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.