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!