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Britblog Roundup #126

Welcome to a bumper roundup for this week. It’s been busy so there’s a lot here. Enjoy.

[Note: I have a broken link to the video - just sorting it out. OK sorted - but I have added a download link in case it is flaky].

[Update 17/7/2007: Radio 5 Live has now broadcast the Britblog Review on their Pods and Blogs programme. It is about 7 minutes.]

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Just an Exclusive – Trumping the News of the World

We had this just as the Roundup was published.

There was a story at the weekend in the News of the World about a married couple who lived apart because the benefit system was more favourable for them that way.

Mike Rouse has had a communication from the couple to his blog this morning suggesting that the true story is even worse than that reported by the News of the World.

Mike has the full article on his blog here.

Just Across the Trench

Over at The Shadow of the Olive Tree, the operations of the United Nations in North Korea are coming under scrutiny. Paris my Paris has a beautiful post about the Knights in the Arab World exhibition at the Institut du Monde Arabe.

Just Thinking

NHS Blog Doctor has a thoughful article about the GMC case of Michael Munro, and whether it is better to have legal euthanasia or illegal but implicitly accepted euthanasia which is termed “pain relief”. He is not kind to the General Medical Council. For lighter relief, he has another article about how to euthanise lobsters .

Just Not Thinking

On Comment is Free Tony Greenstein gets his statistics in a fandango, suggesting that this graph (from a Parliamentary Report on Anti-Semitic attacks) – pdf see page 14 – shows a falling trend. Needless to say, the comment thread on the original article is … er … vigorous.

Mr Eugenides unwrapped this particular humbug. A good example of the blogosphere fact checkers at work. Perhaps Comment is Free should get some of their own.

Just Marriage?

The StroppyBird takes a few potshots at Iain Duncan-Smith’s recent report. Marcus Wood throws some of them straight back again. Philip Blond and Adrian Pabst, writing on Our Kingdom, calls it visionary – but uses it as a platform for a different argument. If you want the report rather than opinions about it it is here – on a blog.

Just a Podcast

The BBC Radio 5 Live Pods and Blogs programme is going to become podcast. That didn’t take long, then. Today they are highlighting persecution of bloggers in the Far East .

Just Money, Greenery and Drudgery

Central News reports that Amber Valley Borough Council are charging £9.40 for sandbags to prevent flooding. Meanwhile, terra infirma is asking whether Internet shopping is good for the planet.

Sticking with Greenery, Tom Chance is finding errors in different versions of wikipedia, while Gaiain Economics sees as much value in “being” as “doing”.

Just Over the Border

In Wales the Welsh Blog Awards are coming to the end of voting, and the new Welsh Political News website is in Beta Test (disclosure: this is one of mine) – further information here.

Ordovicius has an interesting post about Shades of Nationalism.

And finally, everyone continues to argue about Shambo, the Temple Bullock with T.B. My suggestion is quite forward: if you want to keep a T.B. reactor alive, paint a stripe on it and call it a badger.

Just Across the Pond

The Thunderdragon has a brilliant set of proposals for solving the problem of the USA. This just missed the cut last week, but is good enough to bend the rules for.

Just Reeling from Ealing

There’s been a lot of “knockabout” going on in the Ealing by-election this week, and I’ve found the right theme tune for it. Play this while you are reading the next couple of paragraphs. If you are too young to understand (roughly <35) there’s a video segment and link at the bottom.

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Here, I’ll mention a couple of the more amusing spats.

Ealing Southall Watch has a demonstration of Liberal Democrat and Conservative bar charts. You be the judge.

Tom Watson (who is running the Labour Campaign) points out that the Conservative Candidate Tony Lit attended a Labour Party fundraiser less than a month ago at a cost of £4800 for a table and was photographed with Mr Blair (and posts a photo of the cheque), but fails to mention that it was an event about Diversity in Business and he attended in his corporate role. Iain Dale points out that £4800 is suspiciously close to the level – £5,000 – at which a donation has to be declared. I assume that they all do that.

Going the other way, Prague Tory points out all sorts of potential legal problems with Tom Watson’s action to do with Data Protection and Privacy. Tom Watson is ignoring it.

And a couple to wrap-up: Labourhome has a Lib Dem Election Diary; for some reason it stopped after one post. Stephen Tall has his usual Lib Dem Blog Roundup, including a post that would have saved everyone, and especially me, a lot of time.

And finally – there is a one man transparency task force on the loose. You have been warned.

Just Politics

The UK Polling Report provides an historical context for the Brown Bounce (or the “Blair finally gone” bounce) in the polls as an antidote to all the pollsters in short trousers who have forgotten John Major already. Apparently the best equivalent is Anthony Eden. Click the image for a larger version – the post has more.

Alex Hilton, who edits the Recess Monkey blog, has applied to become a Parliamentary Candidate in Liverpool. He has posted about his application online at Labourhome. As far as I am aware, this is a first.

18 Doughty Street had a gem of an interview with Paddy Ashdown this week in their One to One thread. For me, this programme is the jewel in their crown. Here, we have an hour of Paddy Ashdown reflecting on his experience in foreign affairs – and particularly on Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan and the lessons he hopes we have learnt. If you prefer shorter segments, Iain Dale posted one about Lib Dem Politics (10 minutes). There is further comment from Paul Walter and Gavin Whenman.

And another high profile Tory Blog broke cover this week – Platform 10, which is a “Cameronite” blog run by ex members of David Cameron’s team. Watch that space. But why is it on an International Domain if they are hoping for traffic from the UK?

Just a Roundup Roundup

As this will be our first week as a feature on the Radio 5 Live “Pods and Blogs” Programme, I thought I would introduce a couple of other “Roundups” and sources of News.

The Scottish Blogger Doctor Vee runs a weekly summary of Scottish Blogs. This has its own site – this week it is all about Scotland after John Smeaton.

The Times Comment Central Blog keeps daily track of opinion.

As far as I am aware, we are still awaiting a Welsh, English and Irish Roundup (hint, hint). If you are running one, give me a shout and I will add it to this article.

Just Sisters Under the Skin

So – finally – what was all that about Ealing and its theme tune?

Observing the election, the parties are like squabbling families – so alike yet they can’t stand each other, or sometimes themselves. They remind me of one of the original soap operas – “Soap”:

Soap was a parody of daytime soap operas presented in a primetime sitcom. Like soap operas, the show’s story was presented in a serial fashion and included melodramatic plot elements such as amnesia, alien abduction, demonic possession, murder, and kidnapping. (Link)

There you have the Ealing by-election – a parody of a parody of a melodrama. Enjoy it while it lasts; you have about 3 more days. I expect it to end like Soap:

The final episode contains several cliffhangers that are never resolved. These involve a suicidal Chester preparing to kill Danny and Chester’s second wife after catching them in bed, Jodie hypnotized to a past life where he was an old Jewish man, Burt preparing to walk into an ambush set up by his political enemies, and Jessica about to be executed by a communist firing squad.

Just a Metaphor for the Ealing Byelection (.wmv file)

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Download link (1Mb WMV).

And so to Bed

And that’s it for this week, except for this:

• The esteemed Poons is leaving the team after a stirring contribution for a battery recharge. You can see a couple of his previous contributions in the directory.
• The next Britblog roundup will be over at Clairwil’s, if the gods be with us.

And if this is insufficiently balanced, then send some suggestions to “britblog at gmail dot com” to tilt it the other way next week.

Tags: britblog roundup, matt wardman, podsandblogs[tags]britblog roundup, matt wardman, podsandblogs[/tags]