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!.