Britblog Roundup # 76

Here we are again on a bright sunny Sunday arvo/evening forthe Britblog Roundup, your selection  of those posts this week that you think should be brought to our collective attention. You can make nominations for next week’s simply by sending the URL to britblog AT gmail DOT com.

(My apologies for the late start this week but evil horrible paid work had to be done. Work is indeed the curse of the blogging classes.)

The Englishman describes this (or rather Mrs. Du Toit did and T.E has adopted it) as "soft focus porn nomination". In fact, here is what she did say:

That’s what I love about England. It isn’t all the things that most people think about (although those are nice too--the food, the gentility of the people, the tradition and rich history of the buildings)... yeah.... all those things are terrific and add to the atmosphere of the place. 

But it is the light.  That gentle light, broken and altered by the mists that seems to make the details more profound, yet somehow soft.  The greens are greener.  The wild flowers and grasses more distinct.  The patina of artifacts and ordinary things are so much more beautiful and noticeable.

Yup, I’d say that sounds like the old Vaseline on the lens trick.

Peter Black AM on the implications of allowing political advertising (amazingly, we do actually have a politician with an interesting blog: they’re not all like Miliband’s dire effort)...which is I guess yet another person who disagrees with me on the subject.

Coffee and PC has a detailed and fascinating post on the cost of getting into journalism: and explains why there’s so few working class people there. Me, I think blogging will be a way in.

Lovely short story/remenisence from Chris Dolley. Part of a series and it’s very much worth working your way back through the whole lot. Something of a find that, ta to the nominator.

This is also pretty cool. If you don’t know the story of Stetson Kennedy (or didn’t read Freakonomics) then you really do want to. A deserved place on the "dude" list.

SuzBlog has sensible things to say about Mark Oaten. That this puts her ahead of Mr. Oaten is no real surprise.

Holly Finch (one of those on the tube that day) on meeting the Home Secretary:

Dr Reid is a politician, I suspect, harbouring a severe case of short man syndrome. I can picture him, as a youth, battling with his comrades in a bulldog like manner. Doggedly fighting until the end, stubbornly refusing to be beaten or shamed.

He has not changed much. Whether it is job, his age, or he has been unchanged since birth, I do not know. But I can say with certainly that one thing he adores is the sound of his own voice. That man can talk.

He purposely, I imagine, seemed to miss the point by a whisker; launching himself instead into wordy responses whilst ambling through topics he felt safe discussing. ‘Discussing’ is perhaps too balanced a term, it was more of a monologue which frustrated ‘survivors’ eventually felt brave enough to challenge.

Liberal England gives us the ten most over rated films. Amazingly similar to some people’s best list actually.

Alex Wilcock compares Blair and Eden. Not necessarily in Blair’s favour either.

The New Economist gives us nine reasons why London is so expensive. This question has been going round the econobloggers for a week or so and it’s the best and most comprehensive answer I’ve seen.

Moonbat Media should in fact be plugged by many more people. Photos and reports from various demonstrations around the world.

Natalie Bennett on the new Islamic Gallery at the V&A. Yes appears to be the answer.

La Petite Anglaise appears to be sorta just about coping with her new media career. Comment 1 does seem to be providing just that little too much information.

Camden Kiwi on green thoughts of more and less fundamentalist forms....and a campaign against bottled water.

Diamond Geezer makes an announcement aboard the bloggerexpress. Most droll.

Tom Reynolds with some home truths for those who think that there is something wrong with having a job.

Cruella Blog on that lad who declared his undying love in an email only to see it spread far and wide.

Feminish with an update (and upgrading to four fivers) of Virginia Woolf’s Three Guineas.

Pandemian (and yes, you really should be reading her regularly) on that story from The Mail which would make such a good modern Bateman cartoon. "The Woman Who Admitted Her Children Bored Her". Good grief, our grandparents knew that damn well which is why they had servants to take care of them. (Or were, in a majority of cases, the servants. But the point stands, we created Empires with people who’d hardly seen anything other of their parents than the inside of Mother’s womb.)

The Bewilderness with more information on those power cuts in London. Yes, that’s the point, the ....s, there were more than one, which isn’t what we’re being told in general.

Good Grief! Natalie Bennett goes cycling and finds a Georgian terraced house for 130 k? The whole house? Aye, it’s in Hastings but still....somebody might want to snap that up.

On An Overgrown Path catches out The Observer in a small factual error. Well, c’mon, it is part of The Guardian group so by their standards this is small.

The Injured Cyclist has a request. (The blog, BTW, is of a bloke who managed to chew up his leg in a bizarre cycling accident and is now, slowly, recovering. Worth a scroll around, some very interesting little pieces.) Could you email him with any mentions of Wittgenstein on blogs that you come across?

I’m not quite sure he’s the correct philosopher for bloggers really. Didn’t he say something like "If you don’t know anything about it shut up"? Really not the blogging ethos now is it?

Upon that note I shall hie me to the pub and until next week:

Toodle Pip!