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!