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!!)