.

Wat Tyler reports on the world’s largest IT project. Ever. Could be 50 billion quid and rising. For our dear and much loved NHS of course (It’s the Wonder ofthe World you know!)

Jarndyce on the morality of collateral damage. Set the bar a great deal higher than it currently is is the conclusion.

Something very good at The Sharpener on political betting. In response to that Jackie Ashley column bewailing the practice. Mr. S&M is also very good on this. Odds are prices and prices convey information, so what’s not to like?

McManus gives us the proper and correct response to Noam Chomsky’s visit to Ireland. Oppression everywhere. Twenty Major also has views. Strong ones, as you might imagine.

Something odd about the Leicestershires and the Darbyshires. Who is spoofing who? (Or is that Whom and who? Who and whom? Whom and Whom? Gaaah.-Ed) Surely somebody must be?

Anglo Saxon Chronicles wants to try the impossible. Googlebombing Google itself. Thankfully he’s desisted from that and just makes fun of someone instead.

Natalie Bennett finally gets a response to one of her very first blog posts. Just what had this guy done  to get hauled up on a gibbet? Her theatre review almost leads to a supporter on one actor doing the same to her.

Stop! No, seriously, Wait! Go here. Rawandan Survivors. 10 years on, the stories of those who survived the genocide. Heartbreaking.

Nee Naw on another depressing story of human iniquity. A happier ending, true, but not a rosily perfect one as we might like.

RatLab goes socialising. With TB researchers. Not a great success.

A newish blog. Camden Lady. Men and women use the internet differently. Good conclusion.

The House of D on the difference between the Brit and US Christmas tales, stress in London and spiky heels. Just about everything you could want in a post actually.

History, Other, on things to love. Like only two rigidly scheduled hours a week.

The Law West of Ealing Broadway has two great shorties. No, no descriptions, just go read them both.

An Englishman’s Castle has what must be the correct recipe for today. Didn’t we use to call this snoek?

Sortapundit gets interviewed and makes his regular appeal for dosh to send him to Mongolia. Sample:

Q. What are you, nuts?

A. Clearly, yes.

Clive Davis checks out the school league tables in the town we both grew up in. Not good.

And that’s it! Back next week for another Britblog Roundup, in the interim the normal right wing vituperation will resume and so until then...

Toodle Pip!

day.

Britblog Roundup # 48

Our 48 th step into the breach that is the Britblog Roundup, your nominations for the best blog posts of the past week from the four nations on these Isles.

You can make your nominations for next week’s simply by sending the URL to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Any subject, any viewpoint and we most especially welcome entries from the areas we normally don’t see. That’s rather the point of this little exercise, getting us right-wing political bloggers that inhabit this space having a look around, seeing all the other delights out there.

On which point something a little different. Venial Sinner, one of the newer DocBlogs, on the way the f word has become so commonly used that we need to c word to be in use....on those occasions when we really want to show our anger and/or contempt. Like with the Westboro Baptist Church and Fred Phelps. He’s a huge issue in the US but many of you here might not have heard of him.

Greavsie (new to me so this thing, as above, is working this week then) has a delicious little thing on the purchase of a new fireplace via eBay. The obvious joke doesn’t come until the fourth comment which I think is pretty reasonable, holding back like that.

David Hadley is quite superb this week. He is indeed looking at the thick end of a "Fatgit" most especially if the Womens’ pages of the Guardian ever catch up with him.

Jonny’s Blog has been trying to get someone to come round and do the kitchen. Here and here for more on the delights of British customer service. Seriously, I’ve had better service than that in Russia.

Blood and Treasure on the absurdities of our immigration laws. Recent changes seem to mean that we can only get catering workers if they come from countries with a crap cuisine.

For those who don’t get enough politics in their blogging already try Liberal Review. At the moment it’s all about the leadership election, of course, but there’s lots more around as well, like this, which points to David Cameron making perhaps the same mistake as GWB. Big Government Conservatism, the worst of both worlds.

The Sharpener goes straight over my head by bringing Hobbes into the political discussions. Somehow it just doesn’t ring true to me, that a small boy with a pet tiger would say such things.

Living, as I do, abroad, and without the benefit of radio or video channels blaring at me, I’m not quite sure who this James Blunt bloke is. Only one with that name I’ve ever known was running a sex slave ring out of the Balkans after his army service there so obviously this popular beat combo person isn’t he. Very squeaky voice he had too so I really can’t see him making it as a singer. Not unless he’s reprising Tiny Tim’s hits. So Drinking From Home’s version of "Goodbye My Lover" rather passes me by but those with their finger closer to the pulse of the modern world tell me it’s very good.

Liberal England notes that Geo. Brown Esq.’s pushing of displays of Britishness is simply not very British. In fact, from one of Kipling’s "Stalky and Co" stories, it might get him called a "a Jelly-bellied Flag-flapper" which, if I might modestly suggest, is our Google Bomb for the week (shouldn’t be tough. There’s only 60 odd entries in Google as of right now).

The Centre for Progressive Conservatism also have views on this subject.

Early Modern Notes thinks this is just the first in a series of "bright" ideas from El Gordo as he tries to convince us that he’s a lot more interesting than he seems. Save us, please.

The Campaign for an English Parliament are also biting Brown’s ankles on the subject of university tuition fees.

Another one new to me on a very different subject. Marcia Adair on the installation of the new Dean of Manchester. Do read, some very good comic timing in this piece as well as a nice story about something that doesn’t often happen.

AI Dodge was also in church for a rather sadder occasion, the funeral of a friend.

Philobiblion has a review of a lovely sounding book, City of Cities, about London. She mentions the London Hydraulic Power Company which:

...provided 150 miles of high-pressure water lines by 1910, primarily to operate lifts, that continued working until 1977, after which the network was sold to be used for communication cables.

That’s almost right. After the ’77 close down of the operating part of the company it remained as a shell on the Stock Exchange waiting to see if someone might buy it as a backdoor route to a flotation. Then Cable and Wireless got a licence to provide telephone services (to business only at first, I think) in competition with BT and they were wondering how to lay fibreoptic without paying a fortune. One bright spark remembered LHPC and they bought it up, for 2.5 million if memory serves, saving many times that in not having to dig up the entire City.  Instead, they sent ferrets down the pipes with a piece of string on tied to their harness. Ferret pops out at the other end, tie fibreoptic to the string and pull through the old water line. Voila! Off subject I know but it was odd to see ferret handlers and telecoms engineers working together.

Natalie also reviews a play, The Ark, The Bride and The Coffin. A very good running joke in it.

Antonia Bance on the Respect plan for teenage mothers. I have to admit that I wouldn’t have had the patience to actually read through the full documentation in the way she has.

Scroobious Scrivenings is not in favour of London in January. And as the commenters point out, it takes about three weeks in that city to get to the second state of mind.

Cruellablog on that Columbian town where all males now have to carry a condom at all times. As she says, better than ID cards but then most things are.

Naijaman has a well founded complaint. Africa is a continent, not a country, and with the variation in cultures and languages that comes with that. Amusing though to find an area where the BBC is not PC enough.

Route 79 muses on social changes and pubs. A decade’s worth of changes and there’s still no decent pubs in his part of London although the reasons have changed.

For something completely different, visit Tranniefesto. Quite, just how they do that quality control and just what is it that Kevin thinks of?

And finally, something from Mad Musings of Me. How can you not like something that starts:

A couple of years ago at Staff Conference, a senior Irish Civil Servant made the observation "The British Civil Service now only exists in two places - Dublin and New Delhi."

And that’s it, this week’s Britblog Roundup. Send in your nominations for next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com and until then:

Toodle Pip!.

Britblog Roundup # 47

Once more into the Blog, dear friends!

Yes, the 47 th Britblog Roundup is now open for business. As always, you can make your nominations for next week’s by  emailing the URL of your favourite post by a British or Irish blogger to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

As a side note I’ve been enjoying this so much in the near year I’ve been doing it that there is a new and wondrous project on the horizon. We’re still playing around with code and servers and stuff but we’ll be testing something in the next week or so. More news later!

First up has to be this sent in from Suzblog. She spotted that The Honourable Fiend is back blogging. Which is nice, but she also pointed to this post where HF is taking this micky out of a certain LibDem style blogger. Nothing more British than being able to take a joke now is there?

On the subject of jokes Twenty Major presents a new turn on an old one.

Noreen at Emerald Bile provides some career advice. ’Tis true what she says, that is what the really clever people get paid to do.

The Scaryduck is running a Dead Pool. He’s already bagged Ariel but plenty of other celebrities out there for you to pick.

Strange Stuff is unfortunately not joking. A tale of what could happen to you if you were, say, to fall afoul of the various changes in law pushed through in recent years.

Adloyada on being in Tel Aviv the day Sharon’s stroke was announced. It appears that even those who loathed him thought he was finally doing the right thing in Gaza.

Owen Barder is less than impressed with Daisy McAndrews over the Charles Kennedy revelations. To precis, the revelation of an open secret to support a flagging career.

Trust People on quite how patrician Davind Cameron seems to be. Chocolate bars indeed.

The Englishman’s Castle has been collecting (or his comments have been filling) with clerihews and haikus on Cameron and Kennedy. Some are remarkably good and as Tim says, it’s often the comments where the true gems are.

Liberal England ascribes Maggie’s electoral victories to her cancelling o school milk. Thinking abck he might actually be right.

Further to the Craig Murray story Brian Barder has been responding to the various comments and so on. Interesting to see a former Ambassador discussing such things, not what we’re likely to see, at this level of detail anyway, anywhere other than on a blog.

Over at The Filter a wander through the Fair Trade v. free trade question. The conclusion makes sense to me. As long as it’s voluntary it’s a good idea as fair trade must, by definition, be increasing the utility of the purchaser. If it’s not voluntary, then just as with free trade, it doesn’t.

The Geek of P  sees  Ginger Charlie as a participant in a Shakespearean  tragedy. I think.

Gorgeous George is of course news this week with his, well, Fair Vote Watch, Chikky Yoggy, Dead Men Left and Mr. Eugenides all have (and no doubt hundreds of others too) their takes on it. You might also want to read the comments at Pickled Politics. Who’s he going to shag first sort of thing.

Something you might want to keep an eye on, the 12 Icons of England. The usual crappy government blather but there might be some interesting comments. Starts tomorrow.

Philobiblion with a welcome dose of common sense. Women are not "forgetting" to have children, they’re deciding not to. Natalie also reviews A Man For All Seasons (so terribly appropriate what with recent leagla changes).

This is a little late for this week but far too good not to include. Webwabbiting on the Sapphic Solstice.

Gendergeek is less than impressed with the idea of tagging deadbeat dads. Why are these debts different from others?

Mind The Gap provides a run down of their recent activity.

The Law West of Ealing Broadway on  creative ways to deal with animal cruelty charges. Such as pollution laws.

And finally, meditations on the writer’s life from VixenGirl.

And that’s it, the Britblog Roundup for another week. Send in your entries for next week and until then,

Toodle Pip!

Britblog Roundup # 46

Yes indeed hangover sufferers! Here it is, your New Year’s Britblog Roundup. For those of you who had a dificult night I shall type this slowly and quietly.

As you know you can make nominations for next week’s extravaganza by emailing to britblog AT gmail DOT com the URLs of those posts you think best from bloggers in and from the four nations of these Isles.

The number 1 post this week simply has to be Lenin’s Tomb and his publication of the Craig Murray documents. I will admit I’m not 100% certain that they actually prove what he thinks they do but an interesting use of a blog, no? There’s any number of sites out there now mirroring the information so it’s well and truly in the public domain, whatever the FCO may wish.

The Magistrate has a rather worrying post on the Serious Crime and Police Act. No one, has, as yet, told the magistrates what the Act contains nor how they are supposed to handle it. It contains, for example, the alarming fact that search warrants are no longer restricted to named addresses. As magistrates are the people who issue such, might be a good idea to tell them perhaps?

Over at Albion’s Seedling a marvelous piece of social history from Helen. I was aware of the change from a la francaise to russe but not of the grander implications of it. It has both Jane Austen and Mrs. Beeton in it.

This isn’t blogging per se but we do needto have at least one "best of 2005" thing, don’t we? The best piece of viral advertising via boreme.com. Yes, that spoof Polo ad, the once advertising the film makers, not the car itself.

Liberal England points to the absurdity of that petition to get Ginger Charlie to resign. Yes, he signed it Mickey Mouse of Cheeseborough University and it was accepted as a valid signature.

Ken at Militant Moderate on just where the money goes in the NHS. Needless to say, he thinks to the wrong things, like nicotine patches for teenage smokers but not insulin pumps for teenage diabetics.

Drinking From Home is pleased to announce the winner of his Dhimmi 2005 Awards. No, not a surprise but he has got the acceptance speech from the winner.

Trees For Labour makes an interesting argument. The recent elections in Iraq show the failure of the entire enterprise. I’m not sure I entirely follow the logic but as I say, an interesting way of looking at it.

Philobiblion takes aim at Blair’s moralistic approach to prostitution. Cracking down on street walkers and their punters isn’t the way to do it. Natalie Bennett also has a book review on her other site, an interesting take on why some immigrants to London make it and some don’t.

Volsunga asks "Whither Feminism"? Her answer is that it should be a more grass roots, socialist movement. Perhaps but I think she might be surprised to find out quite how many disagree.

Diamond Geezer on those Christmas lists and letters. I think he’s got it just right:

I don't send out a letter in my Christmas cards, much to the disappointment of some of the recipients. "Do write and tell us how you're getting on" they urge, as if I should somehow feel guilty for not matching their annual letter with a full list of revelations of my own. But I have nothing to tell them. I have no prodigious offspring with Pony Club certificates to gloat over, neither did I venture any further abroad than a day trip to Paris. I've not taken up ballroom dancing or some other thrilling hobby, and my job ticks over much the same as ever. I remain fit and well (apart from the post-Christmas cold I'm currently sniffling through) and there haven't been any deaths in my world this year, unexpected or otherwise. My Christmas letter, had I sent it, would have amounted to the one line "Same as ever, thanks". It might not satisfy my inquisitive correspondents but, quite frankly, it sounds bloody good to me.

Tom at Random Reality with a quite shocking tale. When will people bloody learn that one use items are so for a reason?

Nee Naw has a similarly stunning (although funny in a macabre manner) story from the medical frontlines. Made me both laugh and shake my head at the same time.

Just in case you thought you had a good Chrismas Feast try this one from meanwhile, here in France. Ever so much better than turkey.

Over at The Sharpener they’ve brought in Meaders to provide a spot of class analysis. The RMT is not only allowed to strike on New Year’s Eve it is their near duty to do so.

Suzblog (and I think she might be right) spots the silliest press release in history.

Adloyada takes a look at the Today Programme’s "Who Runs Britain" poll. Long post and a short precis would be "thank God it’s not those discussing the question".
         
A little late I know, but you do want to see Green Fairy’s list for the perfect Christmas fun.

The Geek of Pooter manages to find fun even in an email from Tony Blair.

Hak Mao reminds us of the truth about that Canute story. Can’t be repeated often enough that one. (Actually, just a quick note to Hak herself, if she should come by. I lifted that quote from Moorhouse’s The Diplomats from her for a column last year and Nick Cohen did this year, same quote. Can you find us both another one by next December?)

Harry Hutton has discovered the best thing to do with JK Galbraith. There are sooooo many economists who agree with this prescription.

Stumbling and Mumbling goes on to prove that there are economists who are both useful to have around and a pleasure to read.

And we’ll end this week with something both highly recommended and completely different. Girl With a One Track Mind. Yes, a very different style of blogging from what we normally get round here and while not suitable for maiden aunts do have a look at this post where she rounds up her favourite pieces of the year. The one about actors is a must read.

And that’s it, this week’s Britblog Roundup. More next Sunday and until then

Toodle Pip!

Britblog Roundup # 45

Your collection of rich bloggy goodness is over at Adloyada today.

Back here next week.

Britblog Roundup # 44

Welcome one and all to Britblog Roundup 44, your nominations for what’s been good in the British and Irish blogosphere this week. As you know we move it around a bit atthe moment, one week here, the next playing away and then back home on the third weekend.

Looks like it will be Aloyada who is hosting next week. As she explained in her email, she doesn’t celebrate Christmas so who better to do it next weekend? Entries to the usual address please, britblog AT gmail DOT com.

First up has to be my find of the week, Dr. Crippen. If you want to find out about the joys of the NHS, where the money goes and so on this new(ish) blog cannot be beat. Highly and strongly recommended and do scroll around a bit.

Several suggested Rachel in North London and rightly so. Have a scroll around to see the several posts on her desire for a public inquiry into the events of 7/7. She’s also in the Sunday Times on the subject and then there’s this, very different piece. I have a feeling that while it started out that way this isn’t going to remain a single issue or short term blog at all.

Lyn has joined the blog bandwagon and I do rather hope that no one she works with reads it yet....or shows that post around the office.

Adrianna Cronin posts from Istanbul and mingles her Slovak childhood, calls from the minarets and a visit to Hagia Sophia. Tim Newman plays silly buggers in the comments but then what’s new?

Mr. Eugenides is both vastly entertaining and extremely rude when talking about Roy Hattersley. I’m told that this was the winner of the first and inaugural "Bloody Devil Award", something we shall all be competing for soon no doubt.

Stephen Tall (no, not the politician done for drunk and disorderly, that was S. Twigg) is really rather evil here. Following the ascention of the Boy David to  whatever it is he looks back to the last time when Howard did it. And finds that the newspaper stories were even more laudatory back then.

Tim at The Castle does a spot of investigation. Yes, those Valuation Officers do have the right to enter your home and to take pictures. But there’s been the usual porkies told about it by politicians. Surprise, eh?

Francis makes a fleeting return from the Riviera to the ancestral homeland. He finds a general simmering of resentment against the Government. I have to admit, on the rare occasions I go back, I find it a strange place. Been away too long perhaps.

Wolfie makes one of the comments. You know, someone presents a new idea and you slap forehead and scream "But of course! Why didn’t I think of that?". It isn’t that they need different ones or to choose them differently, rather, the Tory Party simply needs more MPs. About 150 would do it really.

Natalie Bennet muses on women’s fear of violence and makes the logical comment that one can be too over-protective of children leading to unreasonable helplessness and fears later on in life. She also reviews Lysistrata and thoroughly recommends it.

Green Fairy holds a committee meeting. To decide on what to blog or the fifth anniversary of her blog. I’m not quite sure how the ping pong balls come into it but it is a marvellous piece of whimsy. Strongly recommended.

Gia takes on some of the big religious questions pointing out that most of the philosophic insights of Christianity are retreads of earlier ones of earlier religions and philosophies.

What’s New Pussycat with a very fine piece on Nutella. Personally, I think people who fantasise in that manner about Nutella are simply weird, I mean admiring a man who’d swam in a vat of it. If it had been Marmite I would understand, but nut spread? Just weird.

Several of us out here in this blogging lark will be happy to read that LSE undergraduates appear to bemuch like they were back in our day.

Robin Grant (who I think told us he was retiring from blogging?) points to Charlie’s answers to that Metropolitan Police questionnaire. If you want to do one yourself you’d better get a move on, deadline’s tomorrow.

Ken Owen is both Moderate and Militant ashe dissects the legalisation of torture argument. I rather like (although do, of course, feel free to disagree) his rejection of the "ticking bomb" argument.

Devil’s Kitchen rather picks up my slack and puts the boot into Polly Toynbee. Good man there. He’s also started the Bloody Devil Award (as above we see the first winner) which like all the best of such things is awarded in an entirely capricious manner.

Yellow Swordfish has amost amusing running gag. Rather than simply posts, he has letters to the Maximum Tone, rather like some of the old Dear Bill letters. Do scroll  around for the others.

Finally, the Mayor of London blog is incensed at an advertisement that appeared in the Evening Standard. I’m not all that bothered about sick jokes but your views may well differ. Go on over to find out what hte problem is.

And that’s it, this week’s Britblog Roundup. Next week in another place and then back here on New Year’s Day.

Until then

Toodle Pip!

Britblog Roundup # 43

Hah! We fooled you!

Brtiblog Roundup is now a travelling carnival, stopping here once every two weeks and playing away on the other weekends.

This week it’s over at Devil’s Kitchen, that fine Edinburgh blog.

Those who think they might like to host it on Boxing Day please contact me.

(But why Timmy I hear you cry, why does it move about so? Well, glad you asked little one. It’s becoming more and more obvious to me that no one person can try and keep on top of all of the developments in UK blogging. No one can even get to hear about the new and interesting blogs popping up. So rather than railing in vain about this sad fact of the universe, why not send the Roundup travelling? Having different hosts will mean that more see it and that more contribute to it, thus making it a better experience and guide for all of us. OK?)

Britblog Roundup # 42

Yes, we’re back home here for the 42 nd installment of the Britblog Roundup. Many thanks to Natalie at Philobiblion for hosting while I was off gallivanting. The fact that it was hosted elsewhere meant that there were some interesting new entries, things that normally wouldn’t come to my attention (or the Roundup to the author’s, for that matter) so I think we’ll try and make this a travelling Carnival. One week here, one week elsewhere, back here and then so on. Devil’s Kitchen has already applied for next week’s (assuming that his business problems don’t make him pull out. If you’ve got that niggly little piece of code or designing you need doing now is a great time to bung him 20-50 odd quid or whatever to get it done for you.) so we’re looking for someone to do it on the 25th of this month.....maybe Boxing Day would be better?

First up is Fiona Pinto with news on a subject that gets everyone extraordinarily het up. Yes, the dread A word. What happens to those who survive the procedure? And how many of them are there?

Austin Mitchell shows what an MP can do when blogging (no doubt Tim Ireland is involved here somewhere). No, I don’t agree with him but wouldn’t we be better ruled if rather more were like him, representatives rather than mere lobby fodder delegates?

Mr Eugenides uses the arrest of David Irving to point out some basic historical truths, indeed, to discuss the very nature of commonly believed historical tales.

Shuggy is also on the same subject and defends (rightly in my view but feel free to differ) free speech.

Adloyada gets two mentions this week. Breaking the rules I know but this piece on Yvonne Ridley is simply staggering. Apparently the demonstrations in Jordan against the bombings were all "soldiers and Government lackeys". Then this on AP and the sacking of the offices of an independent Palestinian newspaper. The photos look a little obviously posed.

The Future is a Foreign Country is celebrating the publication of his book. Sample chapters and all to download and I’ve got a review copy which I’ll tell you all about once I’ve read it (third in the queue at present).

Jarndyce is both funny and wise (a difficult combination!) on the subject of the Iraq War.

2. It's an imperialist project. Heh, so was Japan in 1945. Now, instead of militaristic fascists invading their neighbours and peasants begging for rice, they're selling us Gameboys and cheap cars, and employing half of Sunderland. It's not utopia, but it sure beats the Meiji Restoration. Next.

Do read.

Who dares say economics is boring? Stumbling and Mumbling is able to prove it isn’t. Dave Heasman is also a delight in the comments.

The Magistrate reminds us all of Rule 3b. Not exactly written down anywhere but discernable by any sentient adult.

Chris Lightfoot gives us some of the history of ID cards in the UK. They worked once and didn’t another time for a reason he’ll explain to you.

Tampon Teabag takes issue with a certain David Duff. Most entertaining.

Both The Sharpener and Chicken Yoghurt are plugging a New Blood Roundup. If you’re a recently started poltical blogger they’d like to hear from youso they can add you to the showcase.

The Witangemot for November is up. That’s English blogging for the English to the uninitiated. In some ways a more specialised version of this thing ’ere.

Guido Fawkes has finished his "Press Plagiarist of the Year" awards. An entirely worthy winner. Now to await the presentation.

Wolfie makes an interesting comparison between state centralised planning and corporate so. Absolutely correct. It’s the biggest problem faced by umm, big business.

An interesting new political blog. Ebeefs. Those who like Lenin’s Tomb and Dead Men Left will appreciate it and even I like the writing, if not all of the views.

Liberal England catches out a local politician in a gross misunderstanding of the law. It might sound like trivia but it’s an essential difference.

DSquared, who most of us know as a commentator on other blogs, has finally posted something at his own site. A very good critique of Stephen Levitt’s Freakanomics. That abortion reduces crime thing is given a good thrashing for example.

Postman Patel has something intriguing on the CIAs secret prisons. Apparently the prisoners were flown around on diplomatic passports.

Natalie Bennet ’as yer culture right here. A review of the self-portrait exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. She also muses at her other blog on the subject of menstruation. With so many other previously indiscreet words bandied about quite happily in public, why the continuing silence on this?

Cruella Blog takes on the god botherers. Do take a look at the first comment and try and work out what’s wrong with it. (Hint, something to do with timelines.)

A Cloud of Trousers gets angry with geneologists. Too much biological determinism and not enough on social relationships.

God I feel old and out of touch. Anna Waits talks about the influence of the NME on teh last few generations of bands. I don’t know any ofthem., That’s OK I’m not supposed to know the latest stuff, but three and four cycles back and they’re still all a blur. Or pulp. Oh well, different strokes etc I suppose.

Gisela Stuart was rude about Brussels, various there were rude about her and now Francis is rude about them being rude about her being rude about them. Got that? Good.

Suzblog on being part of a research project. This isn’t, as she points out, your average NHS.

Liberal Bureaucracy (and you do want to scroll around that blog a bit for the quality of the writing) on the public pensions mess.

All hell breaks loose, led by those nice caring people from the Daily Mail (who, were they to be found burning in hell, would be lowering the tone of the neighbourhood...).

So the government gets wobbly (and that's a surprise, isn't it?), and our next Prime Minister, sorry, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announces that he isn't so sure. The Minister for Work and Pensions announces that the government has no plans to revisit the position (shorthand for, if we can break our word and get away with it, you bet we will). Pressure builds, as the CBI attack the government for backing down from a fight with the big, bad civil service unions (you are joking, Digby, aren't you?).

Have you ever blogged just a little too much? Think you might be addicted? Scribbles can help. Not get rid of it, just make it more enjoyable.

Ken Owen on the violence in rugby. I’m not a 100% certain about this. I tend to differentiate between handbags and dangerous or foul play. As do most refs actually.

Clive Davis is less than impressed with Madonna’s home movie. In the comments Pootergeek manages a fabulous summary of the reasons for her success.

The Disillusioned Kid on the subject of rape. Fine advice there. And on the subject of rape you really want to go to this, at Ducking for Apples.

And that’s it, the Britblog Roundup for this week. Entries and nominations for next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com please and it’ll probably be at DK’s place.

Britblog Roundup # 40

Yes, indeedy, it is Britblog Roundup time from your newly published author. Good, having got the preening out of the way, on with the main event. You can make nominations for next week’s extravaganza by sending the URL of what you think is the best UK or Irish post of the week to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

I also need to point out that I shall be away next weekend and thus would be interested in someone else hosting this. Any offers?

First up is our man from Brighton Regency Labour Party. He’s now changed his mind about ID Cards (this is what we’re here for isn’t it? To discuss, converse, convince?) and the British area of Blogistan can now, once again, be declared free of those who support the barcodes tattooed on foreheads. There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repenteth etc.

Missing Shade of Yellow has a report on from a group of election monitors who went to the recent Parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan. Not as free and fair as might have been hoped.

Adloyada on the different ways in which the anniversaries of the deaths of Rabin and Arafat were remembered. And she opens with this:

Oh, work is the curse of tbe blogging classes.

I think we recognise that one don’t we?

How This Old Brit Sees It has news of a spy case in the US. A real one this time, not a political one. B2 bomber secrets for sale.

News From Beyond the North Wind on Remembrance Day in Cumbria. I hadn’t known this:

The Fell & Rock gathering has taken place every year since 1924 when the club dedicated a memorial to their members who died in the Great War. They bought 1,184 acres of land, including the summits of Gable, Sca Fell and Sca Fell Pike, and gave them to the National Trust, a permanent remembrance of their dead friends.

And I’m afraid that this made me slightly teary:

The rocks were rimed with the lightest of frosts, making the ground treacherous. It was when we looked up to the hills that we first realised something extraordinary was happening. Many hundreds of people were walking across the fellside. The crests of Gable, from Windy Gap to Kirk Fell, were covered in tiny figures, silhouetted against the sky, all making their way to the summit.

A must read.

Coppersblog has a quiz and a contest for you. Which inane slogan belongs to which police force? And what should be the ones for the new forces?

Saltation (writing at Farting Through My Fingertips...where do people get these names from?) describes how to do the Latin American thing properly rather than the namby pamby trip The Guardian suggested. Somehow it’s just not real unless projectile vomiting is involved.

Pootergeek has the true story on the use of WMD in Iraq. I agree, it would be the most cruel and unusual form of warfare.

Make My Vote Count seems to have rediscovered for himself Quintin Hogg’s comments on an elective dicatorship.  Primus inter pares seems to be out the door.

Chicken Yoghurt turns literary critic. Sir Ian Blair does not come out well:

Maybe it comes from a poem he wrote as a teenager ("Why do all the nice girls hate me?" or somesuch) and somebody said, "Oooh, Ian. I don't know how you do it but you paint the picture so vividly". That stayed with him and ever since he's been dying to use the phrase again. And again.

Both Nosemonkey and Talk Politics are both all over a certain Kitty Ussher MP. No, not in a nice manner but in a very good way all the same. She really did make the most inane statement which they quite rightly deride.

The Pub Philosopher (appropriately) on the extension of drinking hours. It is a little odd really, this bunch of control freaks actually treating adults like, well, adults.

Anyone who has bought a Sony DVD recently needs to read Francis on the rootkit fiasco. Those who haven’t still need to read it as it is a tale of the most appalling incompetence. Imagine, code to stop people ripping something off is actually ripped off. And doesn’t work. Even the uninstaller doesn’t work.

Liberal England on a recent report into social mobility. Class appears to be less important than something else. I loved his conclusion:

There is also a sense that children from ethnic minorities have problems which schools can solve. The truth seems to be the reverse. The attitudes which children from ethnic minorities learn from their parents may constitute a solution to the problems of our education system.

Scaryduck is in Tunis. This is his diary of the World Information Summit.

Today’s best ironic moment: The summit WiFi server and Ethernet connection crashing, leaving the entire media corps without internet. That’s the Information society for you.

He’s also shaved his palms (??).

Rafael Behr is back after the closure of The Observer blog. Go say hellooo!

Adriana Cronin is very good on the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution and what it was like to grow up under Communism before freedom returned.

Rachel From North London is slightly surprised to find that Sir Ian Blair is personally a very nice man. As Nosemonkey points out in the comments that doesn’t excuse his ideas of course.

Becky informs us that she really doesn’t like Children in Need. As she points out, shouldn’t Pudsey have healed up by now?

Red Mum has joined the MSM. OK, it’s a Dublin local paper but well done to the editor who thought to hire her. We need more like that!

Ken Owen on Roy Keane leaving Man U. Very good on the psychology of the whole thing, for a sportsman a strength is also a weakness.

Jarndyce is excellent exploring whether suicide bombing is rational or not. As he notes, the important question is for whom?

Perry at Samizdata on the use of hollow point bullets by the police. As he points out, a lot of people have no knowledge of firearms and so got this wrong (including me).

Once More has the Conservative Bloggers Weekly number 6.

A certain Mr. AI Dodge thinks he has identified musical blogging.

Jonny’s Blog has a marvellous little piece on the French as cheese eating surrender monkeys. Definately read it even if it does challenge a few preconceptions (or because?). I especially like the snark in comment number 7.

Craig Murray (one of this blog’s heroes. Right or wrong I do like people who kisk against the pricks) appears to be getting somewhere in mining through the Foreign Office archives to show what really happened. Keep an eye open on November 23 rd.

My London Your London is the latest blog from that powerhouse that is Natalie Bennett. This particular piece is a theatre review.

A View from the Bridge has a very cool photo. Pots of gold at the end of the rainbow isn’t it? Fish or oil do you think?

Not quite a blog but definitely worth a plug is this survey/historical account of the old cafes of London, Classic Cafes. Again, a great photo there.

Cruella-Blog on the Trouble with Love. Very fun feminist argument although I’d argue a little about no contraception being the reason for 6 or 8 kids. Rather, mortality rates meant that that was what was necessary to have grandchildren.

Clive Davis was there at the launch of OSM (formerly Pajamas Media). Here’s his report.

Laban Tall has an excellent idea for a new business. Although he seems to have missed the thought that distribution and retailing are usually more than 50% of the price of every product.

The Yorkshire Ranter goes over the telecomms implications of that new $100 laptop. There are people like GeekCorps who deal with part of the problem but Alex is spot on with the major problem, connection to the backbone. Negroponte himself agrees.

And that’s it, that’s yer Britblog Roundup for the week. Get your entries in for next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com and as I said, I’m away next weekend so anyone want to take over for a week? Until then,

Toodle Pip!

(Oh, and buy the BOOK!!)

Britblog Roundup # 39

Something of a bumper crop for this week’s Britblog Roundup! As ever you can make your nominations for next week’s by emailing the URL to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Best posts from British and Irish blogs please, those things you think we ought to have seen but possibly did not.

Just a quick plug for the book, which as you know grew out of this little adventure, many thanks to all of those who have mentioned it and put up Amazon ads and so on. Should get the finished article back from the printers on Monday and in the shops by Friday. Geek points to those with cameras (or phones) who are able to supply visual evidence of its arrival and of course extra for anyone who can spot somone actually purchasing it. There are rumours that it will be on the front tables in Waterstone’s.

First up is The Religious Policeman (he writes from London so it’s Britblogging) who has a strategically placed bug in the romper room listening to the King and Interiror Minister of Saudi Arabia. Classy stuff and if true would explain a lot.

Continuing our Middle Eastern theme, just why was Gorgeous George absent from that vote on the anti-terror bill?  Blairwatch asks Respect for their answer...(curiously, given that GG was in Cork with his one man show, no answer as yet).

Indigo Jo is also on the same subject with urther detail. If Respect cannot keep going as a party outside Parliament and also have its one MP voting inside then it’s not much of a party, isit?

Adloyada has two pieces, one on the French riots and another on the anniversary of Kristallnacht. That second deals with the way in which it is only the Israel/Palestine situation where we hear talk of "narratives" rather than historical fact. Well worth reading.

Following on from his piece highlighted here last week about the Sony rootkit affaire, Francis is delighted by the ambulance chasers class action lawyers. Yes, they’re already being sued so perhaps such lawyers are acceptable in limited quantities. There’s already a Trojan out there that exploits the rootkit modifications.

The Doha trade round might be thought of as fodder only for us economics geeks but unfortunately it is much more important than that. It’ll help to determine how much wealth is created globally for decades to come and as EU Referendum points out, the negotiations are being run, extremely badly, by and for the interests of the EU. Or French farmers, take your pick.

Harry’s Place comes under some heavy criticism from both Jarndyce and Jim Bliss. It would be difficult to find a subject on which all four of us agreed (kittens are cute? The sun rises in the east? Perhaps.) but the language used in the intellectual beating is simply too good to miss:

This lot, remember, like to bill themselves as Muscular Liberals. Muscular in the sense of Complan-drinking surrender monkeys that happily ditch 700 years of common law precedent as soon as some twat blows up a bus.

From J and this from JB:

Over at a blog called Harry's Place, a commentator called "brownie" has explained just why we need those 90 days of internment. Actually, no they haven't. Brain-dead brownie, in the piece entitled "Uncivil liberties", has instead merely trotted out sub-Daily Mail wankery, irrational prejudice and deeply flawed reasoning in a demonstration of intellectual paucity unrivalled since Oliver Kamm's recent book (which I haven't read, but the man's an oaf so I'm comfortable with my prejudice).

Merrick also makes a very good point in the comments:

The whole discussion of the issue seems to have conflated the concept of 'enough evidence to charge' with the concept of 'enough evidence to convict'.

The Anglo Saxon Times points out the shameful situation in Iran. Recent suspects were only held for 13 days before release. Just think what could have been acheived with another 15? They also point out that the police already have the powers to do pretty much what they wish with Al-Qaida, so why bother to change the law?

Gareth at the CEP has an essay on the difference between ethnic and civic nationalism and where England and English nationalism belong.

Politicalog asks whether Blair is over egging the terrorist pudding? One doesn’t have to be an instinctive anti-statist like me to think that there might be a touch of it going on.

Bloggerheads wants your help in reporting Rebekah Wade to the PCC. There’s a Pledgebank set up and they also have hard copies of the relevant pieces for you.

Chicken Yoghurt with another tour de force. Same subject, same place on the dial a magnificent little essay covering all the bases.

Diamond Geezer goes metablogging with a survey of 50 blogs (some large, some from his blogroll and some random) and works out that stats. How many posts, ages of sites, number of comments, hits and so on. Measure yourself against the numbers and find out, do you blog too much? Or not enough? (Scroll around to see all from this week.)

Cartoon Church is a little confused by a warning on thedangers of women Bishops. Why are there not more stories about Mitre accidents? (Could I add that we’d like more nominations from the Godbloggers for future editions?)

If you only read one post this week then you should make it this, from Rachel in North London. No, I won’t describe it, just go read it.

Liberal England on the Maximum Tone’s proclaimed love of football. Quite, not really what you would expect from a man of his age and background really is it?

Daveblog has the most convincing theory I’ve heard yet on why 90 days detention was ever even suggested. So that the doubling we’ve got could be presented as a compromise.

Chris Dillow makes the important point, when looking at the French riots:

Markets are colour-blind. Social networks are not.

Read on to see the implications.

Peter Black (the Roundup’s contact in the Welsh Assembly) reports on a libel case brought by the BNP. Not the verdict the plaintiffs would have liked really, yes, defamatory, comment not fact yet entirely fair. There’s also a fascinating comment there by "Bournemouth Nationalist" giving the list of politicians who have been convicted of crimes. Something of an apologia perhaps?

Bookdrunk has a delightful little fisking of the YouGov poll on the 90 detention poll. It was rather, umm, loaded, wasn’t it? (I’ve constructed polls myself and can see the bias-Ed)

Deogowulf over at The Sharpener has lessons for those who would give in to mob rule. Why riot? Because it works.

The Englishman’s Castle adds to the lessons of Jared Diamond. The latter explains how the world got to be like it was until 500 years ago but why the divergence since? Protestantism? Could well be as Max Weber spent most of his working life pointing out.

Doctor Vee on the amazing difference in opinion between the bloggeratti and the general public. What’s going on? Are we some bunch of weirdos out of step with our fellows? Or are we the people who can actually see what is going on? Comments there please.

Stephen Tall gives us the reactions to Sir Christopher Meyer’s autobiography. The conclusion isn’t what you might expect.

Philobiblion asks you to take the test. Is that a husband or a small child? (I’d argue that in these more enlightened times both partners should be attempting to pass it. But then I would wouldn’t I?)

More history blogging here, extracts from a diary, this time about guarding Napoleon after Waterloo.

Other Men’s Flowers reports back from a school reunion. I have to admit I avoid these like the plague (although one interesting little happenstance of the past week was finding, after all this time blogging, that Peter Briffa and I were at the same school. He avoids them too.)

Onionbagblog provides the history and background of the murals in Stockwell. It’s not just a move in Mornington Crescent you know!

Petite Anglaise now wishes to be known as Rita. You may require a knowledge of minor Beatles songs to work out why.

Two pieces from The Filter. Did you realise that gay bars have just been nationalised? And a report from an academic conference that includes this:

On several occasions I heard a talk in which an assumption was made that a certain policy automatically led to the intended consequence. A hypothetical example would be that a minimum wage was introduced, and therefore there'd be an increase in the incomes of poor people.... err no.

One of the grand delusions of Government that.

SuzBlog is doing my work for me, getting people to register their blogs at the amazing and wonderful Wikablog.

Clive Davis (like any good Bath lad) is less than enamoured of the Bullingdon Club (we’ve seen way too many rugby club dinners to be impressed by people doing it in tails.) One Day in the Life of Boris Denisovitch is a great title too.

Late update, Phil Hunt emails in on the wrong address with his piece asking whether Israel might be better off inside the EU rather than allied to the US? An interesting question even if the French are unlikely to agree to it.

And that’s it! Entries for next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com please! Keep an eye open for mentions or spottings of the book, please, let me know if you see anything. And so, until next week,

Toodle Pip!

 

Britblog Reminder.

Don’t forget to get your nominations in for the Britblog Roundup.

Your favourite posts of the week from British and Irish bloggers to britblog AT gmail DOT com please!

Britblog Roundup # 38

Here ’tis my luvverlies, this week’s Britblog Roundup. As you know you can nominate posts for inclusion by simply emailing the URL to britblog AT gmail DOt com.

We’re interested in what you think were the best posts of British and Irish blogging over the past week, any subjects, any viewpoint, simply those things that you think we shouldn’t miss.

First up should be this post from Chicken Yoghurt, The Honourable Gentleman. It’s a savage (and very good) deconstruction of the standards of "honour" at the heart of our current political process. So good in fact that Nosemonkey, currently on honeymoon in Japan, emailed to make certain that it was included here. So I think you can take it that you should go read.

Owen Barder has a report in from a parallel universe in which The Maximum Tone actually does tell the truth. While disturbing it is also something of a relief to know the truth.

Pootergeek, when not complaining about his father writing to The Guardian, wrote The Guardian using his patented Future News technology (a further example of which appears  in the upcoming book! Buy Now!). Don’t bother buying the paper this week, just read this.

A blog new to me, A Missing Shade of Yellow, on what was missing from hte reactions to hte Kashmiri earthquake. A massive Berlin Airlift style campaign, something which would be of great benefit in reducing terrorist support in the region.

Another long running but new to me blog is by Mark Allen and is called Breath of Life. A journalist telling us the day by day story of being on the lung transplant waiting list (the latest entry announces that he’s had it and is recovering). If there are any kind hearted people out there with sufficient firearms could they go and deal with the spammers who’ve infested his comments boxes while he’s in hospital?

Francis tells us all why we should be boycotting Sony. They’ve implemented a literally quite insane system of DRM...not Digital Rigths Management, but D Rootkit M.....they actually fiddle with the very basics of your system when you load a DVD. So much so that if you delete their software the whole system falls over.

Twenty Major is as outrageous as ever and yes, you do need to read to the very last line. Nice to see people maintaining the ancient arts in this modern day and age.

One AI Dodge, whose various online manifestations most of us know, would like you to start saving your pennies. The recording is done, the mixing mixed and the masters shipped off to the manufacturers. Yes, the EP will be available soon.

Thyat village missing it’s idiot may get him back after Charlie the Safety Elephant’s latest little gambit. An email announcing public consultation on the Terrorism Bill. Talk Politics is outraged, Consider Phlebas is no more supportive and Manic is, as usual, contemptuously dismissive. Check out the trackbacks (this is why we have them folks!) to see how far the story has travelled.

Katie at The Sharpener provides some background to those French riots. No, not just religion, race, language and economic factors as well.

The ToffeeWomble has news for all of us freedom and liberty loving Brit types. Yes, you really can be arrested and jailed for thought crimes these days. Aren’t we lucky boys and girls?

Liberal England ponders on the move from Bonfire Night (and Mischief Night) to Halloween. No, it’s not just the importation of American culture, there’s more to it than that.

SuzBlog has a random street encounter with a Liberal Democrat politician. Scary enough for the season?

Clive Davis is also talking about the French riots....a commnet on what the other blogs are saying about them. Useful to hear from one who is usually mistaken for a North African when in France.

Philobiblion gets a little (righteously I might add) wound up about history, freedom and politics. Given the festering cankers that liberal society has beaten, the various imperalisms, fascisms, communisms and so on that we’ve repelled precisely because we are liberal societies, why are we throwing away the good things in fear of a few men in caves?

My Thoughts Exactly on Guy Fawkes, torture, the background history and, of course, fireworks.

Something entirely appropriate for a Brit/Irish roundup (The Irish drink more tea per capita than anyone else and it is, of course, part of the Brit stereotype) RatBlog ponders over the way to make a perfect cup of tea. He certainly starts out with something disgusting so the only way is up.

Ramdom Acts of Reality runs a 12 hour night shift. I find all of these occubloggers to be fascinating, finding out what it is that other people actually do at work.

Route 79 wants to wish everyone a Happy Diwali.

Naijaman has his Danny Glover moment on a London High Street. God, I thought that was all consigned to the distant past and those few hundred nutters at the BNP.

Are the new ticket machines in London simply a plot to get everyone buying Oyster Cards? Looks like they could be.

And that’s it for this week. Get your noiminations in early for next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com, enter your blog at wikablog and until then,

Toodle Pip!

Britblog Reminder.

Yes, please, do remember to send in your nominations for the best of British and Irish blogging. Send the URL to britblog AT gmail DOT com. I’ll piece it all together and have it up for you Sunday afternoon, as usual.

Britblog Roundup # 37

Here we are, once again, ready to plunge into the seething ferment that is the UK and Irish blogosphere to bring you the best, as nominated by YOU the readers, posts of the week.

As ever you can make suggestions for next week by emailing to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Any subject, any viewpoint (don’t let my stinking right wing libertarianism put you off) we just want to see the good stuff out there, the things we may have missed.

First up is a powerful piece from International Rooksbyism. I’m not going to describe it, you should read it whether or not you agree with any conclusions.

Another one of the occubloggers (occupational bloggers? Did I just coin that word? According to Google apparently I did) to add to the list, this time a London Underground Stationmaster, here talking about chasing the contractors around on the night shift. There’s also his mother out there blogging from the corner shop and raising money for the Make a Wish Foundation (A grand? Out of the Welsh? Congratulations indeed.)

Postman Patel has a piece on Uzbekistan by Craig Murray our former Ambassador to that country. Very much worth a read and as someone who’s worked in the CIS for the past 15 years I don’t find any of his description of business practices in the least abnormal. Which is one of the problems, of course. I am similarly unsurprised by the stories of torture although obviously repelled. The whole site is worth a scroll around.

Tampon Teabag on the smoking ban in pubs. I rather think he’s got it just right:

From the outset, New Labour's goal has been to find a compromise by which the government would continue to pry into other peoples' lives and boss them about,...

Twenty Major with another report from Dublin. One of these days he’ll tell us something truly unbelievable.

Martin Stabe on the law as it applies to bloggers and other online publishers. You might not like it, you may not even believe it, but we’re governed by the law where the readers are, not where we are. Worth remembering that.

Jamie K at Blood and Treasure picks up on the meme wandering about of "whither British blogging". I think he’s bang on in his description and I’ve no doubt I’ll steal it at some point. A saloon not a salon.

On an Overgrown Path with a neat little piece of town planning.

Tim shows quite how nefarious those rude country folk out Devizes way can be.

Stephen Tall writes in from Planet Lib Dem with a serious and sensible point. The recent Education White Paper is missing an important ingredient. School vouchers. The much vaunted parent power desired will come from purchasing power.

Liberal England is writing on the same subject and wants to try and work out exactly what a "Liberal" education system would look like. He’s also less than impressed with some Lib Dem MP’s takes on the matter.

Philobiblion asks "Where are the women in computing"? One answer given is that the sheer number of geeks uncomfortable with hte presence of women makes it an unappealing career but the question deserves a serious answer. After all, the first programming language was written by a woman. (Ada, Countess Lovelace if you must know, Lord Byron’s daughter I think.)

Natalie also has another intallment of her Diaries of a Lady of Quality posted and some delicious 19th century gossip.

A quick report on a relaxing weekend at the parentals in the countryside is followed by this comment from Chunky Monkey (and yes, I can reveal that in the book out in only 19 days [buy at the top right hand corner!] Ms. CM reveals all about her colonoscopy):

The last time I went home, I was chased by some fat methed-up rednecks for having short hair.

It’s an exciting life, eh?

Break of Day in the Trenches provides a detailed review of Battlestar Galactica. Not so much of the show but what it means from a history researcher.

Mind the Gap on that idiot competition by Zoo magazine to win a boob job for your girlfriend. I have to admit I don’t understand it either. How does any male manage to keep on living after saying "Yes, you’re lovely but your tits are all wrong"? Why is he not, within moments, sporting a large hatchet through his head? Either of them?

Jo Salmon notes a local councillor calling for the legalization of prostitution in Oxford. I’d note further that said Councillor is a taxi driver who ferries Johns at times. Not exactly a disinterested party.

GrumpyOldBookman has some excellent advice for wannabe novelists. As novels are about emotion it might be worth actually doing some research into what scientists are saying and have found out about emotions. You will also want to read the wonderful comment on this post. The third one. Makes me want to buy the novel. As does his comment here.

The Filter is simply brimming with good stuff this week. Start here with a discussion of the minimum wage and then go scrolling.

In meta blogging news Ken Owen wants to start a sportsblogging roundup. Here’s the announcement and entries to him please.

Once More has the Conservative Bloggers Roundup number 3, Wat Tyler (sorry, permalinks don’t work today) has a Bloggers for Davis Roundup and Pickled Politics has the Anglo Asian news of the week. If you’re running or launching something along these lines do let me know so that I can include it.

And that’s it for this week. Entries in for next to britblog AT gmail DOT com and until then:

Toodle Pip!

Britblog Roundup # 36

Another sunny Sunday afternoon and it’s time for the Britblog Roundup once again. Your nominations for what was good and great on the blogs from the UK and Ireland this week. Get your entries in for next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Any subject, any viewpoint, just what you thought was the good stuff out there.

Just a quick reminder, please do add your blogs to Wikablog. It’s a wiki of blogs ("Really? What an odd name for such a thing") and we’d liketo get as many people into it as possible.

First up has to be this, stunningly funny, how a tranny uses porn. You can’t say we stick with the same old boring subjects and suspects round here now can you?

Diamond Geezer celebrated Trafalgar by giving us everything you wanted to know about Trafalgar Square, along with excellent photographs. Start here and work backwards day by day.

On the subject of Trafalgar, The Monarchist live blogged the battle. Start there for the first signal of the day and follow the signals as they were sent.

Make My Vote Count with an essay on political disengagement....which includes this wonderful little para:

Even factoring in my usual amount of scepticism, this has to be taken cum grano salis. 'The good old days' factor (there must be a better, fancier, psychological term for it) is never far from human cognition. There are no 'good old days', except when you were a child, but as I've explained, children are stupid.

Talk Politics has a round up of the views on whether torture is allowable, to be outsourced or banned. We might be a year or two behind the US in this discussion but I hope we get to the correct (NO!) answer.

The discussion on this subject rather became a meme this week, in order at Stumbling and Mumbling, The Sharpener and Tony Hatfield’s.

Interesting news about speed cameras. You don’t just get a ticket if you are well over the limit, you get registered if you are just over it, then a ticket if you are found 20 odd times just over that limit as a serial offender. There’s also a link there to find out if you are on that register. Who knew the database society was so far along?

Strange and Wonderful. A meditation upon the oldest noodle and parental habits turns into an exercise in finding real wisdom from fortune cookies at Blog of Funk.

The Pub Philosopher on the other recent anniversay, that of the Battle of Hastings. Just remember, the last time the French did beat us they were really Vikings.

Pickled Politics catches an interview with one of the stars of the Indian software scene. The last question and answer is just perfect.

Suz Blog isn’t sure whether it’s just coincidence or mental telepathy when she’s thinking about one blogger who at that time is writing about her own brother, a screen writer.

Matthew starts off a turbo dictionary. First up is the letter A and we find out that arboretum is the best word ever and that aardvark is just greedy. Bizarre and strangely enjoyable.

Twenty Major has designed the Irish version of the Tebbitt Test. As usual the language is not suitable for maiden aunts but he’s certainly got a decent idea going there.

Nosemonkey provides the list of those MPs who didn’t bother to turn up for the vote on ID Cards. A suitable case for contacting these reprobates perhaps? Asking them why?

Creepy Lesbo turns TV critic. I’ve been told that we may not be quite ready for her yet but I’ll let you decide.

Purple Elephant’s Corner on something I have sworn never to do again in my life. Take an exam.

Short Term Memory Loss is travelling the world in search of the perfect bookshop. This week’s stop? Paris.

My Thoughts Exactly on the difference between UK and French Sprite:

I inwardly cursed: something being cleared up a mere 4 days after it was finished with would never of happened before we let a girl in our flat.

Remind anyone of bachelor life?

Ken Owen points out what the media cycle can learn from cricket. First, please, drop the cliches!

Tory Convert describes taking part in (controlling?) a political discussion and research group. Certain signs of political disengagement are noted.

From The Filter we get James Bainbridge on the cheeriness of Marcus Aurelius, the banality of a cheese sandwich and a bookshop encounter. Odd mixture but it works very well.

Wat Tyler is insistent that Cameron’s not the Man. Well, OK, at the David Davis for Leader blog that’s not all that surprising.

We’ve also got a series of further Roundups and Carnivals appearing around and about the place.

Philobiblion has the first Carnival of the Feminists, the Tory Boys at Once More have the second  Conservative Bloggers Weekly and over at Pickled Politics a round up of Anglo Asian linkies.

If anyone else out there is running a similar exercise (Witangemot, Libruls Today, Newt Fancier Weekly) let me know so I can add it to the list. Just send me the URL to britblog AT gmail DOT com. As with all of your other nominations for next week, of course.

So that’s it for this week, see you next time, same place on the dial.

Toodle Pip!

Britblog Roundup # 35

’Ere We Go ’Ere We Go for the 35 th time at this Britblog Roundup thingy. Your nominations for the best of British and Irish blogging over the past week.  You can get your nominations in early for next week by emailing the URL to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Any subject, any viewpoint, we’re looking for those bits that we’ve missed but we shouldn’t have.

First up is the exciting news of Nosemonkey’s (of Europhobia fame) forthcoming nuptials, in Japan no less. He hasn’t seen fit to tell us whether the gift list is at Harrods or Harvey Nicks so perhaps the best solution is to pop round and hit his paypal tip jar. I shall be as soon as I’ve finished this.

One that I also had on my list from the Religious Policeman. How might one create good news from certain Middle Eastern nations as opposed to the current flood of bad stories?

Stephen Tall wishes to annoy (enrage?) his fellow Liberals by calling for the abolition of the Telly Tax (otherwise known as the Licence Fee). Take it away Stephen.

Jon Hyman gives us a review of and thoughts on "Elusive Peace" from the Beeb.

Blood and Treasure talks about M People. There’s a good many other bands, even entire genres of music, that deserve to be critiqued so seriously.

The delightful Ms. Bennett of Philobiblion provides us with her review of the British Museum’s Persian Exhibition and she’s also been encouraging her contacts to send in links....this is what we want to see! stuff coming from outside our tight little circle so that we are presented with a better view of the whole!

The blogging of the diaries of a Lady of Quality from the 19th century. Here about an earthquake in Naples in 1805. My own parents, having lived through a number of smaller versions of such in the same city would recognise much of the behaviour.

Purple Pen with an impassioned rant about a speed camera. And at last, now I know who it is driving that Ford Galaxy at exactly the speed limit. I’ve been behind that more often than I care to remember.

Hope springs eternal at the beginning of each and every academic year.

Random Acts of Reality on the subject of care homes. Makes smoking and drinking into even more valuable activities really.

The Law West of Ealing Broadway on taking the hard option. The right one, not necessarily the one in the rulebook.

You may remember from last week the point that FTP means that the Tories are doomed for decades to come? Jarndyce points out that they’re doomed under virtually every other system as well, except the one that we know we’re not going to get.

Early Modern Notes on why so many of these historical detective novels (there doesn’t seem to be a decade in the last millenia without at least two writers) don’t get it quite right. Circumstantial evidence wasn’t usually accepted.

Hot off today’s press Blognor Regis has the details on the David Blunkett "How to get a shag" Techniques. Power helps apparently.

Mike’s Books on ID Cards and the Stasi. It’s only a difference of degree.

No specific post to recommend on this one, just a lovely little blog on a very slow narrowboat trip by a recently retired couple. And the dog is fabulous. This blog’s canine security operatives would fancy a Blunkers wiv’er!

Liberal England drops the politics for a moment and gets all cultural on us.

Alfie the OK with a call to arms. Get the book by Sir Anthony Jay and make life miserable for bureaucrats.

Curious Hamster has a Straw Theory. Wibble gets used a lot which is far too polite.

Militant Moderate on the Assisted Suicide Bill being discussed this past week.

Spyblog puts forward a piece from the Independent which was then posted on a blog. As the original piece wasn’t online, why not? The question is, has anyone actually read 1984?

And our final entry is from Clive Davis with another of his Transatlantic Voices series. It’s also his blog’s first birthday and he’s sitting in a motel in San Luis Obispo. Might even be in the world’s very first motel which is in that fine City (where I lived for a few years, just as a small co-incidence).

And that’s it, the end of this week’s Britblog Roundup.

Get your entries in for next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com and don’t forget to get round to Nosemonkey’s with some confetti or something.

Toodle Pip!

(Once More has started a Conservatives Only roundup and where’s The Witangemot this week, or the Scottish Politics one?)

Oops, sorry, forgot. We’d also like you to go and look at Wikablog. Exactly what it says on the tin, a wiki of blogs. Get in there, add your blog, add those of friends and enemies, comment on the others there.

Britblog Reminder.

Yes indeed, that time of the week. Look back on the best posts of the past week and send the URL to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Collated and posted Sunday afternoon for your reading pleasure. Any subject, any viewpoint, we’re looking for those pieces that we should have seen but didn’t.

As a personal thing I’d love to see some more from off usual subjects of politics and economics round here. There are supoposed to be some 500,000 UK blogs and some of you must know good ones that I dont.

Britblog Roundup # 34

Here we are again, the Britblog Roundup. Your nominations for the best blogging of this past week in the UK and Irish internetwebbie thingummajig. You can make your nominations for next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com. This is being put together by a slightly fragile Timmy (yes, beer and a curry were involved) so please read quietly.

First up is a story that’s been going around the Irish blogs, over a requirement for those taking an experimental cancer drug to also agree to be taking contraceptives. Red Mum starts the ball rolling, Sigla and Winds and Breezes are also commenting. Inevitably Twenty Major is on the case as well (the usual obscenity warning here folks). Two ways of looking at it perhaps, that Ireland has changed more than you might think, as most are condeming the decision, or less than you might think as the decision was in fact taken. Read through all the comments to get an idea of what I mean.

The Curator’s Egg has a simply fabulous piece of poetry. Go there now. Read and absorbed it all? Left a comment applauding? I mean, Dr. Seuss and quantum physics?

Good, we shall continue.

Two pieces on the same subject, China, Mao and Martin Jacques. The Sharp Side catches one of Jacques euphemisms and Blood and Treasure adds further background.

Talk Politics is less than reverential to Norm of that Blog and his piece on Jonathan Freedland and then goes on to point out the difference between Robin Cook’s statements on an ethical foreign policy, actions on it and how much attention The Maximum Tone has paid to any of it.

Which seems like a good time to introduce a piece from The Norm himself on another Groan piece where he introduces the word mbunderstanding, which I take to mean misunderstanding in that precise method enamoured of Madeleine Bunting (although that may be too restrictive an identification).

Chris at Mr S&M on retailing. No, the profit warnings are not because less is being spent but because large numbers of retailers are crap.

Make My Vote Count with a widely remarked post on just why the Tories should be the party most interested in changing the electoral system. Essentially, under the present system, they’re shafted.

Snafu at Once More adds his view from the Tory side of the fence.

Here’s something from waaaay out in left field, confessions of a New Age Harlot. Umm, ploughing the fertile furrow after Belle du Jour perhaps?

Nee Naw is a new addition to the medical/ambulance/emergency services blogs. From an Ambulance dispatcher...this is very good on what callers seem to expect from them. Have a look around a bit as there’s other excellent stuff there.

Rockall Times isn’t really a blog but this is just much too good not to include.

Mike’s Books on our continuing move towards an Orwellian state.

Devil’s Kitchen and Curious Hamster had a back and forth and back a forth over Iran, Iraq and ourselves. Worth following the whole thing.

Chicken Yoghurt gets nominated for this piece on Alan Milburn. (You may note that he rather takes the Alfie the OK view of the Geordie Quiff.) Don’t know why we don’t just put the whole blog in each week really. He has also added trackbacks as you all should be doing.

(Excuse me while I take a short break for a decent breakfast.)

Back and saw something interesting in The Mail on Sunday (yes, I know, unusual, eh?) Coppersblog has a double page spread. Minimum of a pound a word at that paper. I said back early in the year that I thought that was the next blog that was going to get into the main media, glad to see I was right (he’s beaten me by a month!).

For our more intellectual readers Philobiblion is trying to restore Dorothy L Sayers to her rightful position (Empress apparently) in the pantheon of crime writers and Early Modern Notes explains the vengeful ghost as a literary device. Providentialism gets a mention, the idea that God would, somehow, intervene to bring murders and murderers to light.

AI Dodge brings us his report from the Tory Party Conference. Slightly odd post for someone to use to invite him to a Chelsea Girls party in the comments but then libertarian rockers do seem to have it better than most.

This from The Filter came nominated as "James Bainbridge being brilliant" and I agree, he is. That blog might deserve a little more of your attention as they’ve been doing some very good longer pieces recently.

Fair Vote Watch takes on those who would use the German elections as an argument for FPTP. Well, to be honest, he’ll take on anyone who supports FTPT for any reason but he does have a point in this case.

The Sharpener (they’re working hard to make that blog into a must stop shop with a number of new regular features coming up) gives us their first 6 Degrees. Rather like the Kevin Bacon game, where will you end up in six degrees of separation from your own blog roll?

The Joy of Curmudgeonry is described by the Pedant General as being "brilliant" and then the PG adds to the theme at his own place.

Ken Owen has been frantically writing on today’s newspapers to bring us this on Cameron, ideas and politics. Cut off, as you know, for the Roundup is noon but as he didn’t finish it ’till 1.25 pm we’ll let it in shall we?

Clive Davis, although in California all week, rounds up the stories from the Tory Conference. And then complains to me about blog burnout. Sheesh!

Suz Blog ends our weekly look with a report on the child camel jockies of the Middle East and the dangers they face.

And that’s it, the Britblog Roundup for this week. Get your entries in early for next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

Just a gentle reminder of the rules, that (except in exceptional circumstances as defined by me) each blog only gets one entry. So if you’ve nominated something and it doesn’t appear it’s probably because someone else nominated something from the same blog and I made an executive decision. So there!

Toodle Pip!

Britblog Reminder.

Yes please, get your nominations in for Sunday’s Britblog Roundup. To britblog AT gmail DOT com.

You know the rest.

Britblog Roundup # 33

Once again we step up to the plate (or as we’re rather this side of the Atlantic about it, step up to the crease?) to bring out the Britblog Roundup, your picks of the best pieces from the British and Irish blogs this week.

As ever, you can make your nominations for next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Your picks of author, subject, view, just those great pieces that we should see but don’t. Probably because we don’t have enough blogs loaded into our RSS readers (which is a new word I’ve just learnt. Hope I’m using it properly).

Just in case there is someone out there that doesn’t know this already there is a book coming up which has grown out of this little exercise. Called "2005 Blogged" you can read all about it here, and if you should so wish link to Amazon, publicise it, sell vast quantities and so on.

First up is my pick of the week from Natalie Solent. The last line is the killer.

Charlie over at Perfect has a two parter (which we don’t normally do here but this is important) on the way in which the use of the DNA database presages what joys lie ahead with the National Identity Register. No, we’re not happy bunnies over this.

Adloyada (a blog new to me and very much worth reading) has some advice for Ken Livingstone. You know, try serving the people of the city, as you were elected to do.

Stephen Tall compares Diet Labour to Mr. Creosote....simply gorging on every opportunity to stuff the body politic. A fun piece even if he is a politician (Stephen, have you not read the handbook? Saying what you mean is not the way to get ahead these days-Ed).

Mike’s Books on the coming relaunch of the Labour Party under a new banner.

Alfie the OK points to just what was obscene on that young lady’s t-shirt. After all, bollocks is fairly humdrum and to a vital part of the language.

Charlie(also at Perfect but as this is the second of my nominations I’m allowed to break the rules) is quite wonderfully offensive about Blair’s speech to Conference. Masterly historical research.

AI Dodge buddy Jon P is up for more Davis and less Fox. Not sure personally, I think we need politicians who have dated Natalie Imbruglia. (Not sure if that’s a small or a large group actually).

Bloggerheads is, as you might imagine, all over the Labour Conference story and the use of the (whichever we now have) Terrorism Act.

Chicken Yoghurt is similarly outraged. With added extra prose style, of course.

Make My Vote Count fobs us off with some old tatty rubbish as he says. Ask any antique dealer, some things get better with age.

Chris at Mr. S&M provides the statistical shocker of the week. Certainly surprised me and I’m supposed to know about these things.

The Pooter of that Geek has the top ten list of products that are always used contrary to law and warnings. I might add alcohol (to be taken in moderation?).

The Filter shows us just how different the youth of today are. Imagine, a student who actually wishes to learn?

Plasticbag.org has a truly outrageous tale (and some exceptionally good detective work) of comment spamming. No, not by some pimply 12 year old trying to sell the Viagra he doesn’t yet know how to use. No, main stream, big league advertising companies. They actually used a rather strongly emotional post about meeting his long estranged father to advertise cleaning products!

 Dragnet (I think this may be our first transgendered entry to the Britblog) provides the full before and after set for the makeup routine. There is indeed something of a transformation.

Becky provides us with a new game to play with Wikipedia. Additions to the game over there I think.

Curious Hamster has an update on Sir Ian Blair. Not only did he take some dodgy decisions over the De Menezes shooting he knew, when he took them, that they were illegal. The proof is in his own letters.

The Sharpener has a new slot, the Open Mic Rant. It’s DK this time, on the ineffable superiority of bureaucratic systems in taking care of our tax money.

Philobiblion with an excellent book review. A young girl hoicked out of her homeland and what happens then. As the review points out the book is both honest and one sided....as it will be when looking from the inside out to the world.

Liberal England picks up on the cooing at babies nonsense. Not, as he notes, a Liberal (although it might be liberal) sort of thing really.

The Liberal Dissenter points up the reasons why you would want to avoid Party Conferences. No, not just the Lib Dem ones, all the ones held in Blackpool.

Tom Fuller makes a bold prediction. The pound returning as the world’s reserve currency?

Pickled Politics has a lovely piece on the Simpsons. As so often with that show there are layers of meaning, not just the cutesy cartoon frontage.

Norm of that Blog manages to get two of the main obsessions of his life into one post. A cricket XI as selected by Karl Marx. I really do wish I understood either of the subjects so as to be able to appreciate it.

Finally, if this isn’t enough reading foryou you can go and look at The Witangemot at the CEP. That’s English blogging rather than our British and Irish (and yes, we would like some more Irish entries please!)

And that’s it, this week’s Britblog Roundup. Buy the book, send in your entries for next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com and see ya then!

Toodle Pip!.

Britblog Reminder.

Yes, yes, please get your nominations for the Britblog Roundup in to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

Any subject, any viewpoint, just what you think was good in UK and Irish blogging this past week.

Carnival of the Britblog Roundup # 32

Here we are, the 32 nd installment of what all of you nominators think is the best of British and Irish blogging of the past week. You can get your entry in for next week by emailing the URL of your favourite piece to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Your choice of writer, subject, viewpoint, we want those pieces that we should have seen but didn’t.

First up is something from a group supporting Craig Murray. A calculation of the death and injury figures for British troops in Iraq. Oddly, the MOD seems reluctant to give out the complete figures.

Owen Barder has done us all a favour and provided a full transcript of Tony Blair’s interview on the Today Programme. It’s so confused that his comment that Number 10 doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to provide one is understandable. I’d echo the question:

"I remain unclear what statements the Government wishes to make illegal. Are there statements which are not incitement, which is already illegal, and which are not merely expressing sympathy with a terrorist’s motivation, which Mr Blair does not think should be illegal. Can anyone think of an example of such a statement?"

The Kalahari Lighthouse has a great quote of the week.

David Duff with an alternative view of the John B close down. The comments get, umm, lively.

Mike’s Books with a celebration of Nelson. Which reminds me, October 21 st this year would be a great day to phone up all your Spanish and French friends.

Gerard Baker, New Orleans and Glasgow at the G-Gnome Rides Out. With added Bastiat as well!

Francis has news on a little euro poll that seems ripe for some Birmingham Labour voting techniques.

The Drink Soaked Trots for War have some rules on this blogging lark. They are specific to a few blogs, feel free to ignore them here.

Sobriety is agreeing with Chicken Yoghurt. This is excellent. Double jeopardy, extraordinary rendition, internment, glorification of terrorism. As one commenter puts it, makes one quite capable of inciting terrorism oneself.

Harry Hutton liveblogged the Jet Blue drama in the US. A stunning insight into and psychological portrayal of the anguish caused.

Over at the Sharpener an interesting argument that the electoral chaos following the German elections shows quite how wonderful PR systems are. As I say, interesting.

The Obscurer has the conclusive proof that the BBC is biased. Absolutely clear cut, no doubt about it.

Ken Owen on the interesting way some of the poor have been spending their post Katrina hand outs. As is so often the case it is Orwell who is able to explain it.

Norm of that Blog on the singularity of the Holocaust. Was it really so different from the rest of the litany of evils that we must view it seperately?

Clive Davis is continuing his series of Transatlantic Conversations. Number 3 is Emanuele Ottolenghi.

Philobiblion outs herself as the new "Anti-Mom", replacing Lionel Shriver. The childless are doign good things by reducing the population.

The Filter has two pieces, one on insurance, the other on health care. Do insurers have perverse incentives and is the NHs nationalistic?

Anoneumouse announces both his new single state and availability and his intention of persuading Margot Wallstrom to change it.

Jarndyce on the tax on stupidity that are lottery scratch cards. And now they’re being used to take from poor children to pay for the Olympics.

Further reports from the frontlines of the teaching profession from Shuggy. Professionals managing the system might be a good idea he feels.

Suz Blog was at the Lib Dem conference and on a panel about blogging.Get the word out, what every political party has to do. (BTW, can we get Chikky Yoggy onto a similar panel at the Labour conference?)

Tom Fuller on mash ups and their application to knowledge...people are so specialised these days that one might need to be an outsider in a field to catch the grand vistas.

Finally, Militant Moderate was one this week. Pop round with a birthday pressie or kiss, why not?

And that’s it, the Britblog Roundup (Carnival of) for this week. Keep looking for entries for next week’s and send them to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

(And don’tforget the wonderful book coming which has grown out of this little extravaganza. 2005 Blogged, available via the Amazon button at the top right hand corner.)

Toodle Pip!

Carnival of the Britblog Roundup # 31

Yes, it’s here, the event of the week, what you’ve all been waiting for, the Britblog Roundup #31. Get your nominations for next week’s in early by emailing to britblog AT gmail DOT com. We’re interested in any subject, any view point, what we want is to be pointed to the best in British and Irish blogging, using the Wisdom of the Crowds (prop, James Suroweicki) to get us there.

First, two sad things.

John B has been blackmailed into shutting down his site, Shot By Both Sides. Short message to the anonymous fools who did this: You’re Scum. Nosemonkey has a roundup of reactions which leads to yet further such. Harry’s Place enjoys an attack of Tourette’s on the subject.

In further depressing news Devil’s Kitchen is extremely depressed. Sufficiently so that perhaps a visit and word of comfort is in order? Virtually, or, if you are in the Edinburgh area, physically? His last post is one of extreme despair, so much so that I’ve had emails from California hoping that someone can pop round and see him. Scots bloggers?

(Things seem to be a little less fraught now.)

Tampon Teabag (yes, someone really did call their blog that) on the looming melody shortage. A familiarity with the wilder predictions of the Green Movement will help it make sense.

Mad Musings of Me is also on the music subject.....this time Opera and why she loves it so. About the only reason she doesn’t give is a fascination with the Italian Tenor.

Tom Fuller has an interesting idea on how to make the next step towards a responsive Government. Assuming that consultation exercises are indeed for consultation purposes it sounds like a very good one.

Field Marshall Milton John is a new blog who seems to be channelling the ghost of Tiger Nidgett of the Tailoring Corps (of Peter Simple fame, of course). Most, most amusing. Being spammed already as well, only three weeks in.

Blognor Regis uses old films to peek into what London was like in the past. Fascinating stuff, using the location shots to provide a portrait of the past.

Both Chicken Yoghurt and Make My Vote Count launch themselves at Alan Milburn. Both are wonderful and I wouldn’t want to try and decide who captures the grotesque the better. It was Alfred the OK who provided a good line on him months back:

Weighty, passionate, analytical? Nah – it’s just another instalment in the  ’Howard is a bogey-man’

It’s not quite as bad as Milburn’s original idea though – the catchy jingle, campaign. It’s just pathetic, who the hell thinks up this drivel? Don’t quote me but I reckon it looks like young snotty Alan Milburn from 2nd year remedial has been sucking on the end of his pencil again. ‘Don’t vote for Michael Howard, coz he’s a spazzy mong’ was run up a few flagpoles before being consigned to the bin (possibly).

Third Avenue provides a first hand account of the Hitchens/ Galloway debate and in the process gets mentioned in Slate. Good reporting there. Clive Davis has a roundup of the various reactions including live blogs and all sorts of goodies. A good place to get a general view.

Stumbling and Mumbling offers some advice to Johann Hari. Rather more polite than I would have been and rather more interesting than I would have been as well.

A Tangled Web on the latest attack by the IRA on the McCartney family. Of course, as they point out, Peter Hain has told us that it’s not the ’Ra.

An Englishman’s Castle does something most un-English, declare a personal credo. I’ll do something just as non-English and say I wholeheartedly agree.

Several of us (well, at least Natalie Solent and myself) found Laban Tall extremely funny on that statue in Trafalgar Square.

Philobiblion has a fascinating piece which combines a book review and a description of the inner workings of the national newspapers. If you want to know why (as Clive Davis avers) the meeja are drawn from such a narrow circle, the answer’s in there.

Politicalog on Brown meeting the Unions. Difficult to know which is the less progressive of the two.

We get a slice of the Real Ireland, mercifully free of begorrahs and shillelaghs at CutieChick. There’s also this on the dastardly crime of pigeon chasing at Red Mum.

Jarndyce on Education for Sale. As you would expect from such a thoughtful leftie, he makes the point that taxing the poor to educate the next generation of merchant bankers doesn’t really pass the fairness test.

Owen Barder, another thoughful leftie, on saving capitalism from itself. My own view is that Robert Reich mis-identified the two previous instances where it is claimed that this happened but if the political/economic argument is your sort of thing then do read this. Owen’s also got a piece on extraordinary rendition which several have nominated. Just to make it clear, even from my (as many assume) Amerikka lovin’ near fascism, no, this isn’t something we should be doing. Torture and the outsourcing of it are simply things that we don’t do. It may sound facile in the way that I express it (in fact it does) but leave aside all of the realpolitik, the WOT and the rest, we simply don’t do this, we’re Brits, we’re better than that. And if our Government is not better than that then it’s about time we had one that was.

My Way of Thinking has an amusing (or horrifying depending on your take of it) note written by Bush in the recent UN meeting. No, I don’t know whether it’s real.

The Filter on Walter Scott, royalty, whisky glasses and ambulance chasing lawyers. That is turning out to be an excellent group blog. Highly recommended.

The Law West of Ealing Broadway on the lamentable decline of public civility. The last line is perfect.

Andrew Dodge continues the flat tax discussion from last week, tying it in with the difference in average incomes between here and the US.

Brian Barder uses the German Elections to chide (deride?) those who desire proportional representation in our own elections. Some interesting things for the reformists to chew over there.

Liberal England picks up on that report on Sure Start that Polly found. Yes, the one that said it wasn’t working and Polly thus called for its expansion.

Cabalamat Journal on the latest Tim Garton Ash. Much agreement with the basic thesis.

Xen of Phobe is having fun (sort of in a Third Rock from the Sun kind of way) and suggests an entirely delighful new Google Bomb. If we all added that one it would succeed within the week.

And that’s it, the Britblog Roundup for this week! Keep the nominations and suggestions coming in and we’ll do it all again next week.

Those of you who do not regularly read this blog might not know that there is a book coming out on November 18th. It very much grew out of this here Britblog Roundup and is an attempt to provide people with an idea of the best British blogging of the past year. Called "2005 Blogged. Dispatches from the Blogosphere" it is available to pre-order from Amazon UK (and only Amazon UK). When published Waterstone’s, along with other fine bookshops will be stocking it and it is, I am told, already on the Waterstone’s list of "Books of the Year". There’s bits from right and left, economics, politics, aid, jokes, civil liberties, humour, domestics, the whole panoply (well, as far as that can be got into a paperback) of the very best of what’s been produced. There’ll be names you know and many you don’t. It has, gratifyingly, moved from 320,000 or so on the Amazon sales list to 6,000 or so over the past week.

If you should want to help popularise this book there’ll be a post later today giving code you can place on your blog to do so. Yes, of course I want it to sell lots of copies for selfish reasons but if it is, in any way, a hit, it’ll bring a lot more people into Brit blogging and that has to be a good thing in and of itself.

Britblog Reminder.

Yes please, your nominations of the best posts of the week to britblog AT gmail DOT com please. Anyone want to go hunting over on the Irish side?

Britblog Roundup # 30

Yes indeedy, Britblog rides again! Your nominations for the Britblog Roundup are posted for the edification of the huddled masses....the best that the British and Irish blogosphere has to offer in this past week. You can send your nominations for next week’s to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

Jarndyce suggests that the important bit of the week was the debate over the flat tax and as I’m one of the participants in it I would have to agree.

There was Jarndyce himself at The Sharpener and Phil at the same spot gives a backgrounder.

Owen Barder also thinks that the basic idea has merits despite his membership of the bruschetta eating classes (well, he does worry about losing his Guadian subscription and lentil allowance for saying so).

Stumbling and Mumbling talks about the effects on equity and egalitarianism (and his post of the week before was partly responsible for setting this off.)

Rafael at the Observer chimes in with a note on the Eastern European experience...I’d just add that the Russian flat tax has hugely improved the problem he writes of. (Trivia factoid. Did you know that my wife’s company used to deliver his newspaper? At least I think it did.)

Johann Hari rather gets the wrong end of the stick (quelle surprise) and appears to be spitting tacks.

Bishop Hill notes the way the BBC reported it (obviously, it wasn’t what is actually being proposed).

The Tory Boys at Once More also chime in and I did a piece at the Adam Smith Institute where I was nasty about David Walker in The Guardian. (It’s only after it was published that The Briff pointed out that he is Polly T’s inamorata. Hhhm. That’s one household I’ll not be welcome in.)

Moving entirely away from the taxation issue there’s a new group blog called Wanabehuman. Bunch of people who work at the BBC with Scaryduck (although this is a private, not BBC project). The aim is that the readership contribute articles. The interesting addition is that they’ll edit them up to BBC standards and styles....so if you want to see what your writing looks like after it has been professionally edited, give them a bell. They also want views on what the site looks like and yes, they’ve been told it’s too cluttered but perhaps they need to hear it some more.

Devil’s Kitchen has suggested a coup d’etat with bloggers taking over the running of the country. Great idea even though I’ve been appointed to the Cabinet. The major problem with putting either Chris or I in at the DTI is that the first act of either of us would be to abolish it.

The Joy of Curmudgeonry takes on Polly Toynbee and egalitarianism. Much politer than I normally am about her.

Coffee and PC gives the same Polly Pot piece a more classically styled Fisking.

Mike’s Books looks ahead to the opening of the Peking Olympics (what’s with this Beijing thing? If it was good enough for General Gordon it’s good enough for me) and ponders on what the opening ceremony will looks like.

The Virtual Stoa on French coverage of cricket. Not adequate apparently.

Neil Herron continues his one man campaign of making our Lords and Masters actually obey the laws tha tthey themselves have passed. He’s getting quite good at it.

Arthur’s Seat has the winners of his random words contest. Another joy that Google has given us.

Pootergeek goes....well, sorry, this is one of those you simply have to read in full. Stunningly funny in a very dark manner.

Nosemonkey guests at The Sharpener with rantmode on about Charlie the Safety Elephant and his plans to bring in the ID Card nonsense via the EU.

Make My Vote Count has an excellent piece on a particular bugbear of mine, the way in which people with absolutely no clue about the subject feel themselves qualified to discuss the economy and economics. (Please note, I don’t claim to be an economist or an expert but I do claim to have at least some clue.)

Tim Newman’s got an excellent piece on risk. As he is, in fact, a risk engineer, his views on Katrina are well worth reading and absorbing.

Paul at Five Eighth takes on Mick Cleary’s views on the new All Balck’s haka. Doesn’t know what he’s talking about is the basic concept here.

The Heretic is most amusing on the subject of Al-Jazeera. Do the new laws mean that they should be shut down for condoning terrorism?

The Sharp Side takes on Amos Oz and comes to...well, let’s say it’s not an objectively pro-Zionist conclusion.

Ken Owen appears to be in Philadelphia, where he ruminates upon the Atrios blogging booze up.

Start here to read Actually Existing’s three parter on Katrina. What went wrong, why they went wrong and why things were allowed to go wrong.

Clive Davis blogs on a reaction from the Arts world to his Times peice on the one party state nature of that world.

If you’re in or around London you’ll want to look at Robin’s list of upcoming events, lectures and debates. Why not help him add to the list? His partner there, Charlie, is extremely gloomy about what Katrina means.

Philobiblion on why she loves London so. Squaddies on Night Buses come into it.

And that’s it! Today’s Britblog Roundup is now officially over.

If there’s any of you out there looking to run BlogAds on your blog drop me a line will you? timworstall AT gmail DOT com. I’ve got some invites and we’re trying to build this UK mini-network so as to attract more advertisers. To qualify you need to have over 3,000 page impressions (so that’s not visits or uniques) per week.

Toodle Pip!

Britblog Roundup # 29

Here ’t’is, this week’s Britblog Roundup. The best of blogging from these isles as nominated by YOU! the reading public.

If you’d like to make nominations for next week please do so by sending an email to britblog AT gmail DOT com  with the relevant URL.

First up is Nosemonkey with his party for the St John’s Ambulance people. A thank you from his readers for the work they did on 7/7. Sterling stuff all round.

The Yorkshire Ranter has some good advice in the aftermath of Katrina. Yes, there is a French organisation helping.

Blithering Bunny on the way in which Bush is being blamed for Katrina. Quite rightly he points to the subsidization of flood insurance as making the effects worse.

Blood and Treasure also takes lessons from the aftermath. The ineffectiveness of the way in which governments do the things they should do leads to some questions about what we should ask them to do.

(Sorry about the gap in your reading pleasure there, had to run out and buy a new mouse.)

China over at Lenin’s Tomb has been digging around to find out who had the responsibility to draw up the evacuation plans for NOLA. No, not a pretty sight and a damn good piece of digging.

The Filter is deeply unhappy about the privatisation of the railways....Virgin Trains gets to the be the whipping boy today.

Philobiblion is impressive again. Mining history to show that concerns over WalMart and Tesco’s are nothing new, the same arguments were used about department stores in Victorian times.

Mike’s Books is also Victorian in his discussion of The Maximum Leader’s new Respect policy.

A Tangled Web discovers where in the world bestiality is legal. (To condemn it, you understand, not to give tourist advice). (Once comment: Shergar, ...Honey Honey, you are my candy mare, yes yes, I know Shergar was a stallion.)

Jarndyce is back and has some questions for us. The answer to the third is "Because you love your wife".

The blogathon for Uzbekistan got rather overshadowed by other events so go here to the Disillusioned Kid to catch up on all the postings.

No Matter Who You Vote For has picked up on the idea of an EU fealty oath for immigrants. As he says, it’s rather dificult to argue for such when we can’t ourselves agree on what the EU’s values are.

Politicalog has an interesting point. Since we believe in democracy why are people unhappy about some of the choices Iraqis are making?

Chicken Yoghurt is back and angry. Good, as in good and angry and also good with it. Bring on the autumn frosts! You’ll also want to read his contribution to the Uzbekistan blogathon.

Violent porn and Hayek over at Mr. S&M’s.

Devil’s Kitchen is working through how to put the economy to rights. He’d appreciate help from those with better figures. Start with that link then paddle back.

And that’s it! I expect we’ll be back, firing on all cylinders, next weekend. Kiddies back at school, hols over, the US back at work after Labor Day....yes, full service resumed after the summer break.

Send your nominations in for next week’s to britblog AT gmail DOt com.

Toodle Pip!

Britblog Reminder.

Helloooo!

Please do remember to get your nominations for the Britblog Roundup into me by 12 noon Sunday. Any subject, just the best posts of the week in the world of British and Irish blogging please. Send in to britblog At gmail DOT com.

Carnival of the Britblog Roundup # 28

Yes, it’s the Britblog Roundup, this week named as a Carnival in honour of a slow Bank Holiday weekend. Your collection of those pieces people have nominated as must see posts of the week from British and Irish bloggers. Keep the nominations coming in folks, send them for next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

Britblog Roundup can also be found at The Truth Laid Bear's Ubercarnival

First up is a must read piece from Musings from Middle England. If you thought our asylum system was cocked you’d be right but you probably still don’t know quite how cocked. Yes, we send people back to countries where they will be hung simply for their sexuality. Screaming in rage at your MP would be an appropriate response.

Gary Monro (you may remember him from A Very British Insurgency) with his, from a conservative standpoint, objections to the war in Iraq. Long and thoughful, whatever your own views on the subject.

Nosemonkey wants us all to know that he’s back from the colonies and blogging again. Here he is being worthy about the German election. You should also look around a bit for his piece on the piss up party for emergency workers. He’s collected enough money from donations to pack a pub out to say thank you. It’s this coming week.

The Religious Policeman is working from London at the moment so we can include him. Thanks to Francis who nominated him, he’s hilarious. Cricket, soccer and this excellent line:

Don't children blow up quickly these days?

The Parking Attendant is less than impressed with the SWP and like minded "Communist Workers". "Mardy teenagers" is a wonderful description.

Philobiblon raises the tone around here by bringing us a theatre review. Youth, energy and Cornish Independence. I’ll support all three of those....and as Natalie says, her blog review is only the second in any format of this excellent production.

Shell at Across the Atlantic comments on the animal rights crowd and guinea pigs. Starts with scumbags and gets more accurate from there. In the comments there’s a lovely piece of hypocrisy from a PETA activist about why she will accept medical treatment based on animal studies while campaigning to ban them.

The New Economist gives us the skinny on those E European migrant workers.Out of some 230,000 there have been 55 applications for benefits. As others have said this is an import of human capital and a good thing.

Make My Vote Count subjects Our Toneness to the Machiavelli test. Never quite sure whether it is a good thing or not for politicians to pass that. As he does.

Stumbling and Mumbling on the absurdity of the UK tax system. The two parent two kid family on 200 quid a week gets a 50% pay rise to 300. After tax and benefits withdrawal, their actual increase in disposable income? 8.52. This is simply insane (and no, that is not cherry picking the most invidious numbers). It’s also from the Govt’s own released numbers, not something cooked up by someone wanting the system to look bad.

Perfect.co.uk poses a multiple choice paper on GSCE exam results. I’m afraid I failed it as I thought satellite photogrammetry would work as well as anything else.

Mike’s Books on two different murders and the different level of publicity afforded to each.

Owen Barder offers his plan for the Lords reform. It involves voting for vocational constituencies, something that as far as I know has only been tried in Hong Kong and the City of London. Interesting idea though.

Brian Barder responds with further questions.

I’m reluctant to risk appearing to pick holes in such a welcome attempt to approach the problem from a wholly new angle, but it does necessarily prompt (not, please, ‘beg’) a number of questions, to which its ingenious author can no doubt provide convincing answers.

BB is an ex-Ambassador so we should read that as diplo-speak....he’s also Owen’s father. Bet the conversations over the breakfast table in that household were interesting.

Talk Politics pulls the ears of and jumps on the trunk of Charlie the Safety Elephant. Quite rightly too, man wouldn’t know a Human Right if it bit him on the arse.

Liberal England is far too kind to Polly Toynbee. He actually takes one of her arguments seriously. He rather demolishes her entire style actually.

JamieK at The Sharpener on realism in politics. If you can’t trust a Government at home why would you trust them abroad?

Jarndyce on walking through Tavistock Square. Yes, they’ve cleaned up the mess and blood but some will still remember.

Let’s be Sensible on a most unsensible plan. Engraving the Gospels on diamonds and sending them into interstellar space. The planners appear to completely miss the point that any alien craft out there is unlikely to be amused by being struck by a bit of (however engraved) rock moving at an appreciable fraction of light speed.

Don Paskini is less than approving of the pro-war left. Nick Cohen in particular. He’s also running a little competition for the best article on the subject.

And that’s it, the end of this week’s Britblog Roundup. Just one thing left before we all go out to enjoy the last sunshine of the year (Remember! All back to work next week ’till Christmas!).

I’m building a mini-network using BlogAds. Trying to get UK sites signed up to the system and then aggregating those sites to make it more attractive for UK advertisers to identify a UK audience. We’re currently ofering 250,000 impressions a week to advertisers and it looks like those signing up this week will take it to 500,000. I want to try and double this again in September as that’s about the number that has been identified, 3-4 million a month, that will actually bring the advertisers in.

So, if you’ve got a blog aimed at a UK readership and are doing 3,000 pages (pages, not visits) a week, drop me a line and I’ll send you an invite to BlogAds. Might as well earn some beer money out of what we’re already doing, eh? And if we can get the system up to that size, perhaps rather better than beer money.

Britblog Reminder.

Don’t forget, Sunday, get your nominations in for the Britblog Roundup. Any subject, any viewpoint, just send the URL of the best posts of the week to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

Britblog Roundup # 27

Welcome once again to the show that never ends.....well, that’s not really right is it? It ends every Sunday afternoon and then lies dormant for a week. Anyhoo, here’s the Britblog Roundup, your guide to the very best of the British and Irish blogs of the past week. If you’d like to make a nomination for next week simply drop the URL to me at britblog AT gmail DOT com.

First up are two very good posts on the Menezes shooting. Talk Politics and Optimus in Omnis. Backword Dave called that latter one the best post on the subject so far and I agree. A must read.

Craig Murray is also on the same subject.

Stephen Tall compares the Tory leadership race to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Really rather good and I await his similar piece on the competition to replace Ginger Charlie with bated breath.

Old Heatonian has entered the Sun’s competition. That one about barmaids and suntans.

Pootergeek has wound up a large part of the reading public by defending the Playboy pencil cases. He’s also answered his critics at great length.

Chris Lightfoot rather tears apart Oliver Kamm on the subject of the A bombs in Japan. Dan Hardie enlivens the comments section....a proper little spat.

A novelty taxidermist on the coast of South Africa. Apparently they treat rugby players a little differently down there.

Village Hampden takes issue with becoming hyphenated Britons. An interesting point, do we thus become Welsh-Britons? English-Britons?

A Blog From Under the Floorbaords on the exam system. Contrary to what you might think the ever rising pass rate actually shows that the system is doing what it is designed to do. Whether we actually want it to do what it is designed to do is another matter.

Make My Vote Count has further views on the subject of the education system. Disagrees with Polly Pot which must mean he’s on the right lines.

Murkee is trying to get a little game going on Flickr. Sort of like Mornington Cresent but with rules. Looks fun.

Clive Davis is running a series of Transatlantic Voices....talking about the divides and similarities between Europe and the US.

Curious Hamster on the cafe culture and the British way of drinking.....in which he reveals that he is, in at least one manner, most unlike his countrymen.

Anarchy! Anarchy! Tim Ireland infects Legoland with that most appalling of things, free speech. Don’t tell Princess Tony.

Philobiblion with a quick history lesson...the concept of race is not terribly useful in trying to describe Britons.

A fascinating idea for the design of the new coins. Yes, I’d pay more than 50p for a 50p coin like this.

The Curmudgeon gives us the comforting thought of Georges Monbiot’s death. "Stoical ataraxia"?

Graceblog on the NME, pop music and fashion. She’s quite right, not a lot to do with music at all.

Tony Hatfield deserves a much closer look. A retired solicitor writing about the details of the law....this one is on Human Rights law, detainees and deportees. Have a look over the rest of the blog too. Fascinating to get the detail of these things.

Lenin’s Tomb on Bakri and Hamza. Not impressed with them or the way they’re being treated.

Jarndyce on the Bangladesh bombings. Why didn’t 400 bombs in  an ex-colony make much impact here? (Because the correspondents are in New Delhi and Karachi? Ed.)

The Sharpener takes on Rod Liddle. Gets rather the better end of the discussion as well.

The Pub Philosopher remembers Mo Mowlam....his tutor. She really was as good as she appeared.

Mike’s Books on an interesting public sector job. Don’t know whether to write in Squander Two for the job or Slugger O’Toole.

The Angry Chimp has allowed the hoi polloi into his blog. Getting the ideas and styles for posts from other bloggers then rewriting them in his style. Great fun....scroll down to August 19th to see them all.

Little Man in a Toque wishes to dismember the organisers of thte Tour of Britain. Quite right too.

Norm of that blog celebrates his 100th profile by giving us the best answers from the series. Pretty good to have kept an idea going for 100 iterations and some of the answers are indeed very good.

And that’s it! This week’s Britblog Roundup. Keep your eyes peeled for more good stuff to send in next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

Toodle Pip!

Britblog Reminder.

Yes, at the closing of the week we shall remember the posts. Get your niminations for the best posts of the past week on British or Irish blogs to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

You know the rules, any subject, any viewpoint, just the best of what was served up to us.

Britblog Roundup # 26

This Britblog thing is beginning to feel all grown up now....according to one or other cod survey of the last week it’s old enough to be having a mid-life crisis all of its own already. Hhhm. Think we might wait ’till it’s a little older before we let it go off chasing inappropriately youthful skirt.

The BritBlog Roundup # 26 can also be found at the Truth Laid Bear’s Ubercarnival.

So, welcome to the 26 th version of the Britblog Roundup, our attempt to uncover those pearls and gems of the UK and Irish blogosphere. As you may or may not know I’ve been hired to create a book version to this for the Xmas market and Amazon is already discounting it before I’ve even finished writing it. If you’ve got something out there that you think should make a list of the great posts of the year please do email it to me or drop it in the comments.

If you simply want to add something to next week’s Roundup you can make nominations to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Any subject, any viewpoint, whatever you think is a great post.

First up is Clive Davis with a post on that Rolling Stones song. He’s not been taking Sir Mick seriously for a number of years.

Volsunga has a disturbing tale about the rape of an underage girl. What makes the evil of the act even worse is the way in which the victim refuses to see it for what it is, making excuses for why it isn’t really a "rape".

GenderGeek on the contribution made by patriarchy to violence against women...and the way in which the debate over extensions to drinking hours have obscured this link.

Liberal England disagrees with Monbiot on the definition of patriotism. Mick Hartley also delivers an elegant skewering of the moon struck one’s logic.

In our special mention for foreigners section the WogBlogger is driving a Morgan from Land’s End to John O’Groats. Start with that link and then the subsequent photos. If you see an Aussie lawyer of Italian extraction in a Morgan, wave hello. I will admit to finding it slightly odd seeing a photo on an Oz blog of a sports car parked 15 metres from my front door. And a sausage shop 5 metres from the local.

Justin at The Sharpener looks at the murder of Steve Vincent and the varied reactions of "the left".

Jarndyce comes back from Wales (the important question is why would anyone go there?) and leaps into the Hiroshima/Nagasaki controversy of last week. Just how can we (or can’t we?) justify the bombings?

Ken Owen on Omar Bakri. I knew the guy was odd but really? "Homosexuality is bad for your tummy?" Not quite the body art I would have mentioned.

Mike’s Books on a subject I know very little about. The shipping abroad of orphans (and not orphans too) by the various churches. An important historical episode too little discussed today.

The Rockall Times on racial profiling and oppressed minorities. Gingers have got away with far too much already!

Wonko has been chasing Sport England up hill and down dale. Read the full correspondence. The England Project also joins in the sport of holding bureaucracy accountable.

If you feel that this is all too Britsh (and Irish) and inclusive, you might want to visit Toque, who’s started up the Witanagemot Club. Stricly English for English people only. (Well, not readers, obviously.)

Coffee and PC on the thuggish and vicious world that is student journalism. I don’t think I’ve ever worked that hard in a job (no, not even when I had to bribe the North Korean KGB guy inside their embassy) as he did to get one.

Francis has good news for blogging. Beer really is good for you.

England Expects excoriates the moral and intellectual vacuity of an MEP. Not all that much of a surprise but these guys really have been dimboes.

The Curmudgeon is good on the Guardian and their employment of rather odd columnists. Harry’s Place provides more detail on the connections and beliefs of the new star columnist.

Blood and Treasure is very good indeed on the new "citizenship ceremonies". The joke at the end is especially funny.

Talk Politics on the idiocy that is Charlie Falconer. Either he’s a moron or he thinks we all are.

Last week saw a concerted blog attempt on the subject of reform of the House of Lords. My suggestion (anybody at all and anyone you please but absolutely no politicians allowed) didn’t really gain any traction so have a look at Nosemonkey’s reasonable and rational thoughts.

Sean Thomas takes time off from the day job to give us "Naziphobia on the rise." Who says satire is dead? (Actually, it was Tom Lehrer but there we go).

Mark Kaplan takes up the rhetorical cudgels against the perjorative "middle class lefty". Doesn’t like it, as bad as the brush eater eaters.

Stephen Tall admits to a secret and perverse vice. Big Brother. Has anyone told the party managers?

Tim Ireland is looking for help with his new project on political blogging. Essentially he wants to get all politicians blogging properly. Sounds goodto me, anything to take away their time and stop them passing so many bloody stupid laws. (And that Tim is actualy being serious, unlike this Tim.)

Random Acts of Reality answers another call. Treating people you don’t like, those you think are idiots, must be one of the tougher things to have to do.

Scott Burgess on animal rights and specieism. As you might expect Scott rather gives one to the Guardian columnist. (Note to non-native speakers. This is not a good thing to get given to you.)

Alun provides a masterclass in how to turn the search engines completely wild while explaining the locomotion of an australopithecine. Truly required reading for all bloggers.

Andrew Ian Dodge didn’t manage to get this in on time last week. Read it to find out why.

And that’s it, this week’s Britblog Roundup. Tune in, same time, same place, next week for another installment!

Toodle Pip!

Britblog Reminder.

Time for you to be thinking about getting in your nominations for the Britblog Roundup. Best posts from UK and Irish blogs of this past week to britblog AT gmail DOT com please. Any subject, any viewpoint, just the stuff that we should have, but did not, see.

Britblog Roundup # 25

Yes, it’s here, as an entire continent drowzes in the sufocating heat and forest fires sweep only 60 miles north of where I sit (scary, eh?) it’s time for the Britblog Roundup.

You can make nominations for next week’s extravaganza by emailing the URL to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Whatever you think best of British and Irish blogging over the week. Our skilled editing staff (Tobias the kitten) will then make sure that all of the good stuff gets posted.

First up this week has to be Bloggerheads. While protesting the fact that they’re not allowed to protest they find that the police themselves are breaking the law. Good one lads!

Curious Hamster on media, terror and perspective. Long piece that has some interesting insights into the symbiotic relationships there.

This Leaden Pall takes issue with an Eve Garrard post over shoot to kill etc. Much of what he says makes sense to me.

Stephen Tall takes on the Sun and wins I think.  Lawless Britain? No, not really.

Five Eighth has gone off to New Zealand to watch some of the rugby. A series of short posts about how he gets on. Not reached the "God I hate mutton" post yet but it’ll come, it’ll come.

Blood and Treasure looks at whether those who shout about Islamic fascism are in fact themselves guilty of fascism. Have to admit, the quotes he’s using are suggestive.

Daniel Davies gets two entries (he, is, after all, know as dsquared) form Crooked Timber. One on the Unite on Terror campaign (he’s agin what they’ve done with the idea) and one on Gorgeous George (short version, "’Anging’s too good for ’im mate").

Mike’s Books has something of a stunner. I knew about the Chago Islanders and their victory in court (you may know them as being from Diego Garcia) but I didn’t know how it was finally resolved. Do go look to see democracy and freedom in action. Not.

Not Proud of Britain has the best comment on those Bedfordshire police rules on how to deal with Muslims. The post title is also a rather mathematical pun.

The Pedant General, Nosemonkey, the PG again and Devil’s Kitchen have been having a bit of argy bargy. I say, steady on chaps, passion and involvement in British politics? Don’t you know that’s the sort of thing we leave to the Continentals?

Liberal England lays out what’s wrong with the education system. He doesn’t quite say it but "Whadda we want? Vouchers! When do we want ’em? Now!" so I assume that by the time of the next election he’ll have changed his site name to Tory England.

SpyOrg asks an interesting set of questions. How many terrorists do you know and how many of such know you? You don’t have to be a weepy civil rights freak (like me) to be concerned over these things.

Ken Owen has a perceptive piece on the state of British blogging. He’s quite correct in stating that we seem to engage with each other’s arguments a lot less than US bloggers do, have a great deal less interactivity. One thing I think would help here is if everyone could actually get trackbacks enabled? That way one would be able to see who is actually engaging in a conversation and thus be able to follow it across multiple blogs. BTW, that’s an instruction, not a suggestion.

Make My Vote Count takes apart Yvonne Roberts and the education system in a most delightful manner. Both sarcasm and irony are employed to good effect. Capital stuff.

Clive Davis interviews Jeff Gedmin, described as the unofficial US ambassador to Berlin. His final answer will raise a wry chuckle from anyone who’s ever lived in or tried to do anything in Germany:

Q - What do you miss most about daily life in America?

Flexibility. Flexibility. Flexibilty.

Third Avenue posts at The Sharpener on what it would really mean if we brought back the 50s. No, not a pleasant thought.

Slightly last week but Twenty Major has the real low down on that IRA announcement. Pure joy.

And that’s it, a slightly shorteneed version of the Britblog Roundup for these dog days of hte news year. Tune in next week, same time, same place, for another version and don’t forget to send in your nominations to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

Britblog Roundup # 24.

Welcome one and all to the 24 th Britblog Roundup. Yes, your home for a peek at the glories of British and Irish blogging over the past week and, as you may have heard, soon to become a book for the edification of the Muggled masses who have not yet absorbed the magic of Blogwarts!

(Honest, real book, real publisher ’n’ all.)

If you’d like to nominate something for next week simply send the URL to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Any subject, any viewpoint, just something that we all should be having a closer look at, something we might have missed. Blogs written by citizens or residents of the four nations on our Isles are eligible.

First up has to be Slugger O’Toole’s coverage of the IRA statement. Not only did they get it online before all the majors the comments section discusses exactly what it means. Sterling stuff.

Scott Burgess has claimed another scalp with his investigation into Dilpazier Aslam. This time, the Executive Editor of the Guardian, Albert Scarpino.

Robin Grant has spotted something important. When faced with a choice between protecting oil and power or freedom and liberty, which way did the Bush Administration go? You might be surprised.

Several people recommended this Harry’s Place post from Brownie. Controversial and impassioned. As always at this blog the comments deserve a read as well.

Clive Davis has some advice on how to improve the US’s image around the world. He’s also opened up his comments section so no one, absolutely no one is to go trolling around. (I promised I’d say this, absolutely no trolling!)

Liberal England continues his plundering of the history books to illustrate present concerns. This time a suicide bomber in Greenwich.

Stumbling and Mumbling hits the dead tree news indutry with a corker. A sane and rational discussion of quite why most journalism is so awful.

Martin Stabe has a very nice piece on whether we need to change the law to deal with terrorism. His quotation comes from the US but should be read by all involved in the debate here.

Third Avenue on the differences in the success of the right in the US and the UK. Perceptive stuff.

An absolutely fascinating discussion of that prehistoric phallus found recently. Seriously, do read it, informed commentary on one of the odder of recent finds. Read it at Alun.

EU Serf is angry, angry both with and about the delightful and fragrant Ms. Booth. Just a thought but can Tony go soon so she can become a judge? Then she won’t be allowed to speak in public.

Mike’s Book’s has a rant at the Guardian.

Wolfie has views on the IRA and their arms dumps. Maybe they should keep them?

Anoneumouse has thrown down the gaunlet to the EU. As of tomorrow it is illegal to advertise tobacco on the inernets. So, let’s all advertise tobacco on the internets.

Actually Existing with a long essay on Iraq and terrorism. Closely argued and well worth the time.

Nosemonkey on why cliches are hard to avoid at the moment. Yes, 1984 and CCTV.

Paul Davies at Make My Vote Count starts off promisingly ("What do you get if you cross politics and the media") and continues with a thought provoking essay.

Jarndyce puts the kybosh on one more of the conspiracy theories before he offs for his jollies in Wales (umm, can you have jollies in Wales?)

Wonko’s World has started a campaign, one we might all want to join in with. Email Google to get them to allow England to be in the country list for blogger profiles.

Gandalf applies Bayesian statistics to the decision of whether to shoot a suspected suicide bomber or not. An unsettling conclusion.

Yusuf Smith at The Sharperner lays into the Evening Standard. Very much looking at the whole picture from the other side. Check the comments section too.

Bloggerheads takes the recent ICE idea for your mobile phones and adjusts it to deal with the new reality. Not to be missed.

Suz Blog intertwines domestic trivia with a lesson on a word new to the English language. Something of a surprise to me actually, how West African words are moving into the argot.

Harry Hutton has advice for courting swains. Apparently money lasts longer than looks.

Twenty Major has important advice for the Irish blogosphere. Take heed, we wouldn’t want those sorts of things to go on over here now would we?

Finally, Scaryduck has problems with pie retention.

And that’s it from this week’s Britblog Roundup. Get your votes in early for what should be in next week’s to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

Toodle Pip!

Britblog Roundup Reminder.

Yes, another week is almost over and it’s time for you to send in your nominations for the Britblog Roundup. URLs of the best British and Irish posts of the week to britblog AT gmail DOT com please. Any subject, and viewpoint, show us the things that we’ve been missing, the nuggets of gold out there  that we ought to, but have as yet tragically not, seen.

Britblog Roundup # 23.

Roll up, roll up! Yes, yes, joy be unconfined, ’tis this week’s installment of the Britblog Roundup. As every week we try to bring you the best of the British and Irish blogs. You can make your nominations to britblog AT gmail DOT com for next week’s, just send in the URL of that post you think we should all be having a look at. Past versions are handily collected here.

Just to let you know one very nice publisher has asked me to create a book version of this to come out just in time to be added to all those Christmas stockings. No toilet in the land will be complete without a copy (and yes, I realise that can be taken in a number of ways). I shall be calling on you all to help out, guiding me to those blogs that require inclusion, so please keep an eye open for such requests. You will also be able to EARN MONEY by selling copies through your blog. So stay tuned, eh?

First up is The Joy of Curmudgeonry. Another take on WWII and appeasement as told by apologists today.

Then there’s the charmingly named Eggs Akimbo. We all know what we think chavs are but our Australian teacher in London asks her pupils what they think chavs are. "British white trash" isn’t far off the mark.

Francis delves deep into music copyright and the perils of monopolies. Long and extremely informative.

Easyjetsetter wants to be known for more than just her sparkly toenails. Yes indeed, she is a policy wonk.

Brian Micklethwait at Samizdata reminds me why I agreed to write for the Globalization Institute.

Chris Applegate comes up with a new one. It’s actually all the fault of bloggers. "It" isn’t exactly defined so yes, I suppose we are all guilty.

Paul continues to apply for Mick Cleary’s job by providing articulate and sensible pieces on international rugby.  Ooops, no, of course, that would disqualify him from that job, wouldn’t it?

Laban Tall is able to "do a Burgess"  and out another Guardian journalist as less than open and honest with their connections and affiliations.

Jarndyce looks, with a little more thought behind his writing than most of us, at the events of Thursday on the Tube.

Both Robin Grant and Nosemonkey were live blogging the bombings that day. I think it should be obvious that both styles of blogging have their place, the immediate reactions and dissemination of news and the considered thoughts afterwards.

Both were also on top of the shooting the next day, along with the distressing (I’m afraid that the news that a 27 year old Brazilian electrician was shot five times in the head by the police made me want to vomit. The bombings themselves made me want to cry in both sorrow and anger. Your reaction may vary.) news that came out Saturday. The Drink-soaked Trotskyite Popinjays for War are more measured in their response than I was and are thus more likely to be correct.

A back and forth at The Sharpener on Islam and the limits of liberalism. Long, intellectual, fair minded, just what you would expect from those guys.

Mike’s Books lays the boot into Ted Heath.

Trees for Labour provides some good advice to Ken Livingstone. Mere truth is not a sufficient justification for a statement.

EU Rota provides the statistics on deaths in Iraq. Who has actually been killing the civilians?

Militant Moderate has further opinions on the Stockwell shooting.

Little Man in a Toque makes contact with his feminine side while getting a haircut. I’m told that in certain Far Eastern countries one can also get in very close touch with someone else’s feminine side in the same situation.

Liberal England has a fascinating little piece of history about aristocratic quiz winners.

Robin Grant and Lenin are , umm, disagreeing, about why and whether to sign a petition.

The Angry Chimp is his normal calm and measured self while providing us with the text of the press conference Tony Blair hasn’t had yet re. the Stockwell shooting. If you don’t do sarcasm then this isn’t for you.

Clive Davis looks at a Dervla Murphy book about Muslims in Yorkshire back in 1985. Most relevant. He also has the latest update on the Scott Burgess/Guardian/Aslam case. Including an email from Jim Treacher. I have to admit the bit about this that I haven’t understood is the Guardian’s reaction. Instead of thanking Scott they’ve attacked him. Why? Would they prefer to carry on paying Aslam? Would they simply prefer that no one had noticed?

Allan Scullion on whether crime is up or down.

Our Katie shows the boys at the Sharpener how to do it. The Future Dictionary of Great Britain.

Johnson
1. v. To act in a bumbling manner to confuse opponents.
2. n. Penis slang, American

Chav
1. n. One possessed of great style and elegance
2. adj. Upper middle class.

Finally, Charlie Whittaker on the Middle Distance.

And that’s it, this week’s Britblog Roundup. Don’t forget to make your choices for next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com and please do think about posts and blogs from the past year that you think should go into the anthology. Waterstone’s has already agreed to stock it  so if there’s someone you think I don’t know about but should, please let me know. (I’ve only got 130 pieces so far so a few more needed!)

Toodle Pip!

Britblog Reminder.

Yes, sorry I’m late with this reminder. Get your picks of the week into britblog AT gmail DOT com. Best posts form the UK and Irish blogs please.

And in other news, yes, there will be a book ready for Christmas. Further announcements a little later in the week when the contracts are signed.

Britblog Roundup # 22

Welcome one and all to the Britblog Roundup number 22. This is where you get to shine a little light into the dim dark recesses of the ’sphere and nominate the posts that you think we all should see. You can do so by simply sending the URL to britblog AT gmail DOT com. We’re interested in all subjects, all points of view, just whatever you think is good from the bloggers in and from the four nations that make up these isles.

First up this week simply has to be Scott Burgess at The Daily Ablution. In two pieces he was able to show that the Guardian trainee assigned to a comment piece about the 7/7 bombings was in fact a member of Hizb ut Tahrir, an extremely militant organisation banned in many countries. This discovery appears to be leading to something of a media storm, as shown by this piece in The Independent on Sunday.

The Guardian newspaper is refusing to sack one of its staff reporters despite confirming that he is a member of one of Britain's most extreme Islamist groups.                                                

Dilpazier Aslam, who has been allowed to report on the London bombings from Leeds and was also given space to write a column in last Wednesday's edition of The Guardian, is a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a radical world organisation which seeks to form a global Islamic state regulated by sharia law.

It is understood that staff at The Guardian were unaware that Mr Aslam was a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir until allegations surfaced on "The Daily Ablution", a blog run by Scott Burgess. Speculation is mounting that it may have been a sting by Hizb ut-Tahrir to infiltrate the mainstream media.

Late on Friday The Guardian released a statement to The Independent on Sunday saying: "Dilpazier Aslam is a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an organisation which is legal in this country. We are keeping the matter under review." The paper refused to comment further.

A blog better informed than the human resources department of a major national newspaper. Who knew?

Robin Grant is very angry indeed about the Mohammed Khan story and his name being leaked.

Bloggerheads is similarly irate over the same story.

Norm of that Blog has a competition running which I urge you all to enter. Just how badly will England be beaten in the cricket this summer? The first prize is signed copies of two of Norm’s books and the second is three....

Tom Fuller follows Sullivan’s advice and blogs out loud on immigration and discrimination.

Waking Hereward has a run in with the National Trust. Or the Nationals Trust should it be? National’s? Nationals’?

Liberal England on the infantilisation of our entire culture, the way in which the spooks and bogeymen of paedophilia are ruining childhood.

Jamies K at The Sharpener answers the question of what did you do in the war daddy? Or rather, what would you have done?  The Office of Sleazy Intelligence is the answer. Jeff Goldstein would like it as it contains an armadillo.

Studi Galieani has ignited the peak oil debate again. The debate has spilled over into the Academy the site runs as well. The usual mutual incomprehension of economists and engineers leavened with some decent insights.

Dodgeblogium has written a song re 7/7. If I actually knew enough about this technology stuff I’d ask for the podcast so we can all hear it. Over to you Andrew on that one.

The Englishman is hosting further installments of the Dear Hugh letters. If you haven’t seen any of these you’re missing something good. On edition 15 by now, all collected in one category on the blog.

Anomaly UK tells the story of his 7/7. Same station, same direction as the bombers themselves from Luton.

Not quite a blog but a stunning account from one of the survivors of the King’s Cross bomb. Long and updated and well worth reading.

Stumbling and Mumbling takes issue with the quality of economic reporting in the UK. That is, that there isn’t any quality.(Warning. The post both mentions me and links back to here but the other parts of it are excellent. Ed)

Nosemonkey continues his discussion of the bomb attacks. Who to blame? Yes, those who did it and then as well....

Paul Davies has opened up a chapter of the "Don’t be Nasty to Gingers" club. Quite right too, such discrimination is illegal under the Disabilities Act.

Mike’s Books is a little, how shall we put this, controversial, on the subject of what, in the long term, politicians are going to do in the wake of the bombings.

Politicalog is less than kind about Charlie the Safety Elephant. Honest but unkind, mind.

I’m glad to be able to announce that the UK now has it’s very own mindless twit. Yes, the Antagonist, continuing to claim that all the bombs were, in fact, set off by the authorities as part of a rehearsal. Or something. Perhaps the phases of the moon. Either that or he’s a damn good satirist.

Tina isn’t happy about two minute silences but that is as nothing  to her thoughts on milk bottles.

Unknown to me Michael Bywater has been blogging for several months. Damn, I wish someone had told me! His days as Bargepole at Punch....well, I’m spending the afternoon looking through this to see if the blog is up to that level.....if it’s the same MB of course.

David Hadley wants the laws to be enforced. It isn’t (or shouldn’t) be up to the police to decide which they wish to enforce.

The American Expat rewrites 1944 in the modern style. Very funny.

The Honourable Fiend says that the bombs have nothing to do with the past, they are the first step in a new cycle.

A must read, Jamie’s "Well Mr. Muslim, what did you do today?"

Jarndyce is using words I don’t understand (determinism? what, like, you really really want to do it?) yet makes a powerful case about responsibility.

And how could we have a roundup in this week without mentioning Harry Potter? Jon Choo blogged his midnight wait. He’d also finished it by 5 a.m. which shows a fairly strong constitution.

And that’s it, the Britblog Roundup is over for another week and I’m off to gambol in the sunshine this lovely Sunday afternoon. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do over the next week (that gives you a fairly large amount of discretion over what you do actually do) and send in your recommendations for next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

Toodle Pip!

 

Plagiarism.

Dangerous I call it, dangerous. A Scottish blog roundup. First one will no doubt include Chirac’s views on haggis. Anyone want to get Silvio’s on deep fried pizza for the second?

Britblog Roundup # 21

Welcome to the twenty first installment of the Brtiblog Roundup, our attempt to garner the interesting posts from those blogs in the four nations upon these isles. You can make your nominations for next week’s by emailing the URL to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Any subject, any point of view, whatever it is that you think we’re likely to have missed but shouldn’t have.

Obviously the big story this past week was the London bombings. One of the best liveblogs of events as they unfolded was by Nosemonkey and there’s some wonderful (and widely used in the media) quotes in there. If you look aroudn a little he’s got links to the Red Cross fund being set up and it’s also probable that he and I andothers will be coming back to you next week with an online addition to that appeal.

The London News Review has also been seen out and about in the press, as they should be for this piece.

Andrew at Non-trivial Solutions had a near miss which prompted this defiant reaction.

The Pub Philosopher has some historical thoughts:

This Sunday,  we will be paying tribute to the generation that fought the Second World War.  They had to endure bomb attacks that were far worse than anything we can imagine.  Our parents and grand-parents didn't cower in their homes and refuse to go into town.  In the evenings,  they would go to the pub or go dancing, not when they thought their might be an air-raid but when they knew there was going to be one.  I have always felt that those of us who are adults now have something to prove to our forebears.

Norm of the blog identifies those the terrotists kill and they way they do so.

A commenter at Crooked Timber is less than impressed by the whole affair:

burning in fear??!!? Ha!! Not this Brit. With my upper lip fixed stiff, i hoot and mock these jihadis. Wankers one and all. I’d like to see ‘em on Celebrity Terrorist Island, the IRA’d make mincemeat of them...

Backword Dave wonders about the possibility of two people being separated at birth.

A small story about a big man. Courage is about being scared and overcoming it, as he so clearly is and does. Bravo, sir.

The Sharpener has set up a pledgebank for a mass demonstration to show support for thos injured and killed. An opportunity to bear witness.

Clive Davis is very interesting on how the penny seems to drop for a theatre reviewer. A play that on Wednesday would have been lauded to the skies, somehow, on Thursday, rather different.

Tom Fuller notes the lack of reaction on the Friday, almost a , yeah, so? attitude.

As you might not be too surpisedto know this wasn’t the only event this past week. Paul Coletti has been doing some interesting blogging, interviewing an Iranian exile on hte subject ofthe recent elections there.

Jarndyce evaluates Big Brother from the point of view of an economist. Well, from a position informed by economics.

Matt Sellers has fun with the conjunction of the G8 meeting and the African Union one.

The Future is a Foreign Country has his last post up. It’s not just blogging but the country itself that depresses him.

Peter Gasston was less than impressed with the deal that came out of the G8 meeting. Yes, I think that less than impressed shows the right amount of British understatement.

Chicken Yoghurt profiles the leaders of the G8. I think he’s too polite myself but then it takes all sorts to make a world, of course.

JohnnyB returns from holiday to provide us with this:

I suppose I could write something serious. But then they'd have won, wouldn't they?

Ken Frost has news of interest to geeks and teenage boys everywhere. Showers can cause brain damage. That leaves us with the French as a possible counter example of course, or perhaps showers are not the only cause of such.

The Policeman’s Blog on the details of what happens when a rape is reported. No, it isn’t always a happy lot.

Paul Newall has started up a new rugby blog. Good analysis as you would expect although it is slightly unfortunate that it has to be the weekend of the blackwash of the Lions.

The Law West of Ealing Broadway is less than impressed by the recent report on the number of guns carried by children in London. As he’s a magistrate, worth listening to his views.....Idon’t think Billie Piper has been quite that busy.

Just to cheer everyone up, Pootergeek is back.

And that’s it, that’s the Britblog Roundup for this week. A little short I know but two weasle-ish excuses. These past four days there’s been one major subject on everyone’s minds so blogging on other subjects has been light and I, unfortunately, am suffering from a mild grippe which has limited my research.

One final thought. Today sees the official celebrations of the 60 th anniversaries of VE and VJ Day. Do these murderers in London actually understand who they’ve taken on?

Britblog Roundup # 20

Yes, we have made it to a full 20 of our little roundups of the British and Irish blogging world, that extravagaza known as the Britblog Roundup.

The rules are simple, you nominate posts from blog written either from these Isles or by citizens of them and I glue it all together on a Sunday afternoon when I open up britblog AT gmail DOT com to see what you’ve sent me.  If you come across something good during the week please do drop us a line. There’s no way that any of us can keep up with all of the activity out there so we need your guidance!

First up is Paleojudaica with a detailed look at the idiocy that is the Religious Hatred Bill, now wending its way through Parliament.

Eban at Reaching for Lucidity is less than impressed with the NASA plan to blow a hole in a comet on Monday.

Kate at the Cruella-blog has a rather different take on maternity rights than is usual around here. (Yes folks! this is one of the points of the roundup, that we all break out of our ideological laagers occasionally)

Matt Sellers is all over the decision to bomb Iraq in 2002. He thinks it might have been illegal under international law.

Studi Galeiani uses the current fuss over who is the Greatest Philosopher to widen the field....much modern work is actually being done in film and literature.

Ilkley Rocks is not so much bah’t ’at as extremely, well, go read his views on Yorkshire. Guaranteed to bring a smile to the face of every Lancastrian.

An interesting example of how blogs can converse on a subject, A Plague of Opinion asking here and Ephems of BLB responding here, here and here.

Jarndyce skewers Michael Gove rather neatly.

Jim Bliss has joined The Sharpener and applies his distinctive logic to the upcoming smoking ban in pubs.

Dodgeblogium has solved the problem of immigration. Terribly simple really.

The Law West of Ealing Broadway continues his series of stories from the bench. Yes, it really is true that certain language speakers cannot tell their r’s from l’s. The Pedant General also caught him in this appalling pun.

The Yorkshire Ranter brings balm and succour to my troubled heart. Instead of worrying about ID Cards, religious hatred bills and ASBOs why not simply abolish the Home Office?

On which subject Politicalog would appear to have the same desires concerning polticians.

The Channel 4 news blog invited several bloggers to give their view on the G8 meeting and its importance. (Leading bloggers, indeed!) My favourite line?

The G8 is one of the few groups which truly has the power to change the world at the stroke of a pen.

Really? It’s all that damn simple?

You know, people will blog about just about anything but this is a first for me, blogging about ship’s cranes.

Phil ponders those things which the state does better than private actors. This has been going round for a day or two actually and I’ve been surprised that no one has mentioned defense, something which even libertarians thinks Govt does better.

Liberal England continues his architectural tours, this time the cathedral at Southwell.

Robin has a useful roundup of blogging reactions to Live8. Something more than 11,000 links actually.

Norm of that Blog takes issue with the Observer. Quite rightly so, absolutely scandalous behaviour from Rafael (and to think, I once used to deliver that man’s newspaper! To him, you understand, not just the Observer to Mrs. Jones round the corner.)

Slightly Inperfect (a stunningly wonderful tag line, Operating a Zero Adequacy Policy) is being rather brave, blogging on and through his depression. Go read and maybe drop him a get well soon note.

Clive Davis (who most certainly did not benefit from it, he growing up round the corner from me) is stirring the pot about media nepotism. There is, as he points out, clear evidence that the best way to get published is to belong to the lucky sperm club.

The Garrulous Leporidae follows up some research into GM crops and sparks a fascinating comments section.

Richard Delevan ponders on why a journalist would actually blog, given the other outlets available (and, I would add, write in the absence of pay) for his thoughts.

The N. Irish Magyar is able to divine Bobby Charlton’s true thoughts.

For photos of the march in Edinburgh you will need Freedom and Whisky, well, more than you need them at other times.

And that’s it, this week’s version of the Britblog Roundup. Tune in next week for another version.

Britblog Reminder.

Yes, it’s that time of the week again. Get your nominations for the Britblog Roundup in to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

The URL of whatever you thought was the best post from a British or Irish blog in the past week. Any subject, any viewpoint, the good stuff that we ought to see.

Britblog Roundup # 19

Welcome, welcome to the Britblog Roundup, your guide to the best of blogging from the four nations that make up these Isles. You can make your nominations to next week’s by sending the URL of a post to britblog AT gmal DOT com. Any subject, any viewpoint, just the good stuff that you think we might not have seen but ought to. And let’s hope it all works rather better than that other thing the Brits and Irish do together....not good news on the rugby, eh?

First up is The Militant Pine Marten with the thought that we don’t have to worry too much about the 21 st century not being all it was cracked up to be....it hasn’t quite started yet, we haven’t had the defining moment that truly ushers in a new era.

The Blithering Bunny puts forward a very good idea indeed. Who knows the commissioning editors? Probably this guy.

Jarndyce notes that the EU is not entirely made up of sclerotic economic no hopers. At least not yet, anyway.

Murky is back on the ID Card proposals. It’s a link rich post to most of the major objectiosn and also reports that the government appears to want to charge private businesses for the joys of using the information.

At the Normblog our favourite audio-typist has produced a transcript of an interview with Pius Ncube, the Archbishop of Bulawayo. Yes, he does compare Mugabe to Pol Pot. Powerful (and correct) stuff.

Liberal England looks at the industrial archaeology of the King’s Cross redevelopment. Fascinating stuff, I didn’t know The Ladykillers was filmed round there.

Clive Davis uses his years inside the Beeb to comment on criticism of it, their news guidelines and word usage (insurgents/terrorists etc).

Tom Fuller makes a good point about the Government’s (ahem) successes with large scale IT projects.

Boris Johnson uses his blog to give the speech he would give if he were called by the Speaker on the Religious Hatred Bill. I’ll admit that I don’t know if he was but the comments section probably reads better than whatever got into Hansard anyway.

Gary Andrews on the subject of University fees. A surprising conclusion from one who is actually subject to them.

Mike’s Books on the Olympic bid. I do think his final question is spot on. Why?

Slugger O’Toole on the NI peace process. Where (or should it be whither?) is it going. It’s a good insight into what’s going on there, better than we get from the mainland press for sure.

Politicalog on the intended rises in rush hour train fares. Won’t make an iota of difference he thinks.

Infinitives Unsplit is a new blog from (I think) regular commenter Hew BG. As he points out, one of the problems of the Religious Hatred Bill  will be for bloggers:

If ridiculing people's ideas and beliefs is to become an offence - see case 2 above - I'm in a whole world of trouble.

Andrew Ian Dodge continues to chronicle his music making...just one more push and the single to beat the Crazy Frog will be out.

Make My Vote Count is both entertaining and horrifying on the plans for reforms of the Lords. Given that the revising chamber has had the effrontery to, err, revise some of the Government’s cherished legislation thus the rules must be changed.

Dave Killingback on the joys of not being employed. No, not of being unemployed, but of being not employed.

Over at The Sharpener they’ve let one of the girlies in to post and she’s brought the tone and quality up markedly. Excellent piece.

Twenty Major proposes some slight changes to well known duos. This is excellent:

50 and Garfunkel: Top rapper teams up with top folk/pop singer Art Garfunkel to become the world's greatest Pap or Rolk combo in history. Songs will include 'Mrs Robinson (you cheap ho')', 'The sound of silencers' and 'Bitch over troubled water'.

Soapy Goldfish I hadn’t come across before (this is why I do this folks, to get people to show me stuff I should see) and now, given the miracle that is Britblogging, you can see it too. Lovely writing there and the rest of the blog deserves more than just a skim.

Village Hampden ponders on what property ownership actually means. No, this isn’t the eminent domain case again.

And that’s it, the end of this week’s Britblog Roundup. Before you go running off to find similar wonderfulness to send me for next week’s, please do visit our sponsors...they pay for the organically raised electrons we use ’round here.

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Britblog Reminder.

Don’t forget to send in your entries for the Britblog Roundup this weekend. Any subject, any viewpoint, we want the URLs of the best blog posts from British and Irish bloggers over the past week. Send them to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

Ayyy thank you!

Britblog Roundup # 18

Welcome, welcome to the Britblog Roundup as mentioned in yesterday’s Telegraph! We must truly be on a roll if we start getting mentioned by the real media, you know, the ones people actually pay for. You can add to this collection of rich bloggy goodness by emailing your nominations for next week’s to britblog AT gmail DOT com. We’re looking for the good and great posts from British and Irish blogs...no limitations as to subject or viewpoint, we’re interested in those well crafted items that we might not have seen ourselves and need to have brought to our attention.

As one email received put it:

I soaw you Britbloggy mention in The Telegraff, so you muzt begood.

which does make me wonder, just what are the Guardian sub-editors doing reading the Torygraph?

First up is TalkPolitics (who was also mentioned by Vicki Woods. Hi Vicki!) who has made a precis of his objections to the ID Cards bill and thus made the technical objections easier for us non-technical types to understand. Powerful stuff and likely to make you want to rip the head off your MP if he votes for it. My request of last week still stands, could someone point me to a blog that actually supports this abomination?

Clive Davis is able to tell us why certain newspapers are the way they are. Apparently alcohol is involved...although why the expensive stuff was wasted on Piers Morgan is beyond me.

Norm of that blog continues his task of educating us all in the joys of country music, this time Lucinda Williams. His analysis of the lyric is spot on.

Robin Grant is spitting tacks over the foul and despicable theft of yet more of our freedom perpetrated by the buffoons that rule us this past week (you may note I am not all that happy about it). Robin has gone rather further and worked out how to screw up the new system in a right royal (and entirely legal) manner. Do read him and make the pledge.

Phillip Chaston has some worries about whether the "right" side of blogging is falling behind the "left" side prompted by an article at MyDD. The comments become highly amusing.

The Angry Chimp agreed to answer questions from his readers. Yes, indeed, there were the childish sex based ones. Tina asked one particulalry sick one to which the only possible response was "Let’s find out shall we?"

Liberal England is not enthused by the new Kelly Hours. He’s also not happy with the Lib Dems response to this nationalisation of childhood.

Galilean Library takes on the idea that science is a neutral process and comes to the conclusion that we should not believe in something so absurd.

Paul Coletti takes on the European logic. Or rather the lack of it.

Actually Existing adds to our knowledge of what it is to be British by mining Google for the phrases that describe us. Some good stuff there, including our being the only people able to get genuinely excited at the idea of a hot drink.

Mike’s B&Ts wonders what Nelson’s Navy would be like under present financing methods.

The Sharpener continues to grow as a group blog. Chicken Yoghurt is excellent on government perfidy and how the evidence is being ignored. Justin of Blood and Treasure is simply superb on the new exclusion zone around Parliament, the same thing that got Robin Grant wound up above. Justin is rather, err, less fact based, with his cast of Charlie the Safety Elephant, Princess Tony,  Crazy George and the dynamic duo themselves, Hairy Bob and Nobbo the Rock Star.

Murkee continues to bug MPs to make clear theirviews on an English Parliament and the West Lothian Question.

Tom Fuller takes an interview about training and productivity and uses it to analyse there problems here with NEETS. Essentially, education isn’t necessarily the cure.

Up Your Ego has news on the influx of celebrity TV shows. About the only possible thing left is recursion to celebrities making shows about making shows about celebrities.

Kitty Killer is apparently just off to journalism school where he will be taught how not to write decent copy on important stories like this.

The Joy of Curmudgeonry provides a potted history of spoilt brattism. He identifies it with being left-wing....fine if you’re a teenager but we all have to grow up sometime.

Blithering Bunny reveals that he wants to break into the house of the Sun’s Editor, make a xylophone from his rib cage and wear his wife’s underwear. Can be over-excitable these wild colonial boys.

Politicalog looks at Gordo taking over more of the lottery money. The Treasury chequebook a little empty, eh?

Fair Vote Watch finds evidence of an emergent European demos. He’s right that it is necessary if a democratic Europe is to be built for this to happen.

A General Theory of Rubbish has the advice you need if you are a socialist working within a capitalist environment. How do you reconcile the daily exigencies with the moral viewpoint?

At The Sharpener again John Band has a piece on the African witchcraft scene in London. He’s not hopeful about the intersection of the various new laws.

Andrew Brown manages to make one of those little fopas that cripple careers...well, they do or not, depending on whether they become the basic story you tell at every subsequent party. Never mind Andy, we still have the Sprout together.

Scott Burgess has probably the most read post of the week with his extensive quotations from Orwell on the Guardianistas. Cruel and very funny stuff.

Reaching for Lucidity has grooming tips for men. Essentially, get groomed to get laid. Quite true, of course, now all we need is the guide for British women.

Liberty Cadre on Roger Helmer, who is likely to be thrown out of his job of representing his constituents for the crime of, err, representing his constituents.

And that’s it, this week’s Britblog Roundup. Before you run away to find the best stuff for next week’s to send to britblog AT gmail DOT com, please tarry for a while with our sponsors,

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Toodle Pip!

Britblog Reminder.

Yes, getting to that time of the week again. Please drop your nominations for the best posts from Irish or UK blogs to me at britblog AT gmail DOT com.

We’re all particularly interested in things off the beaten track...those nuggets and pearls that we wouldn’t have come across in our normal daily wanderings.

Britblog Roundup # 17

Yes, it is that time of the week again. Coming at you from the sunny ’ville of Cascais (yes, just the next beach to the wilding attack by 500 crazed muggers on Friday in Carcavelos) it is Britblog Roundup Number 17.

People nomiate what they think are the best posts from the British and Irish blogs over the past week, I put them up and we all get to see the good stuff we missed.

You can nominate your favourites for next week by simply sending the URL to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

First up is something from the Joy of Curmdgeonry, apparently there has been a report out proving that Britain is in fact Hideously White.

There is a quite delightful flight of fantasy over at Funkasaurus. It isn’t any one post so much as the original conceit and the way that it is played out over the whole blog. Definitely worth a look.

A mixture at Screenburn of the speeches of Malcolm X and the Apple announcement on moving to Intel. Well, yes, I have to admit, that was the immediate thought I had, that this would be the perfect method of point and counterpoint.

Harry’s Place carries the news of a notorious holocaust denialist being asked to play/speak at the Socialist Worker’s Party Marxism 2005 event. They are quite rightly appalled. As always on this blog, the comments section is highly amusing.

Harry himself also has a very good post picking up on Matt Welch’s comments about Travel Snobs. I saw the same sort of behaviour in Moscow myself.

News from Beyond the North Wind has a trio of posts (start with number one here) on climbing An Teallach. Not your normal sort of blogging about apart of the country that generally gets ignored.

A Tangled Web shows his support for donald Rumsfeld and gets argued with in his own comments section. Rummy for President indeed.

Scott Burgess at the  Daily Ablution continues to wash brains for us. This post is on the lunacy (literally) known as biodynamic farming. What people manage to convince themselves of is truly amazing.

Politicalog notes a system of bribing students with IPods.

Jarndyce and Mr S&M have a back and forth over the idea of demand-revealing referenda. A very different voting system where you let your money do the talking....not just what do you want to happen but how important is it to you that it does?

Thinking for the People has related thoughts on Direct Democracy and his vision of a perfect democracy.

Mike’sBooks takes a look at the Religious Hatred Bill and is less than impressed. He compares the Parliamentary scrutiny process to a reverse screen (hey, read the post to find out what that is!) which seems almost too kind for it.

Liberal England is also on the same subject. It would appear thatwere we to have the joys of the Second Coming Jesus would be prosecuted for inciting religious hatred.

We also have an ex-Ambassador, Brain Barder, weighing in from the left on this subject. As he asks:

As other commentators have plaintively enquired, is Christian Scientism a religion? Satanism? Flat-Earthism? Scientology (now there's a can of worms waiting to be opened!)? What about astrology, a system of beliefs having no rational or evidential basis and therefore not easily distinguished from other systems having the same characteristics but obviously qualifying as religions? It will be hard to exclude almost any kind of dotty irrationalism from the scope of this sloppy piece of draft legislation.

Harry Hutton takes a look at Canadian Animal Welfare methods. Not quite the RSPCA.

Galilean Library has a long essay on the philosophy of film using the Three Colours trilogy as the starting point. I will admit that until reading the essay all I remembered of that was the hanging scene. Serious and informative.

Charlie Whitaker has started the ambitious task of defining what we would need in a new constitution for the UK. I’m looking forward to the rest of the series for having destroyed the checks and balances of the old system we do need to impose some others.

Geoff Roberts has issues with something from the Huffington Post. He wants to get all Agincourt with the Americans over it too.

Murkee made something of an error and went into a Starbucks and tried to speak English. Confused the poor dears.

Clive Davis has an email interview with Jesse Larner on his new book, Moore and Us. Fascinating critique of Tubby Reifenstahl from the left.

Phillip Stott is both amusing and contrarian on global warming, insisting that it has been hotter before and it was just great. (You’ll need to scroll down a little.)

Tom Fuller segues from one of my posts to a discussion of the road pricing scheme. He’s got some useful thought on the basic criteria necessary.

And there we have it, hte Britblog Roundup for this week. Don’t forget that you can see the past ones in the category archives to the left and send in your nominations for next week’s to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

Britblog Reminder.

Don’t forget to send in your nominations for the Britblog Roundup on Sunday. Entries by 12 noon please to britblog AT gmail DOT com. What you think are the best posts of UK and Irish blogging of the past week.

Britblog Roundup # 16

Welcome back to another installment of the increasingly popular (Hunh? Ed) Britblog Roundup, as you can see from the above, now in its sixteenth incarnation. Nominations are made by those who send emails to britblog AT gmail DOT com and point me towards great posts from British and Irish blogs over the past week. You can see past editions here and can come back next week to see the seventeenth.

First, a little guidance to the news in the political blog scene over here. The Sharpener continues to grow as a group blog providing a wide range of viewpoints. Once More into the Breach is a newish conservative group blog and Jarndyce has popped up with Fair Vote Watch, dedicated to the merits and demerits of different voting systems.

On which subject Murkee has actually started badgering an MP for his views on electoral reform. Even had a response.

Huw BG managed to do something his father never did and miss the deadline last week so here is Arthur’s Seat’s quite magnificent catch on a piece of howling lunacy from Polly Toynbee. Read it and find out why so many of us refer to her as Polly Pot.

Sean runs a piece at the Toffee Womble which he’d written for The Times. Not really a blog post you might think, but he adds back in the 50% of the piece that was naughty bits and got cut. (Warning! Some very naughty bits. I shall never think of the word "Juicer" in quite the same way. Ed) Worth scrolling around a bit for some photos as well.

Galilean Library will be running an online class in September. Those who are interested in both philosophy and archaeology (and who isn’t?) should sign up now. This could be an interesting use for blogs, online learning.

Thinking for the People does exactly that on the subject of youths and disrespect. "It wasn’t like that in my day" is so often followed by a story about how the speaker was indeed exactly like that.

Norm of that Blog is both running a nominations process for your favourite movie stars and also complaining that not enough people are entering theirs. Go now and make the Professor happy.

Harry’s Place mulls over last week’s EU referenda and then offers a vision of Europe that the left could (should?) support. Quite different from the usual vapidity in this debate and well worth reading.

Blithering Bunny uses his history as an Aussie Rules player (Yikes! Better not offend him! Ed) to explore the issue of violent crime upon the playing field. Criminal assault is just that, wherever it occurs.

Blood and Treasure tells of a visit to the Chinese Consulate in Manchester...you need to read the post to see why the date was important.

Actually Existing has a couple of press roundups, one on, well, the UK today, the other a on what people said about the referenda (mostly self-translated, so we get to see what the foreigners were saying).

Tom Fuller is also on the voting, with an interesting idea. The French just love being the centre of attention (Quoi? Nous? Ed).

Mike’s Books and Thinks looks at one of the details of politics, the dumping of Gwynneth Dunwoody. Sad to say but party whips have always been like this.

Easyjetsetter visited the Somme and wants us all to remember what happened there, something she indicates the French tend not to.

Stumbling and Mumbling is both amusing and correct on the Airbus/ Boeing dispute. When someone offers to subsidize their exports to you the correct answer is "Thank you".

Chicken Yoghurt on Live 8:

The set list for the Hyde Park concert is a mixture of some of the most monstrous egos on the planet (Madonna, Robbie Williams, Elton John) and the worst of anodyne nonentities (Muse, Razorlight). It reads like the playlist for the iPod I'm going to be forced to wear when I'm finally consigned to Hell.

He carries on and why there isn’t an editor out there screaming to hire the man is beyond me.

PlasticBag.org has a long post about tag clouds and fauxnomies. I haven’t a clue what it all means but he’s from the BBC so I hope it makes sense to someone.

A Welsh View (who has just got a new logo...featuring sheep. Sheesh!) has found a very amusing little sign.

My Boyfriend is a Twat has been trying to work out the average age of blog readers. Older than one might think.

Planet Potato brings up to date with the glory that is Sky Ireland. Yes, it’s worse than you might expect.

Noreen and Barry at Emerald Bile provide a lesson in market segmentation. (Warning! Profanity alert!) Classic textbook case actually, specialisation and niches being such an important part of business.

Irish Eyes has a fascinating technology piece on mobile phones. It’s worth looking for information on phones that may not be certified for your network....get it right and email and browsing by phone could be free.

Squander Two provides a new variation on an old joke.

And that’s it, the end of this week’s Britblog Roundup. More next week, same time, same place on the dial

Toodle Pip!

Britblog Reminder.

Don’t forget to send in your nominations for the Britblog Roundup. What you think is best from the British and Irish blogs over the past week. Send to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

Britblog Roundup # 15

Yes, it’s that time again, as the colonial cousins slumber away their Memorial Day bbq and beer,  we in the Mother Nations have the treat that is the Britblog  Roundup, now in its fifteenth incarnation.  An attempt to bring you the best posts of the week from the bloggers of the four nations on these Isles. (About the only other thing we all do together is play rugby as the Lions once every four years and on the evidence of last week that’s not going all that well.) You can nominate posts by simply sending the url to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

First up is a nomination from Chicken Yoghurt (who has himself been oft nominated in the past) for the Curious Hamster. He does something very evil, very evil indeed. Takes the words of the Dear Leader and actually applies them to his own actions. No fair that, expecting politicians to walk the walk as well as talk the talk.

Murkee is signing from the same hymn sheet, starting off  with the leak in today’s papers that teh ID cards will cost 5 times what is currently stated. He goes on from there.

Clive Davis directs us to a photography blog, Image. Some quite wonderful stuff there.

Liberal England mulls over the Eurovision Song Contest and somehow manages to segue to Lt. Pigeon’s second piano player. Spooky.

Perfect.co.uk is also strongly opposed to the ID cards. In fact, even with all my wandering around blogs, I’ve not yet come across one that is actually putting the case for the scheme. Would anyone want to point me to a UK blog that tries to do so?

Talk Politics continues the ID card theme of today’s roundup (the actual bill was published last week which is why there is all this analysis). The National Identity Register will be recording a great deal more about you than you currently think. The full details in two complex posts here and here.

Politicalog notes that one of the flagship City Academies is itself failing.

England Expects has what is probably the only transcript that will ever see the light of day on the debate on the Motion of Censure for Sr. Barroso, master of all matters European. Quite shockingly it seems that European Hansard takes months to appear so there is no way of actually finding out what is said until months to late. Do read it, as it does show something of the way we are ruled.

Diamond Geezer has a terrific desciption of walking the Regent’s Canal. So  good you don’t actually have to do it yourself.

Not Proud of Britain has a question for, an appeal to, Gordon Brown. Certainly got my sympathy.

Liberty Cadre reports fro the start of the No Campaign on the EU Constitution.

A Message From Albia reports from a country strangely like, but worse, than Britain. Just scroll through.

Paul Coletti on immigration. We need more of it, much more of it, however old Enoch’s corpse might spin.

Through Irish Eyes is less than enamoured with hte British way of service. Quite bloody right, too.

Galilean Library has an interview about Newton and the mistake we make in treating the science and the alchemy separately, they make a seamless whole that has to be understood.

Scary Duck continues his retelling of a tortured choldhood. You could probably get his age to within a year from this episode, if you could remember the release date of the Queen single.

Now that the cycling season is back with us Blognor Regis is your guide to the intricacies of the sport (although I would have picked a title less likely to be redolent of sex amongst the unemployed for that post).

The Yorkshire Ranter finds himself in Norway debating the EU with Chinese telecoms engineers. (Yes, really.)   

Laban Tall digs a little deeper into the story of the Academy that’s failing...things are more complex than they at first seem.

In Actual Fact recalls the early days of learning German. Normally these sorts of problems come from people intentionally misleading you.

Late update, Norm of that Blog has more on the upcoming boycott of Israeli cricket.

And that’s it, this week’s Britblog Roundup. More next week, older versions can be found in the index under, amazingly, Britblog Roundup.

Britblog Reminder.

Don’t forget to send in your entries for the Britblog Roundup.

Whatever you think is the best post from British and Irish bloggers of the past week, to britblog AT gmail DOT com please. As we were mentioned on the BBC this week I’m hoping for a decent turnout.

Blogrolling.

This is one of the reasons I do the Britblog Roundup. I get directed to blogs I would never have found normally.

Clive Davis nominated Jessica Duchen and as a result of that I am contacted by On an Overgrown Path.

Now I’ll have to admit that classical music, in fact the high arts, are not really part of my world. I am, in fact, a philistine. Yet I found this post highly illuminating, detailing what seems to be a small change in the economic arrangements of music recording, but one which could have the effect of radically changing the economics of marginal products.

Yes, yes, I know, others talk about art and I look at the economics of it. Sad but there it is, somewhere for everyone.

Britblog Roundup # 14

Welcome to Britblog Roundup # 14, your guide to what we think is the best of British and Irish blogging over the past week. Much as it may surprise some outside these Isles there are some things that the four nations do actually do together (other than carp at the English) as the boys will show on Monday night when the British and Irish Lions rugby team plays Argentina in the first such Lions match on home soil in 117 years, just before the departure for New Zealand.

Nominations are sent in to britblog AT gmail DOT com so if there’s anything you think ought to be here just send it in for next week! Any subject, any viewpoint, we’re interested in those posts we should have, but did not, see.

First up is Guido Fawkes who has a great idea, a Plagiarist of the Year Award for the MSM. Who keeps lifting stories from blogs and printing them (and getting paid for them) without attribution? It’s happened to me, Guido, Recess Monkey, Coppersblog...I wonder if we could actually get the winners to turn up to the awards ceremony?

Clive Davis points us to a bit of class, opera reviews no less, at Jessica Duchen’s. Lorin Maazel shouldn’t give up the day job.

Norm of that blog sends in a piece from his guest poster, Eve Garrard, on a truly weird policy on plagiarism at one University. Only the women get punished...which ties in rather neatly with Guido’s thoughts on Marina Hyde.

Blithering Bunny on the advantage of centrism. He also emphasises Mark Steyn’s point, that it isn’t that you want to move to the centre as a political party, you want to move the centre closer to your position.

Liberal England has spooted a new affliction, Sion Simon Syndrome. Oh, how true.

Croziervision has a trio of posts (start here) on RSS feeds...he wants the full text in the feed. Comments from myself and others on what this might do to advertising revenues (not that any of us are making much yet). Join the debate.

Patrick also points to James Bartholomew on incapacity benefit. I do wish Will Hutton had read that before he wrote for The Observer today.

Oliver Kamm brilliantly skewers George Galloway with two quotes from the great man himself and one fact. Elegance in action.

Chicken Yoghurt is superb on the rise of managerialism as a political philosophy. While he and I differ on what should replace such it is quite marvellous to see him putting the boot in in such vivid style. British politics would not be dead (as he says it is and I concur) if it had more like him in the system. The Ben Affeleck/Marlon Brando imagery is also unique.

Tom Fuller has a short and interesting take on UK and US politics, thinking that Labour is making teh same mistake as the Republicans....that they will never again be the opposition.

Blairwatch is outraged at the UK’s failure to sign the agreement on trafficking in humans, NuLabour follows up with further details.

Breaking the rules slightly (Hey, I set them so I can break them, anyway, Holland’s closer to London than Scotland is.) a nive little piece of satire from a Dutch blog, on what a no (or nee) vote will mean, from Zacht Ei.

David Vance is, err, less than complimetary about Bob Geldof. Say what you mean David, don’t hold it in.

Militant Moderate takes an in depth look at what Glazer might do with Manchester United now that he actually owns it. He thinks a European Super League. I think he might go further...there are a couple of Mexican teams with junior franchises in the US. Man U would fly there and also in Japan, as extentions of the brand. Richard also got another nomination for this on what the Liberal Democrats should do now.

Politicalog notes the general weakening of consumer spending and ponders on possible outcomes. A perfectly timed election perhaps?

John Band points to the Militant Pine Marten who deconstructs proposals in the Queen’s Speech. Looks like the offense of Sedition is back. This is a must read for political and civil liberties geeks like me.

Bloggers of the Left Unite is a superb parody of a certain sort of communist nostalgic. You’ll never see people like Juan Cole and Lenin’s Tomb in quite the same light again.

Alfie the OK continues his fine run of garnering nominations for the round up this time with a piece on the 4 million quid Bar Mitzvah.

The Future is a Foreign Country (who now works for the Freedom Association) announces the start of their campaign against ID Cards. You can also sign this petition if the FA is not quite your thing. 2.999,500 signatures still needed.

Jarndyce at The Sharpener gives us what the results would have been at the election if there had been PR.

Andy liveblogs Southampton’s ultimately unsuccessful bid to stay in the Premiership.

You will want to watch this animation of the top 10 things the English have ever done for the Irish.

Squander Two slaps around a little those who obsess over the tiny amounts of chemicals to be found in the bodies of B list celebrities. Obviously, as Rob comments, better ban celebrities.

That’s it folks, the Britblog Roundup for this week. Get your entries in early for next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

See you then!

Britblog Roundup Reminder

Don’t forget to make your nominations forthe Britblog Roundup on Sunday. Usual rules, anything from a native or resident of the four nations that make up these Isles, whatever you think is the best of blogging. Any subject, any point of view (especiially any political one. Doesn’t have to be my froth-mouthed libertarianism), just whatever you think was really good this past week and deserves to be seen by more of us.

Send them in to britblogATgmailDOTcom by Sunday noon.

Britblog Roundup # 13

That time of the week again and it’s the Britblog Roundup number 13....I assume this means that a Jumbo lands on my head as I type, 13 being such a lucky number and all.

First up is a recommendation from Murkee, a post from Stodge. He was sitting next to John Peel when he had his fatal heart attack. Just what do you do when such a thing happens?

Clive Davis wants us all to know that he has moved.

Katie recommends this powerful piece from petiteanglaise, stumbling across the remains of a hotel fire which killed 22 people in Paris.

Dave Hadley points us to Musings from Middle England who is outraged at the latest reality TV show. Quite rightly I might add.

Richard North and Helen Szamuely at EU Referendum have managed a first for euro-blogging.  Their dogged pursuit of allegations about connections between Sr. Barroso and the Latsis family made not just the papers, but will now lead to a full debate in the European Parliament into the President of the European Commission. It remains to be seen what will actually happen but this may be the Trent Lott moment on this side of the pond.

Politicalog looks into the new craze of "Happy Slappin’" and is not, as one might suspect, terribly impressed.

Alfie the OK’s election report rounds off his story of standing as an independent in the recent election. I had this earmarked to go in myself and Gareth Young describes it thus:

This isn't just blogging, it's comedy genius.  It had me crying.  He's undisputed blogging champion of Britain as far as I am concerned.

EU Rota has been running a series of statisitics of the day. What appears to be the difference between the Angle American and the European way of running an economy? One, Two, Three and Four. Fascinating stuff as we begin the debate on whether we should be getting closer to Europe or not.

Growing Old Disgracefully on the frustrations of mixing music tracks. Apparently power drills are useful.

Patrick Crozier takes issue with the idea that there were no tactical innovations in WWI. Reading the list he gives it does seem strange that the idea ever got started.

Jarndyce spots a very cunning piece of work by interrogators at Guantanamo (telling the truth, fiendish, eh?). Sharp eyes that boy.

Jim Bliss, in something of a turn up for the books, is advising us all to vote UKIP next time. Fun logic he uses to get there too.

Tina at Cakesniffers Beware is less than impressed with a fundamentalist Christian. I do mean a great deal less than.

Joe Dunckley looks at the recent decision to ban certain types of clothes from being worn in public places. Not quite what you might expect.

A Very British Insurgency (I think that means you say sorry as you insurge) explains how neo-liberal or not the new Constitution is. Depends which end of the spectrum one is viewing from really.

Nick Barlow has a competition for us. Who can get Jack Straw to make sense?

Aunty Marianne describes the oppression and discrimination to which the British are subject in Brussels. Disturbing reading.

Polis-tricks on celebrities, development uses this delightful variation on an old phrase:

I don't care whether or not my leader buys his wife flowers. I care about his or her ability to lead the upwards trajectory of micturation in a brewery, and his or her ability to lead the people out of this third-rate slavery by celebritisation.

Blithering Bunny has mined the Guardian’s job pages to show where your tax money goes. Not far, given the salaries.

Alex Harrowell continues the fight against government censorship. Feel free to join in.

Chicken Yoghurt decides that he really doesn’t like Blair at all. Comparing him to Major might be an insult too far.

Martin Keegan (slightly old but I’ve only just found it) has an interesting way of saving the subjunctive.

Chris Lightfoot, now that the elections are over, returns us to the planet of idiocy.

And that’s it, the Britblog Roundup for this week. Get your entries in for next week to britblog AT gmai DOT com. We’re looking for what you think are the best posts from UK and Irish blogging so that we can all keep up with the best of what is being produced out there.

Please do visit our sponsors, no action required other than to go see what they have to say.

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Britblog Roundup Reminder

Get your nominations in for this week’s Britblog Roundup to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Whatever you thinks are the great posts from British and Irish bloggers over the past week. Any subject, any point of view, but what are the things that we missed and should know about? Entries by Sunday noon please.

Britblog Roundup # 12

Right, now that we’ve got that election out of the way and are sentenced to another 5 years of helotry under our Lords and Masters, time to get back to the serious things in life, like the Britblog Roundup. Yes, it’s that time again, time for us to point out the good and fun stuff in the blogosphere from these Isles. You can nominate your favourites for next week simply by emailing the URL to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

For those of you who have come as a result of the mention on the BBC site, a little hint.  The Britblog Roundup is a weekly event here, Sunday afternoons. You can see all 14 of them by going here. Yes, you can join in and recommend people for next week’s and beyond.

First up is the Angry Chimp, with what might not be an entirely true description of Vernon Kay’s health problems. Very funny though.

Scary Duck continues his mining of childhood memories for laughs. Again, very funny and not about politics at all.

Blood and Treasure (sorry, we’re back to politics already) has a great post on the British voter. Essentially, politics is driven by a small section of the society which happens to be hypocritical. The way he puts it, it does seem obvious.

Random Acts of Reality, who’s been away, shows what is really important to a Brit (scroll through a few posts). Of course, a really good cup of tea.

Mad Dogs and Englishmen provides guidance to yet more of the property programmes I thankfully don’t get here in Portugal. Top tottie indeed.

Tim Newman uncovers one of the secrets of the inscrutable East. It’s worth remembering that with the current oil price these are the people with all the money in the world.

Village Hampden has the evidence that one does not need planning permission to fly an English, Welsh, Scots, Irish or British flag, but you do need it to fly an EU one. Perhaps worth using that information to torture a few local councils?

Norm of the Normblog provides another installment of his guide to the Momma ’n’ Daddy collection...issue #26 in this ongoing exploration of country and western lyrics. It’s tough up there on the (north) western frontier that is Manchester.

There’s a new group blog, The Sharpener, definitely worth a closer look. Nosemonkey’s election liveblogging extravaganza bodes well for the new site.

Jarndyce wonders about the low turnout in the election, wanting a "none of the above" option (as they do in Russia) on the ballot paper. This way we can work out who is simply too lazy to vote as against those who cannot bring themselves to vote for any of those on offer.

From the diehard left we have celebrations of George Galloway’s win, Dead Men Left and Lenin’s Tomb both thinking that this is the beginning of a realignment in British politics, the re-emergence of a class based , specifically working class based, party.

Nick Barlow is deeply unimpressed with whoever names Govt departments these days. Dept of PEI? Depending upon how you pronounce it could be golden whatever they are for the deeply lonely.

Left Out Liberal has a huge post-mortem on the election, starting here. Much wisdom contained and a decent primer to the background of British politics.

Phil at Cabalamat looks at how (and whether) tactical unwind influenced the five seats the Lib Dems lost to the Tories. Something of a pity it didn’t work that way in Taunton as well.

Europhobia points to the fact that the Tories actually won the popular vote in England. While he uses it as a justification for some sort of proportional representation (which probably won’t happen) it’s bound to become one of the great talking points in weeks to come, especially in relation to the West Lothian question.

England Expects has a further revelation from Brussels. Apparently our EU President is a lot more closely tied to his old university friend than he has so far let on.

Blithering Bunny adapts Jarndyce’s recommendation above, for a none of the above option, by nominating no posts this week as they’ve all been boring. He mutters something about politics being involved I think.

Murky has started a letter campaign to find out what his MP and others think about electoral reform. Check back for replies. The Curious Hamster has added his squeak to the campaign as has Peter Black.

Herge takes us away from politics again by recommending CakeSniffers Beware, who is running an anti- Tim Henman campaign (about time, too) and Half an Identity, who appears to be in a witness protection program but has had to flee the police running it. Both very funny blogs.

Dave VH at North Sea is running a haiku competition. You need to boil down all 324 squillion pages of the new EU Constitution into a 17 syllable verse. This is one that I think we should all join in with, pros, antis and those who don’t care. Drop your attempts in his comments.

One interesting blog by a Green Party candidate is James Humphrey’s. I especially like the graphic of Tony Blair.

Francis posts from inside the belly of the beast on French foreign policy. Wrong on everything all the time seems to be the general view and that’s when he’s being polite.

A very interesting philosophy blog from Cornwall, Studi Galileiani, I’m very impressed by this report from game theory.

What this tale demonstrates, of course, is that there is no such thing as a rule-free environment - whether in a game or, by extension, anywhere else. Since they function to limit the sum of all possibilities, a game without rules can always result in a single player winning while everyone else loses (and actually the winner is also a loser because he or she has no one to play again with). The question, then, is not whether to have rules at all but rather which rules to choose.

I often use the same point in less general terms in economics. There is no such thing as an unregulated free market, we are only discussing what the regulations should be and who should compose and enforce them. That blog is going to reward further investigation I think.

Albion Blogger was recommended by several for this post. Quite rightly so, an eloquent dissertation on a certain segment of society.

And there we have it, this week’s Britblog Roundup. Get your nominations in early for next week’s to britblog AT gmail DOT com, sign up for the group at britblog-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and if you feel so inclined, support this roundup by having a look at what the advertisers on this blog have to offer you. I especially recommend Skype, up there in the top left corner, have been using it myself ofr the past few months and it is a great deal cheaper and even better sound quality than the regular land line phone networks. It’s also free to try.

See you next week!

 

Britblog Roundup Reminder

Don’t forget to get your nominations in for the Britblog Roundup this Sunday. Send them to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Any subject, any point of view, we just want to be alerted to the great blogging that went on last week from the citizens and inhabitants of the four nations on these Isles.

Britblog Roundup # 11

Yes, it’s time once again for the Britblog Roundup, the collection of great posts from the four nations on our fair Isles. Don’t forget that you can send in your nominations for next week’s to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Whatever you think needs to be drawn to wider attention, great posts on any subject, any viewpoint, just written by someone either resident or a citizen of these Isles.

First up is PooterGeek with an exquisite satire of a piece from the Guardian. Absolute proof, if any were actually needed, that there’s a lot more great writers out here than there are in there.

Jim Davila, at Paleojudaica, has a long post about the outrageous decision by one of the University Unions to boycott Israeli academia. There have been various cries of outrage about this but Jim’s post is the most fully informative.

Gareth is already bored of politics (and there’s another 5 days of the election to go yet) so he recommends The Angry Chimp on how to grow triffids (excellent) and The Cross of St George on accoutrements for your dog.

The Obscurer has a good review of a good book, a potted history of the British cinema. It wasn’t all just Hammer and Ealing you know.

John Wards at The Constitutency of Durham North West bearded the Government Chief Whip over the decision to invade Iraq. One can agree or not with his (and her) position, but thisis what electoral politics should be all about, the high and mighty actually having to listen to the people for once, one on one.

Norm Geras of NormBlog is actually giving away money! Yes indeed, slide over to his place, make your prediction on the election result and you might be the lucky winner! (NB, if it’s the Tories who win then Polly Toynbee’s head will explode. A good enough reason in a noble cause perhaps?)

Paul Colletti gives the Scottish Nationalists a right good whacking. noting that an independent Scotland in the EU hardly matches up with the example they give of Norway....which is, of course, not in the EU.

Tom Fuller is spot on about France. A huge number of things to bash about the place and the people but they do seem to have got health care right. Others should take note.

The New Economist on what will happen if France votes down the EU Constitution. A muddle but not a disaster seems to be the conlcusion.

Jarndyce has a personal account of meeting the justice system and uses it as a starting point for a righteous bashing of Nu Labour. According to him, it is all about civil liberties. He also introduces me to the word "masturblog" which I think perfectly captures a certain set of posts, a quite beautiful addition to the language.

Nick Barlow with more evidence that our Dear Leader, a certain A Blair, is a liar. (Nick old boy..he’s a politician and we can see his lips moving. Ed.)

No Matter Who You Vote For has one on Greenpeace invading Prescott’s home, nice photos and all. It is rather grand that place, isn’t it?

The Filter has an interesting piece on one size fits all policies. Slightly econ geeky but the logic, to my mind, is inescapable. There are a few things that we know, know absolutely, and thus there are a few policy prescriptions that are indeed, one size fits all.

EU Serf manages to find something so absurd that I didn’t actually believe it at first. The way the new EU Constitution has been written means that even arguing that it might need to be changed in future is illegal. A must read.

Blood and Treasure has had several good pieces this week but this discussion of Wayne Rooney and Colleen is simply superb.

Harry’s Place has been the spot over the past few weeks for information on Respect, George Galloway’s party. Not a pretty lot in all.

Slugger O’Toole responds to Mark Lawson’s piece on British blogging. It’s an interesting take on where Brits are different from the US.

John Band (like a lot of us) has put up that article from the Guardian that got censored. As the old saying goes, the internet routes around censorship.

Tom Coates looks at the history of blogging (Tim Berners Lee’s page as the first blog?) as he recounts a speech he gave at a Six Apart event.

Chris Lightfoot has another one of his estimation quizzes up. Just how much do you really know about the UK. I’d say that anything over 60 points is doing pretty well.

Mick Hartley picks up something I haven’t seen eslwhere. Apprently Gorgeous George is on the verge of a divorce....and has been telling his wife that the stories of his having affairs are the product of " unnamed intelligence agencies".

Guido Fawkes has a fun little snark at a slight misnomer.

James Hamiton tips us to and discusses what looks to be a fabulous documentary series, Electric Edwardians. May well be worth getting the DVD.

Johnny Billericay on the shocking level of crime today. His usual innimitable take I mean.

The Policeman’s Blog gives us the actual numbers on crime. Cases investigated, arrests and so on, form the position of the average copper doing his year’s work. Fascinating.

Stumbling and Mumbling on why he’ll not vote. Marvellous:

The Greens offer two out of three. But they’re not asking for two-thirds of my vote; they want all of it. And besides, I don’t what to identify with a party many of whose members consider Michael Moore, Naomi Klein and George Monbiot to be intellectual influences.

And that’s it, that is the Britblog Roundup for this week. Enjoy the long weekend and don’t forget to send in your nominations for next week to britblog At gmail DOT com.

And please don’t forget to take note of our sponsor for this extravaganza, You Software:

You Perform: 15 Essential Outlook Add-ins ­ "An Essential Outlook Turbocharger" ­ PC Magazine

 

 

Britblog Roundup Reminder

Don’t forget the Britblog Roundup tomorrow. Email your choices for the best blogging from the four nations of these Isles to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Any subject, any political, social, sporting, whatever view. We’re looking for whatever is good, well written, funny, interesting, the pieces that we all  should know about, but, given the swirling mass of information around us, haven’t quite spotted yet ourselves.

Britblog Roundup # 9

Don’t forget, no matter how you vote the Government always gets in. A suitable reminder of the depressing truth in the middle of this general election campaign and as you will no doubt be expecting, many of this week’s posts at the Britblog Roundup are to do with this weighty matter. You can get your entries in early for next week by emailing them to britblog AT gmail DOT com and remember, we want to be pointed to the good stuff out there, anything from a citizen or resident of the four nations on these Isles being eligible. You can also subscribe to the email list at: britblog-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

First up is Jim Bliss with a highly biased and very good explanation of the essential attitudes of the main parties in the election. I doubt there’s very much he and I agree upon but you’ve got to love someone who looks at the drug mess this way:

They propose softening the approach to drug use (good plan) though falling way short of some form of controlled supply which is what's required (anyone who thinks that placing the production and sale of dangerous and addictive substances into the hands of violent gangsters is a positive thing for society is a f**king lunatic).

Jim refers to the Political Survey 2005 from Chris Lightfoot. Fascinating project, not so much for what the survey tells you about who you should vote for, but for how it reveals where your opinions are in respect of the rest of the UK. Well worth taking by non-UK types to get an idea of where you would fit into the UK political spectrum.

A number of us have taken the survey and posted the results here, so that gives you a snapshot of how one corner of the UK blogosphere thinks. If you do take the test, add your results there, eh?

Clive Davis points us at The Englishman in New York who has a great little story about the local knife grinder. Very posh, I must say, here in Portugal the guys are still on bicycles.

Nosemonkey wants us all to read the collaborative effort that is the General Election Blog. Not just because he is one of the writers there but because it is good (and it is). Several of the writers there have asked if I can help them find more right wing writers as they want to improve the balance. Volunteers contact them directly please! His two posts at his own blog on proxy vote fraud and whether the EU will be Labour’s secret weapon.

Chicken Yoghurt on the recent conviction in the ricin plot case. All was not as we have been told.

Tim Ireland has produced another flash video for Backing Blair. It’s graphic and disturbing. For those wondering whether the internet and blogs will make much difference to the UK election, these are the people who are going to, if anyone does.

Nick Barlow thinks that Polly Toynbee got hit with the stupid stick for one of her columns. I’m pretty sure it’s just natural talent.

Actually Existing has a long and well argued piece doubting the existence of Islamophobia.

Coffee and PC has a three parter about the National Union of Students Conference. Yes, this isthe one with anti-semitic leaflets...the conference that is, not the posts.

Chris Dillow continues his self-appointed task of bringing some economic rigour to the UK blogosphere, here discussing the merits of a Citizen’s Basic Income. The only bad thing I can see about the proposal is that it’s being pushed by the Green Party who have no hope at all of getting anywhere near power (thank the Lord, given their belief that comparative advantage has been "disproved"). My own pick from that blog was how the abolition of outside toilets will lead to our destitution.

Jarndyce is errr, less than complimentary about the Social Affairs Unit.

Blithering Bunny explains the maths behind why Roy Meadows was wrong. I know I have form in misunderstanding statistics but this is important, several women have spent years in prison because of the mistakes (and simple ones) that were made. Read it and weep at the state of statistical literacy in the legal system.

Steinsky rips into the recent PJ O’Rourke radio series. I didn’t hear it but perhaps not one of the Master’s greats on this review.

The Anglo Saxon Chronicle recommends the Village Hampden for his post on the 50% upper tax band proposal. Not only is he right but also literate with it:

The Lib Dems' economic policies are like those of Old Labour, but without the experience of Office to tell them what they can actually get away with. If you are thinking of voting for them, please use a postal vote, so that it will actually be counted for Labour. The Tyrant Blair may be a thief, liar, hypocrite, murderer, traitor, and now ballot rigger, but at least he does know his arse from his elbow.

I also loved this one from Hampden.

Phil at Cabalamat has a great piece on the increase in applications for postal votes and thus the potential for voting fraud. It looks like it’s getting to be a bigger problem than a few local council seats.

The Future is a Foreign Country is angry. Very angry. Starting with a Bastiat quote, digressing through Kafka and ending with:

I refuse to live the rest of my life in the shadow of fear that I do at present. If it truly is better to die on your feet than live on your knees, then I for one am more than willing to take the risk.

John Band points to two good ones, Richard Herring on reviving St Scholastica’s Day and the Toffee Womble on A Jew and His Box. (Attentive readers of the Womble will know both what the phrase was invented to describe and that he used to be Mariella Frostrup’s squeeze. Hhm.)

David Hadley points to Blood and Treasure on the utility of Party Manifestos. Something cosmic, or is it interior decoration?

Mischeivous Constructions takes issue with those who complain that Dr Who is scary. Of course it is, it scared us those decades ago and look how we turned out! Well, coff, yes.

The Law West of Ealing Broadway on one of the lesser known parts of his job. Swearing in new citizens and policemen. It’s perhaps a tiny thing but I do think it oddly distinctive of the way the nation works, that these tasks are performed by unpaid volunteers as are most magistrates.

The Parking Attendant on management techniques. No, computers and rigid monitoring are not the way to go, they leave out all of the unquantifiable parts of the job, both those that make it worth doing and those that make it worth having it done.

Scott Burgess achieves one of the more impressive acts of sustained sarcasm it has been my pleasure to witness. The witlessness of the Arts Lobby never ceases to amaze. Do read through the comments for the explanation of this phrase:

Lambla - The love that dare not bleat its name?

Alfie the OK spots (a little too late) a marvellous business opportunity. Would have been done well from that second hand PopeMobile that was for sale a couple of weeks ago.

Switchback Fair is a parody of a blog. Well done but suffers a little from the Tom Lehrer problem (He retired from satire when Nixon was elected., stating that satire was no longer possible), with Oliver Willis out there how can one satirise the medium?

Guido notes another of Tim Ireland’s interventions into the election. Very good, very good indeed.

Finally, a series of three by Charles Whitaker. Close textual analysis of the Labour Party Manifesto. Not good news. (No, that is not a political statement, it is a statement of the constitutionally bleedin’ obvious.)

Finally, Twenty Major offers an analysis and style guides to what is missing from Irish blogging.

And that’s it, that’s this week’s Britblog Roundup. Don’t forget to get your entries in for next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com!

BritBlog Roundup Reminder.

Yes, please, remember to send in your nominations for the Britblog Roundup to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Anything that you think is good or great written by a citizen (wherever resident) or resident (whatever citizenship) of th four nations on these Isles is eligible. Yes, I have already picked up that Daily Ablution post so please send me the other stuff that I’ve missed.

You can also sign up at britblog-subscribe@yahoogroups.com to get an emial reminder of calls for nominations and the URL of the Roundup once up.

BritBlog Roundup # 8

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends, we’re so glad you could attend....well, yes, quite enough Emerson Lake and Palmer there I think. The eighth issue of the Britblog Roundup is upon us, an attempt to highlight what is good and interesting in the plethora of blog postings by natives and residents of the four nations that make up these Isles. All the good stuff is sent in by readers to britblog AT gmail DOT com (and of course, all ommissions and errors are my fault) and you can start looking for entries for next week right now and send them in.

We also have a new way for you to keep in touch, a yahoo group (yes, I know, amazing that someone who remembers ELP from the first time around can manage that. I had help, honest.) I’m told that if you send an email to this address: britblog-subscribe@yahoogroups.com then you will get an email from me towards the end of the week reminding you to send in entries and also one on a Sunday/Monday giving the URL of the roundup. Yahoo’s computers are idling cycles as they wait for the hordes to sign up!

The two big news stories were of course the Pope’s death and funeral and the announcement of the General Election. Don’t be too surprised that those two make up the bulk of the entires.

First up is something from me, not a blog post but a recommendation for an entire blog. If you want to keep up with the polls on how the parties are doing you need to be reading Anthony Wells. An expert in the field doing what he does best, interpreting the technicalities so that dimbos like me can grasp what is actually going on. The other way to look at this is via Political Betting. Such markets have been known to be remarkably accurate in the past, people risking their own money often providing a better picture than those telling pollsters what they think they might want to hear.

British Spin tells us why he will be voting Labour, having converted from a radical to a gradualist.

Socialism in an Age of Waiting overviews the (ex-) Pope and his importance (or not) in the scheme of things.

Chris Lightfoot does more of his whizzy programming and provides an interesting graphical way of looking the current positions of the parties.

PooterGeek bemoans the problems of blogging....not just not wanting to write about things he doesn’t know about but not being able to write about things he does know about.

Via Pooter, a great little site and tool. This isn’t blogging but we’ll all find it terribly useful. A database of standard rate telephone numbers so that we don’t have to pay the premium rates to whine about the crap someone’s sold us.

Murkee is sound on the inequalities and inequities of our voting system, overviews the internet sites of the main campaigns, and also points to Boris Johnson’s blog article (yes, I know, the MP and Editor of the Spectator, as if he doesn’t get enough attention) on the bias in the electoral system. Compares it to Zimbabwe which seems a bit much, but only a bit.

Steve Guy plays with one of the tools on the BBC site and shows quite how unfair the electoral system is. I have to admit I’m not 100% certain that it is all FPTP that is to blame, I think single member constituencies mean something too.

The English Progessive and Liberty Party has a two minute film that you might want to see.

Johnny Billericay provides an alternative view of the week’s news.

BackingBlair lists the terms on which they would be willing to urge people to vote Labour. Fairly short list really.

Norm of that Blog asks you to imagine what Iraq would be like now if there had not been the war.

Nick Barlow takes issue with the "Vote Lib Dem, get the Tories" argument. Nick’s also one of those behind the General Election blog which seems to be shaping up nicely. A number of well known UK bloggers are contributing.

Phil tries to predict the election result and also looks at the arrest and charging of Nick Griffin, head of the British National Party. I quite agree, odious scum the BNP may be, but the date of the charges being laid seems highly political.

Paul Coletti has an interesting take on the conviction of one of the top spammers, Jeremy Jaynes. Once we’ve found out which jail he’s in, sign him up for every piece of mail order junk we can.

Mark reports in on a different level of politics, the National Students Union (where does the apostrophe belong there? students? student’s? students’?). An interesting blog to have a wander around that one.

Peter Black points out that Robert Mugabe is actually employed by Candid Camera. Explains a lot, that.

The Yorkshire Ranter is spot on about the collapse of Rover. The Phoenix guys outwitted by their own chicanery.

The Pseudo Magazine approaches the "Did John Paul Topple Communism" meme in a manner both amusing and justly weighed.

Tom Fuller recommends two blogs that he’s involved with, Ideal Government and his personal site. Tom’s an American living in England (and thus eligible for this roundup) but the aim is for you to recommend posts, not blogs. But we’ll let him in anyway, as we all know, Yanks tend not to read the instruction booklets

The Cross of St George has the tale of the burglar arrested after he appeared on TV...no, it wasn’t Crimewatch.

The Future is a Foreign Country digs up and then demolishes a letter from an exceedingly patrician eurocrat.

Sortapundit provides a statistical analysis of Instapundit. Nothing wrong found, just an appreciation of quite how limited the number of links is....and this of one of the best blogs for linking out to others. Matches with my starting this Roundup, there’s no way I’m ever going to read all of the great blogs out there, I need your help to direct me to what you think is good.

Anoneumouse nominates Neil Herron. A truly great post, one of the ankle biters snapping at the authorities, something so necessary to the continued health of our democracy. A must read.
He also, less kindly, nominates all posts by Toby at Straight Banana since February 22st. This joke will only work until Toby’s next post.

Actually Existing is only a few weeks old but already has a number of interesting things on tactical voting ...rather like the Backing Blair guys, get rid of Tone even at the expense of voting Tory.

David at Carbarfeidh is less than enamoured of some of the instructions being handed out to teachers. Encouraging stuff from a trainee (second career) teacher....with children’s rights come children’s responsibilites.

 A Plague of Opinion (great name eh?) is also on the election beat.The actual differences between the three major parties are such that we are really in a one party, managerialist state.

Martin Stabe points to Jim at Our Word is Our Weapon with three related posts. I think that the politest thing that Jim and I might say about each other’s prejudices opinions Bayesian priors is that the other is wrong, moving swiftly downwards, but I will admit that this is fact checking of the first order. That’s what this is about, what is good, not what do I agree with. I reserve that for the other 98% of the blog.

And that’s it, this week’s Britblog Roundup. Entries for next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com and sign up at yahoo groups (britblog-subscribe@yahoogroups.com) for reminders for entries and to get the weekly URL (lovingly handcrafted from recycled electrons) sent to your inbox.

And finally, please visit the advertisers that make the continuance of this blog possible. On the right, cigars, transcription services and the BBC, on the left top a free way to get your house valued.

Britblog Roundup Reminder

Keep your eyes open for posts for the Britblog Roundup. Email them to me at britblog AT gmail DOT com.
Good posts from residents or citizens of these Isles eligible, no restrictions on political views or subject matter. Just whatever is really good that we all ought to be taking notice of.

You can also sign up at britblog-subscribe@yahoogroups.com for reminders about the Roundup. Just send an email to that address and you’ll get a reminder to make your entries and also the URL of the Roundup when it’s posted.

Britblog Roundup.

If you want notifications of calls for entries and the URL of the weekly roundup, please go to Yahoo Groups and sign up for the mailing list. If a couple of you can let me know when you have done so, I’ll send a test mail just so we can check it works.

BritBlog Roundup # 7

Time for our weekly roundup of blogging from these misty Isles somewhere in the North Atlantic. The best posts from those citizens of or resident in the four nations are eligible and you can nominate your entries for next week by emailing them to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Remember, it’s what you think is good, from your own blog or from someone else’s, that makes it in. I do add things myself, but only refuse to add entries on the basis of the libel laws (not that that has happened yet).

First up is JohnB of Shot By Both Sides looking at the malnutrition rates in Iraq, sanctions and Oil for Food. Make sure you read the comments.

The Gray Monk (yes, a real monk blogging) is most taken with Rowan Williams and less so with those on the other side of the river. 

William Sjostrom is delightfully vicious about the Terri Schiavo case.

Arthur’s Seat is running a mini-saga contest. Stories of exactly 50 words are required by April 10th, and remember, it’s a lot more difficult to write short than to write long.

Planet Potato reveals the joys associated with a Dublin spring. Hospitals are involved.

Scaryduck (shamefully, I only found this blog this week and it’s been around for yonks, won awards and everything) similarly provides essential spring advice, how to get tea while on one’s summer hols outside these Isles.

Eric the Unread has something to say about a currently prevalent world view.

Squander Two parses a couple of the Nigerian 419 emails, an oft attempted task but rarely as successful as this.

Portadown News is not, strictly speaking, a blog, but you would be foolish to miss it, great satire.

Iain Dale is a proto-politician who’s been blogging his attempt to win election, then his blog gets hacked and spoofed on April 1. Guido Fawkes notes it and gets a screen shot, then a little later is able to solve the crime. I realise that no politician wants advice from me but my suggestion to Iain would be not to sue but to turn it into an after dinner story. We tend to like politicians who can laugh at themselves, an all too rare attribute.

Guido (again), Harry’s Place, the Adam Smith Institute and Political Betting play a gag on the Guardian and their political weblog awards. It’s taken me two days to get it and according to Guido (yet again) the Guardian bought it as well.

Clive Davis catches a very good story about the French philosopher and the American cop.

Nick Barlow catches Geroge Galloway saying what he really thinks and also asks for a plug for his upcoming election blog. Plug.

Mr Free Market channels Barry Beelzebub. Un-PC and gloriously funny. Can someone enlighten me, is Mr FM actually Barry?

Liberal England mulls over Lord of the Flies (no, not the above Barry but the book, fule) and gets it right I think, not something I’d really thought about before.

Mellowchellow introduces himself with some verse:

I am not an active blogger
I am an active blogger’s son
I am busy blogging bloggers
On the 7th planet from the sun.

Its a bugger blogging bloggers
I think its all a farce
but this one is a cracker
Its a real pain in the arse.

and then redeems himself for that doggerel by being entertainingly rude about Dennis MacShame.

Pootergeek reviews the new Anastacia album. (Who she? Covers of Gilbert and Sullivan perhaps? Ed. Gilbert O’ Sullivan?) Yes, yes, we all know that Pooter is very good, but this is very good Pooter a double bonus if you wish.

Alfred the OK continues his campaign to puff up the reputation of Alan Milburn (young snotty Alan Milburn from 2nd year remedial, that is a step up from how most of us view him isn’t it?).

The Virtual Stoa looks at Geoffrey Wheatcroft’s critique of Nu Labours’s language and its similarity to that of Fascism (do go through the link to Harry’s, comments there are good).

Matt T is admirably sarcastic about a journalist correcting an error.

Mark Holland catches an inanity in The Guardian (? !) and also upholds his reputation as the place to go for cycling news. It isn’t all about Lance Armstrong you know.

First hand reporting from Andrew Ian Dodge on the Howard Flight affair first on the meeting then on the outcome.

The Anglo Saxon Chronicle has a message for people in the EU....and read the comments as it does appear that the entire system of fixed penalty tickets is, well, if not illegal, then at least only suspiciously legal.

The Future is a Foreign Country looks at the recent proposal to turn NAFTA into a clone of the EU.

Jarndyce, before fleeing the country for Aosta, left us with this on the INAC.

Jim Bliss also looks over the Flight affair, a somehwat, ahem, different view from that of Andrew above.

And that’s it, that’s the Britblog roundup for this week. Get your entries in for next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

I thank you and Good Afternoon!

Update: Further to requests you can now sign up at the Britblog group at Yahoo Groups. This is a pretty simple group, there’s only me allowed to send an email, there’ll be no more than three a week (one or two calls for entries and then the URL for the Roundup itself) so get yourself signed up so that you won’t forget to enter, won’t forget to come see what everyone else is doing.

Update II. Welcome Instapundit readers.  Please do have a look around, while obviously I’d like all of you to read everything on my blog every day, that isn’t the purpose of this Roundup...this is to give people a taste of what is being done by those of us on and from this side of the pond.  Enjoy!

BritBlog Roundup # 6

Yes, it’s that time of the week again, that late Sunday afternoon that Douglas Adams called the long dark teatime of the soul and it’s time for the BritBlog Roundup again. As you know, any post by a citizen or resident of the four nations that make up these Isles is eligible and while you’re too late to add to this week’s, please do send your nominations for inclusion next time to britblog AT gmail DOT com. We’re hoping to use your powers of discrimination to show us all the good stuff hiding out there in other blogs. Do not think that because I am a foam flecked, froth at the mouth libertarian, that such posts need to agree with my prejudices Bayesian priors. What do you think is good that should be shown to a wider audience.

First up is the Professor, Norman Geras, otherwise known as the Norm of that Blog, looking at and questioning why when analogies are made to Nazi barbarisms, people tend to use war on terror ones, rather than more obviously similar atrocities.

Second is the Blithering Bunny (see, two academics in a row...high tone place this) has some advice for the Tories. Good stuff too.

Keith at Sortapundit is blegging. He can’t afford to repair the car he depends upon to keep his job. Pay him a visit and he’s got an ad there which will move money from US real estate agents to British car mechanics. Takes 30 seconds ...I was a little surprised to see that my lead went to someone I actually used to know vaguely. Still 3 quid is better of with Keith than her I feel. He’s applied for an internship at CND. Given the application I can’t wait to see the response.

Nick Barlow fails to be cynical enough. Nick is also organising a blog roundup to provide daily reports on the election. Might be an idea for politically minded bloggers to give him a hand. I can think of a few big US bloggers who would link regularly.

Nosemonkey points to the Zimbabwean, a Guardian supported web version of a paper opposing Mugabe’s thuggery. He’s right, we all should support such a venture, even if it does show the Grauniad in a good light. He also asks for your votes in the Guardian weblog awards, and as EUrophobe seems to not be being updated he may well deserve it. Check out the other awards you can vote on at that site as well. (And why wasn’t this blog nominated? Huh, lefties, sheesh)

Francis earns two entries as he has been following the travails of l’escroc Chirac as he wanders around the world. He is also the proud father of that little google bomb in the previous sentence, EU Serf preferring Kickback Jacques.

Blood and Treasure ponders the reluctance of the insane to embrace new technology.

Harry Hutton manages to be concise, extraordinarily funny and in the grossest of taste all at the same time. To be fair I will admit to desiring the talent to be able to do that. Both I and Backword Dave thought this should go in.

Fans of the round ball game should check out Arseblog for all things Arsenal related and Liam, who recommended it also wants Twenty Major to make another appearance. Quite right too as he is screamingly funny (although a little freer with the obscenties than one might use in front of one’s mother) and since I was directed to him in the first of these roundups my only question is why isn’t he on everyone’s blogrolls already?

Now, we all know there's a little bit of tension between the Israelis and the Palestinians - something akin to the problems that exist between the northside and southside of Dublin but obviously not quite so intense. So anyway, these witless twerps launch a campaign with a picture of an Israeli number 10 shirt with the words 'Say no to apartheid' on it as a stinging rebuke of Israel's policies.

What Jim Bowen (not the presenter of TV's favourite darts show Bullseye but of University College Cork), spokesman of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign didn't realise is that the number 10 shirt is worn by a bloke called Walid Badir who is a Palestine Arab and one of the most popular players in Israel.

He also didn't realise that 30% of the players in the Israeli league are Palestinian Arabs, that an Arab team are the current champions and that football is one of the only things that Israelis and Palestinians do together which doesn't include plastic explosives, buses and cafés.

(That’s the only bit I can extract without bowdlerising. Such an intense level of detailed knowledge must be frustrating for another teacher at the same institutiton, the writer of the excellent Atlantic Blog.)

Jarndyce takes issue with those who think that sorting out the world is a doddle and also recommends Mr S&M on post capitalism. Anyone interested in economics should be reading  that blog.

Anglo Saxon Chronicle actually nominates Hansard, not quite a qualifier but as he says Well come on it is the oldest, boring and sometime funny blog on the net.

Phillip at Cabalamat looks at what Britain could but won’t do in Zimbabwe and also reveals the shocking truth about the principles of the modern Labour Party.

Captain Oates has been Friday animal blogging....very funny indeed. Could start a new trend there.

Liberal England is both interesting and correct on the divorce of Nu Labour from classical liberalsim. It’s odd to think that those regarded as weird libertarians, people like me, are closer to such classical liberalism than most self-proclaimed liberals (not Liberals, you understand).

Scott at the Daily Ablution continues his merciless fact checking of the press, in the process doing something that they are most reluctant to do, correct errors. Well done that man.

Not Proud of Britain rewrites the Liberal Democrats ten commandments.

ChikYog sends us to Jim Bliss and his take on drilling in the ANWR. It’s an interesting perspective, even though I disagree a little with the economic background he uses(Tim, stop imposing your views. This is about the other bloggers! Ed.)

Neil Craig, at A Place To Stand, is excellent (more opinion showing through Tim. Ed) on the specific problem associated with socialism, that it appears to have no negative feedback.

Stuff and Nonsense writes about what it is to be and feel British. I think he captures it perfectly in his last lines. Absolutely spot on.

Sean Thomas needs to be checked out. Not only a real journalist, ladies man and survivor of more drugs than I care to think about but also a man who named his blog The Toffee Womble. How can that not appeal?

The Future is a Foreign Country wants your help in deciding what animal the EU would be if it were one. As you know my preference is a dead one but there are more interesting ideas there.

Late but not forgotten, Andrew Ian Dodge has a guest entry from Guido Fawkes.

So that’s it, this week’s BritBlog Roundup. Sorry it’s a little short but then you see, you have to send to me the things that you think should be in it. Otherwise, how am I ever going to be able to take advantage of you by leading me to all the good stuff?

One final point. You’ll notice all those blue ads floating around the place. If you click through and sign up (it’s free, no credit card, validation, software downloads or anything) for the demo or request the brochure I get a little drink out of it, and as this is indeed my birthday that might be a nice thing for you to do. Takes 90 seconds to do both but the site really only works in IE.

BritBlog Roundup Reminder.

Just to remind you, the BritBlog Roundup will be here tomorrow. Any post by a citizen or resident of the four nations that makes up these Isles is eligible, send what you think is the best to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Any subject, any point of view, we’re looking for whatever you think is fine work so that we can share it, point to it, appreciate it. There are simply too many blogs out there for any of us to see them all, but collectively we can pool our resources and find the gold.

Good grief....Tim advocating collective action? Ah, yes, that’s right, it’s voluntary collective action. Phew, would lose my libertarian style blogger’s licence if I didn’t remember that.

BritBlog Roundup

Obviously this BritBlog Roundup is working.

I was sent an entry for next weekend’s that had actually been in last weekend’s.

No names, no pack drill, of course, but someone had seen something in last weekend’s, flagged it on their site as being very good, someone else had gone through to read it, then thought, better tell Tim about this, this is good.

Yes folks, this is the purpose and reason for it, a purely selfish desire by myself to get you, all of you, pointing me to the good stuff. Please continue, please do send to britblog AT gmail DOT com those bits and pieces of good to great blogging and posts by those who are natives or residents of the four nations that make up these Isles.

I don’t mind recursion...that just shows that some of you are right in what you nominate. You may substitute all for some in that previous sentence if you wish.

BritBlog Roundup #5

Yes, here’s the 5th weekly BritBlog Roundup. Anything from a citizen or resident of the four nations on these Isles is eligible, you can send in something of your own or something you have spotted elsewhere, just so long as it’s good. You’re too late for this week (obviously) but for next week send your nominations to britblog AT gmail DOT com by noon GMT Sunday. Any subject, any viewpoint and certainly don’t feel that any political or other ideas have to agree with mine. This is an attempt to showcase what is going on in British and Irish blogging, not an exercise in supporting my prejudices.

Having said that, of course the first piece this week is Francis supporting my insistent and repetetive statement that PG Wodehouse was not a novelist or dramatist but a documentarian. The Telegraph obituary page is where I get my proof too.

Mr and Mrs McMuffin need your help to find a home for a deserving puddy tat. Download the .pdf poster.

Chicken Yoghurt points to The Pseudo Magazine’s take on Intelligent Design. An elegant destruction of a New York Times piece on the subject, perhaps a little polite to my taste. [Bile, venom, that’s what people want in a Fisking!]

Chickyog himself makes a very good and very short point about The Dear Leader.

Simon Holledge hasn’t quite grasped the rules yet (we’re trying to find particular posts, not particular blogs) but his nomination of And All That Malarkey looks very good. Intelligent web design...that’d be a novelty, eh?

The New Economist is fascinating on one of those basic building blocks of how to rid the world of poverty. Democracy a help or a hindrance?

An absolute must read sent in by Martin Davies, something where it is the site as a whole that works, not just one post. I’d try to explain it but Martin does it better than I could:

My friend and esteemed British Blogger JahJahDub has decided to write a poem about every premiership manager. This is particularly brilliant as he knows little about football and less about poetry. The results are brilliant.

Norm of that Blog is also in poetic mood, a Wilfred Owen parody in the style of Pinter to celebrate the latter getting the prize named after the former (or should that be the other way round, a Pinter parody in the style of Owen? not a great literateur, me.)

A very fine demolition of Tim Garton Ash’s latest piece on Europe at The Future is a Foreign Country. Very fine indeed. (Apologies for including something that does conform to my political prejudices. Ed.)

Victoria wants us to look at Post Hipnotico, which while being written from Mexico, in Spanish, is actually being done by a Brit, and Expat Yank, who appears to live just round the corner from my sister in Dorset. I think you could say that he hasn’t quite absorbed the nuanced and European view of the Iraq War yet.

Jarndyce sends in his own posting on the meaning and origin of Sforza Italia (as I use it, my Italian being Naples accented), and I have no doubt he’s right in detail, just think it coincidence.

James Hamilton (and this was one of my picks of the week as well)  sends us to read the interview with Hernando de Soto at Stephen Pollard’s place. Sterling advice there for the Make Poverty History crowd.

Mark Holland, this blogs’s guide to the cycling scene, nominates grayblog. (BTW, if Mark says it’s good, then it is good, no further comment needed.)

Anoneumouse points to a little piece of numerical sleuthing at England Expects. Just how much has the EU Constitution cost so far?

Liberal England is unhappy with Charles Clarke (is there anyone happy with him other than Charles Clarke?)

Nick Barlow is offering advice to the Catholic Church. Very good advice too.

The Obscurer shows a very interesting little piece of economic thought at The Filter, Football and Porn.

Clive Davis has uncovered a gem in Broom of Anger. A scream of rage and anger from West Belfast.

Bunny is funny about British restaurants. As one who worked for years in them, rather have to hang my head in shame at the truth of it.

The Busman is a scream, I’d pay for the video camera to be there when Twenty Major takes a ride home from the pub. (Note, many Irish blogs have a more liberal attitude to profanity than the average maiden aunt.Ed)

Twenty Major provides us with the great cross-St Georges Channel sport on March 18th each year, as Irishmen everywhere compare hangovers. An attempt at upstaging the host is made, quite successfully, by Ciaran in the comments section.

Natalie Solent, Squander Two and JohnB of Shot by Both Sides (remember to read the comments section) continue to chew over that Lancet report on civilian deaths in Iraq. Interesting but not a debate I want to re-enter, not remembering the bollix I made of it last time (short story... read report, get enraged, write article, get published, piece goes to number 1 on google news and then have to admit that what I’d written was actually rubbish. Embarrasing really.)

Chris Lightfoot is his usual lucid self on the subject of the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

If you’re not reading the Copper’s Blog then you should be. I reckon he’ll be the next blogger to be offered a book deal.

And that’s it for this week, BritBlog Roundup #5. To send an entry in for next week, email to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Toodle Pip!

Welcome Instapundit readers (thanks Glenn) and yes, you too can contribute to next week’s roundup. Whatever you think is good from an English, Irish, Scottish or Welsh blog (written by anyone who is either or both from those nations or lives in them, so expats of both kinds count) is eligible.

Earlier Roundups are here, here, here and here. Enjoy!

BritBlog Roundup Reminder

Please don’t forget to send in your nominations and entries for this weekend’s BritBlog Roundup. Anything from a resident or citizen of the four nations of these Isles, send it to britblog AT gmal DOT com. Can be from you, something you’ve seen somewhere else that you think should be highlighted, get it to me by noon Sunday GMT.

Don’t take my normal foam flecked, libertarianish, rants and raves on politics and economics as the basis for what you send in. What we’re looking for is good stuff, stuff we can admire the skill and elegance with which it was constructed, not political views that I might agree with. Any subject, humour, tecchie, elections, insults, heartwarming, photo galleries....just what has been added to the wealth of the human experience by those in and from these Isles this past week?

BritBlog Roundup #4

Yes, it’s Sunday afternoon, there’s a rugby match on soon and I’m tapping away here bringing you (and me) this week’s BritBlog Roundup, the fourth in this new series. Rules are simple, anything posted by a resident or citizen of the four nations on these Isles is eligible to be nominated, something you have written or something from elsewhere that you think we all should know about. Simply send entries to britblog AT gmail DOT com before Sunday noon GMT and given a fair following wind I shall put it into the Roundup. There are no restrictions as to subject or politics, (other than the libel laws and a modicum of good taste...Hello Kitty is the leading cause of diabetes for example) and I positively welcome, for entirely selfish reasons, entries from people who disagree with my prejudices Bayesian priors or those millions of bloggers that I don’t know about yet.

Two that I particularly noticed this week, Stumbling and Mumbling on the subject of Richard Layard’s new book, Happiness, A New Science. Particularly enjoyable to see one of my old professors getting a right good kick in the nadgers (also recommended by Blimpish). Planet Potato (yes, of course it’s from Ireland) provides advice to tourists arriving in Dublin. Actually, you might want to scroll around that blog a bit, lots of good stuff there.

Clive Davis recommends this London Photoblog, by Andrew, especially this City of London nightscape. Oddly, I used to work in one of the buildings in that photo.

Norm of That Blog is somewhat metaphysical about the powers of tea...I think I’m right that we drink more of it than anyone else in the world? Might explain a lot that, if the tea really is communicating with us.

Blithering Bunny is onto the Italian Job, no, not the Michael Caine movie, nor the dreadful remake, but the release and shooting of the communist journalist. Certainly, he makes me think that someone somewhere hasn’t been telling the entire truth and nothing but the truth.

Albion Blogger at A Very British Insurgency gets me slightly wrong, thinking that I am doing this for all of you. No, I’m doing it for selfish reasons, so that I can tap into your knowledge of what is good out there. But he thanks me, so he gets two entries this week. I should also note that in the course of normal blogging this week I’ve had several fellow members of the VRWC urging me to look at that blog.

Nick Barlow (who I found out is known and liked by Iain Murray...must be a good bloke then) offers his Politics by Tantrum and also recommends Matt Turner’s take on our electoral system.

Jon Calder is breaking the rules!!! Only one nomination per person please, but from his blog, some thoughts on coverage of the Liberal Democrats in the media and anti-terrorism legislation (also recommended by The Obscurer), then the Liberal Dissenter on the thin veneer of civilisation and Chicken Yoghurt, who is not happy and is quite magnificent in the manner he tells us that he is not. One to watch, that one.(Also self-nominated.)

Gareth at the CEP suggests that these three should be read together. Yes. They. Should.

Jarndyce offers the reasons why Taiwan is Buggered. Can’t fault the analysis.

Gareth points us to Tom Griffin, who is able to explain the current British Consitution in a mere few paragraphs. It really does work that way.

Jon Barnard thinks that all of Emerald Bile should be linked to but thinks this the best of the week. Not for those delicate about profanity, but who can disagree with this:

I drink tea hard. I’ve had four cups today, and it isn’t even 11am. I really like to push myself to the limits. Not girls’ tea, either, but super-strength Man’s Tea. Made with leaves, not bags: so it gets into your bloodstream quicker and, like, totally fucks your head. It is the kind of tea Hitler would drink, if Hitler drank tea.

People who drink herbal teas should be taken outside and shot. I believe that very strongly.

Nosemonkey is spot on with his two pieces, Thank the Lord for the Lords and The EU is a Political Project.

Giles has a friend who is blogging her conversion to Judaism, a fascinating slice of which is Synagogue Visits.

An Englishman in New York is great on the originator of the modern dystopic novel, Yvegeny Zamyatin. Read We if you get a chance.

From a blogging MP, Richard Allen, comes live blogging of the debates on the abolition of freedom. Swords do sound a good idea at times (although the pink ribbon was to make sure that swords did not get taken into the Chamber).

John Band rightfully blows his own trumpet in How to find fanatics and also recommends Blood and Treasure.

The Future is Another Country mixes Toynbee (no, not Polly, her grandfather?), the EU and the Constitution into a Letter to the Times.

James Hamilton points us to A Step at a Time, recommending specifically this multi-part review of Robert Conquest’s latest. The whole blog looks interesting, James describing it as  Lots of
Eastern Europe/Russian stuff, updated at Instapundit speed but Oliver Kamm length.

Paul Colletti states that trickle down is beggining to work. No, not Thatcherism, The Lebanon.

Ken hasn’t quite finished reading the rules yet, nominating his whole blog, Nanny Knows Best. It is good, of course, but this post gives a flavour. Ken? One post please, not the whole thing!

Pooter of that Geek employs his lab’s time machine to explore the mysteries of Fiskistan. Simply marvellous, a must read.

Calling in from his hideyhole on the Cote D’Azur Francis looks at the EU’s new Software Directive and also recommends Richard North on the same subject.

The Anglo Saxon Chronicle continues to explore the intricacies of the Law, this time that of Treason and which bits have been repealed and which not. Given the dreadful standards of Parliamentary drafstmanship I wouldn’t be surprised to find that the Duke of Bavaria is now King (as some of course insist he is).

Biased BBC wants to remind us of just how caring and sharing Auntie really is. Streetwalkers documentary during half term break at 9.15 am. It’s a serious piece of reporting and well worth a look.

Gareth suggests that the BritBlog Roundup is so important that you should all blogroll the URL. No comment from me except to say that if this does become a travelling carnival, that would be the place to look for where it is any particular week. Got to get it established first though.

The Corridor of Uncertainty is a cricket blog and offers a new version of dice cricket.

And that’s it for this week! Entries for next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com by noon GMT next Sunday please, all subjects, any view point, from residents and citizens of our four nations. Now, half time in the Scotland Wales game, how’s things going then?

 

 

Entry Reminder.

Please don’t forget to send in your entries for the BritBlog Roundup this weekend. Send to britblog AT gmail DOT com. 15 in so far, looking for more by Sunday noon GMT. Anything written by a resident or citizen of the four nations on these Isles is eligible, can be from your blog or something you’ve seen elsewhere and think that we all should have a look at. Any and all political views welcome (in fact encouraged), not just froth mouthed libertarians like myself....any subject, cute kittens to terror bills,  the joys of aardvarks to brewing zythum.

BritBlog Roundup # 3

Yes, It’s time for the third weekly BritBlog Roundup. Rules are simple, any post by a resident or citizen of these Isles is eligible, you can nominate your own or something from someone else (especially if you see something very good that you think we all should see). One entry per person please.
I spend my Sunday afternoons doing this so that people can show me what is good and great in British and Irish blogs, so please do keep sending in the entries to britblog AT gmail DOT com! Yes, I’m being selfish, I want to harness your knowledge to lead me to the good stuff.

Reporting in from Italy, Ria Bacon at STET takes us through the  umm, subtleties, of political advertising there. Not that many of them actually, distinctly unsubtle.

Andrew Ian Dodge does some first hand reporting at Dodgeblogium (my apologies to Wolfie, last week I attributed his work to Andrew) and in doing so proves that we’re all really doing this blogging thing for the groupies (or because we are groupies?). What? Yours not turned up yet?

Vanessa at Sarsparilla on the joys of the London Transport system and how to deal with mouthy 16 year olds. Aggression helps.

Vanessa also recommends a piece from The Blackboard Jungle, a fascinating insight into slang and adolescent males. Spot on with the observation that 12 miles down the road everything would be different, it’s one of the things Americans often don’t get about us, not just four nations and languages but huge changes in accent and slang every few miles.

Anoneumouse points to a great piece from Beachhutman on the value of the art hanging in Government offices. An interesting career as White Van Man beckons, well, it would if I actually knew anything about art I suppose.

Backword Dave thinks Mick Hartley is spot on in his comments on Richard Layard’s "Happiness"...I’ll second that, always fun to give one’s old professor a good kick in the nadgers and this research of his is dire, in logic and in the policy recommendations. He also recommends DoctorVee’s piece pointing out that while the BBC may be biased, it is so in all directions, not just towards liberals. Well, an idea worthy of discussion, possibly.

Litte Red Blogger looks at the New Forest and Commoners Rights. Econ geeks like me will love it, a modern day example of exactly the things Garret Hardin was talking about in Tragedy of the Commons. There has to be a management system but it doesn’t have to be the private property based one, communal alternatives do exist.

Victoria (no, another one) writes in from America with her take on the Charlie Rose show on blogging. Apparently the PuppyBlender waved to her at the end of the show. Her alone, you understand. (Note, this is a round up of blogs written by Brits and Irish residents or citizens. You don’t have to be here or writing about here to send in links).

Jeremy Dean offers a take in the psychology of internet dating (permalinks not working, 28 th Feb.) The original research was done at Bath so it must be good stuff.

Tim at An Englishman’s Castle points us to Bishop Hill, a blogger doing some real reporting. OK, it’s about the treatment of road repairs as investment but it is important, if we cannot trust the figures from the Office of National Statistics then we cannot trust any numbers thrown at us by politicians.

Jon Barnard strongly recommends this piece from Random Acts of Reality, written by a paramedic. Excellent, I agree Jon. One post I liked a lot this week was this from Jon at his place, Room Twelve.

James Hamilton, after his review of The Welfare State We’re In in last week’s round up was able to score an interview with the author, James Bartholomew. Whether you liked the book or not, an interesting expansion of his views.

Anomaly UK (our man in Luton, as he says) catches up with the local story that made headlines, the jilbab/school uniform matter.

Robin wants to remind us that those released from Guantanamo and then from custody here are in fact innocent (and they are, let us not forget. You’re only guilty if you’ve been tried and convicted in a court of law...something Clarke seems to forget).

Gareth points us to Alfred the OK and this guy is going straight on my blogroll. Perfect stuff:

Most politicians get right up my thrupenny bits.
A select few qualify for a blindfold, a cigarette and nice white wall. And then there are the ones that defy the imagination – despots all, morally bankrupt to a man – and woman. It’s not too hard to find them - Blair, Dubbya, Thatcher, Mandelson and Prescott come to mind. There are however, quite a few knocking on the door of this ‘Club Noir Politick’ - and fifties quiff boy, Alan Milburn, geordie bosom buddy to the Rev’ Blair and no-talent ‘organiser’ of all things ‘Governmental’ is first in the queue.

Wish I could write like that.

The Englishman in New York points to this Eve Garrand piece at Normblog...how not to explain suicide bombings.

Several pointed to this Jackie Danicki piece about the debate at the LSE on blogging. She was not taken with the level of knowledge shown.

More to follow after I’ve dealt with two dogs standing with their legs crossed....OK, this blog’s canine security operatives now happy, the blogger himself suitably caffeinated, onwards...

One that I came across, Famous for 15 Megapixels, describes how he would guide visitors round London. It would be both interesting and informative, if not entirely 100% true.

Clive Davis points us to the Englishman in New York  who has a few issues with an advertising campaign...he’s right, most of us over here would think of the Two Fat Slags from Viz.

The Pseudo Magazine is deeply unhappy with John Negroponte and Rich Lowry...let’s say he’s not all that happy with the new Intelligence Czar.

Mark Holland urges us to read The Daily Rant on the subject of Spain and Gibraltar....just a side note but stick a drink in any Portuguee and ask them about the Spanish and you’ll get something of a rant as well. There’s a piece of land they promised to give back in 1913. Still waiting.

Iain Murray takes time out from his recent trip into the heart of the neo-con conspiracy to insist in a redefinition of Little Englander. Got my support (but then I would say that wouldn’t I, being a fellow member of the VRWC and published at TCS as he is?)

EU-Serf sends in his report on Dennis McShame, our Europe Minister, and his behaviour in Prague. A number of welcome corrections to his utterances.

Nick Barlow (as he himself describes it) does a bit of navel gazing over Zack Exley (who he? Ed). This whole thing is something I’ve obviously missed but Nick and Tim Ireland seem to be very annoyed about it, to the extent of cutting off communication with Atrios and The Washington Monthly.

Blood and Treasure had his obituary of Hunter S Thompson published in a Chinese newspaper and tells us how he did it.  So where do you spend renmimbi?

England Expects does a hit job on the EU’s fifth column....read the list of people on hand to provide paid for propaganda in favour of everything European.

Liberal England has an interesting take on the Delia Smith thing involving Fanny Craddock.

Richard Delevan has been live blogging the Sinn Fein annual meeting, start at the top and keep scrolling. Adams may have got the McCartney sisters back into the Republican fold.

Bunny sends an email to say that he was too late sending in an entry. Indeed he was. By noon GMT Sunday please, to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Anything posted by a resident or citizen of the four nations on these Isles is eligible, especially interested in whatever you think done best.

Which leaves us with one final post to link to. Non-trivial Solutions is putting together a register of interests for all journalists on all of the main (serious) UK papers. Who works where, who gets quango money, who can’t piss off their boss, in essence, looking for the background so that we can see their implicit and explicit biases. Its going to be a huge amount of work and he needs your help. This is an open opportunity project, righties will get nailed just as badly as lefties and centrists, so go on over, pick a target and get looking for links and appointments they have.

Until next week, Toodle Pip!

BritBlog Roundup

Don’t forget to make your entries to the BritBlog Roundup this week. Send entries to britblog AT gmail DOT com (please, not to the main address) and get them in by noon GMT Sunday. Anything produced by a citizen or resident of these Isles is eligible. Yes, you can send in something of your own, of course, but please also think of informing the rest of us of anything stunning that you’ve stumbled across.
Where’s the great stuff that the rest of us are missing?

BritBlog Roundup Number 2

Here’s week two of the BritBlog Roundup. Week 1 and the rules are here. Anything from a resident or citizen of (wherever resident) these Isles is eligible. Twenty two entries this week, a few extra picks from me and all done in between the various rugby matches.

Please do send in entries for next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com, and yes, I would like entries that disagree with my cherished beliefs. Any subject matter, just whatever you think is worth showcasing to others. Most especially if you’ve come across something from someone else that you think we all ought to know about.

The Observer has started a blog, will be interesting to see how that turns out. Will it actually be a blog or simply an extension of the newspaper?

The Book Club Blog tries to get to the bottom of the Belle De Jour "who she?" question.

Paul Coletti answers the age old question...do you get more if you’re famous? (more, err, well, you know).

Andrew Dodge actually went and did some real research, proper reporting (hear that bloggers? We’ve got work to do) in the aftermath of the Hunting Ban.

Giles is running a competition to rename Ken Livingstone, apparently simple swearwords are not enough.

Jesurgislac follows up on the Eason Jordan story...asking an interesting question, not about what Jordan said or did, but just who has been killed and by whom?

England Expects brings us another little nugget from the centre of the swamp, Brussels (a declaration of interest here, he gave me a job once), on the way in which Irish TDs (like an MP for those who don’t know) refused to meet with MEPs, as one of them was a Sinn Feinner.

Anglo Saxon Chronicles actually nominates one of my posts, on the confusion the Prime Minister seems to be showing over what his real job is. That’s extremely kind but will not happen again. My posts are banned from being nominated...after all, I’ve already read them and part of the purpose here is to point me (and of course others) to things I haven’t yet seen. As a second choice he recommends RoomTwelve’s meditations on smoking bans. (That’s the spirit! nominate things from other people’s blogs!)

Little Red Blogger has angry words for those who contract services out and thus increase infection rates in hospitals. (See, I really do mean it, all economic and political views are included in this roundup. It’s only the rest of the week that this blog is part of the VRWC.)

Attempting Escape gives us his views on yet another manifestation of class bias in University application processes.

Jon Barnard, (who is RoomTwelve up above) also nominates someone other than himself, a masterly Irish blog called Twenty Major. This one post alone, on a commemoration of the Titanic (yes, by towing an iceberg into Belfast Harbour) should earn him a place on many blogrolls. Certainly mine, after I’ve got through this.

Gareth at the CEP sends in something from John at The England Project...applying the current logic of regional assemblies to the EU Constitution. He also wants Neil Herron (one of the few who have actually used this blogging thing to make a real difference to UK politics) to have a mention, so here it is.

Blimpish has a detailed look at Lib Dem proposals for the low cost housing market. Not impressed.

Blood and Treasure tells us about Tamurlaine’s hangovers. Yes, really. And an empire named after a piece of furniture.

Blognor Regis points to a James Hamilton piece on James Bartholomew’s book, The Welfare State We’re In, with commentary on the commentary from the author himself. OK, parse that sentence then.

Clive Davis (this I like. A journalist for the MSM entering blog roundups?) has a very good piece on David Irving, that libel trial and the similarities with Michael Moore.

Nick Barlow of that Ilk offers us his examination of Christian Voice..and is witty, thorough and complete while doing so. Better investigative work than half the Sunday Times there.

Liberal England explains Darwin to us.

Norm of that Blog sends in his piece on a flawed system, talking about the Iraq War and the International Legal System. I’m not quite sure whether to decribe this as a stiletto aimed at the heart of the anti-war left or a cavalry sabre slashing through the presumptions of non-interventionism...you’ll like it though, you’ll like when Norm gets angry.

Blithering Bunny (having spent most of yesterday evening setting up spoofs of my site...we’ve said before about how you should not drive a computer while drunk) offers Whistle Schoenberg While You Work.

Laban Tall suggest visiting Mark Humphrys, an idea I heartily endorse. Not really organised like a blog, he tends to update certain subjects rather than working specifically chronologically like the rest of us. His views on politics and economics seem almost identical to my own, it’s always nice to find that someone as obviously intelligent as he  shares the same Bayesian priors.

Iain Murray is back at The Edge of England’s Sword, very angry indeed over changes being made at Oxford University. We have also, through the grapevine, heard some very fun gossip about Iain in Brussels last weekend...even the Press Officer couldn’t remember whether it was 3 or 4 am when the party broke up. As these people are chosen on the strength of their livers that takes some doing.

A from L has much good writing, start with this post and scroll.

A Welsh View points me to lynne ydw i, and an excellent description of the varied natives of these isles, a must read primer for non Brits.

The Yorkshire Ranter is good as always, here on using spyware manufacturers to help the Department of Homeland Security.

Stumbling and Mumbling (one of the best economics blogs around IMHO) doesn’t like the minimum wage.

The Italian Version,(he’s Italian but living in England, thus eligible) entirely new to me, gives a perfect description of the recycling process for plastic bottles and shows why it is not, as often assumed, a good idea. A must read for anyone interested in either economics or the environment.

And a blog that’s a real keeper. The Law West of Ealing Broadway, written by a magistrate and quite excellent. No specific post, just keep scrolling.

OK, that’s it, this week’s roundup. Entries for next week to britblog AT gmail DOT com please. I’m late for the rugby, so Toodle Pip and see you next week.

BritBlog Roundup Number 1

Further to yesterday’s announcement that I shall be doing a weekly BritBlog Roundup here is the first one. The rules are simple, anything blogged by either a citizen of or resident of the four nations situated in the British Isles can be sent in, thus the use of the logo of the British and Irish Lions (which, no doubt, will get me into copyright trouble).  Pieces can be nominated by their author or by anyone else struck by the quality of it. Only one per blog and one nomination per person please!

To send something in for next week simply email the link, blog title, piece title and trackback (if any) to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

Given the 24 hour notice provided there are only a few nominations so I shall fill it out to a reasonable length by adding things I think worthy of note.

First up is Liberal England who offers Listen with Gladstone, a reminder of just how old recording technology is and who you can listen to...both Gladstone and Florence Nightingale.

Anglo Saxon Chronicle reminds us about Solemn Treaty Obligations (yes, it is about the EU).

Blood and Treasure has Sex Lives of the Great Helmsmen which compares the sex lives of varied dictators...noting that some were more lubricious than others.

Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Prescott? offers Top Tips for English MPs.

Mark Holland nominates something from We the Undersigned (that’s the spirit! Mark calls it the best thing he’s read all week,) on the Kyoto Protocol Comes into Force.

What You Can Get Away With sends in Why I Can’t Back Backing Blair.

Those are the people who heard about this and sent something in in the past 24 hours. The rest are my picks so if you disagree with them or think that others should have been included, well, tough, just make sure you send in entries for next week.

Mr S&M argues Against Credibility, stating that the acquisition of gravitas will turn him into Woy Jenkins. (Almost anything from that blog would qualify. That’s why there is a limit of only one entry per blog.)

Europhobia is extremely gloomy, stating UK Blogging: Officially  a pointless waste of everyone’s time, and Martin Stabe provides a good set of reasons why (our press is already partisan, unlike the US)   in British Blogs, a waste of time? and The Yorkshire Ranter, umm, rants on what the Freepers seem to think we have here in Do they got the interweb in Europistan?

Copper’s Blog provides a little history lesson called Nostalgia...were things really different way back when? (Err, yes, Ed)

Blithering Bunny has just started a new blog showing traffic rankings for UK blogs, called, er, British Blogs. As he says, those rankings are almost certainly wrong as many blogs do not make stats public. He also has a great piece on his regular blog, The Rock Star Will See You Now.

Shot By Both Sides finds that we really are getting tough on crime in End this Food Smuggling Menace.

Anthony Wells continues to amaze political geeks with his dissection of polling reports.

Laban Tall tells us (at some length) why his blog will be a Royal Marriage free zone.

Squander Two stuns everyone in the Isles by finding reasonable and efficient builders.

EUReferendum asks whether ex EU Commissioners in the Lords should be declaring their pensions as interests before debates.

Harry Hutton provides the perfect Opera review.

Eric the Unread provides a few hints to those who think that Afghanistan hasn’t changed.

Harry’s Place notes that two of the most successful UK blogs come from the same small town in Lancashire.

God Save the Queen interrupts his Roman sojourn to tell us why certain parts of the left are supporting the terrorists in Iraq. The way he puts it, it makes perfect sense.

Non-Trivial Solutions follows up the New Scientist article on Climate Change (and takes issue, naturellement).

PooterGeek comes out in favour of privatisation of the university system and annoys the Anonymous Economist in the process (thogh they do kiss and make up, sorta).

The Daily Ablution discusses two different variants of modern art, gets accused of copyright theft and still manages to show that one of the three artists involved is a complete prat.

The England Project looks at Peggy Noonan’s take in the WSJ on blogs and applies the logic to the UK (Many journalists practice sexual perfidy and have taken whores as partners...John is a little unhappy at times).

Jonny Billericay has, um, issues while preparing dinner for his beloved.

Ok, that’s it for this week. I agree, it’s not a perfect roundup, far too many of the people I usually read on it. So, please, help out for next week’s version. Send in, to britblog AT gmail DOT com, your favourite piece produced by either a citizen or resident of the UK and Eire for inclusion in next weekend’s BritBlog Roundup. Entries in by noon GMT Sunday please.

Looking back over this I realise that there’s only one post from Ireland, and that is from an Englishman living in Ulster. Bad Timmy. Could someone please direct me to a few Irish blogs so that I can rectify this?

I also forgot the ritual muttering about how you can support this blog by posting in your used ink jet cartridges. Apologies for both mistakes but hey, this is the first time OK?