Here we go with this week’s Britblog Review. It is number 131. This week the roundup is quite tall.

This week the Britblog team may be retiring. Our email account received information that we have won an Islamic Lottery. We have won $500,000 in cash, but we are advised to keep quiet about it - I wonder why.

Cartoons

Before you read these, note that I have agreements with these cartoonists to reproduce their cartoons on the Wardman Wire - so do not reproduce them willy nilly without visiting their blogs and checking the terms; they will all let you use their work on your blog but in the ways that they have defined. Both Matt Buck and Dave Walker make a living from their cartoons, so please respect their terms. OK - now you can enjoy.

Hugh McCleod at GapingVoid is having a bumper week:

which has gone downhill:

and left him feeling cynical:

while Dave Walker is running out of ideas (go and give him some):

Sport

Given that the football season is just starting, Alex Massie has written an article about imaginary games of cricket when he was a mere whipper-snapper.

Exams

The Sharpener suggests that teenagers are rather friendly after all. Still on teenagers, Liberal England argues that the drift towards easier exams actually makes life more difficult for those taking them. Central News weighs in as well. James Graham does a sort of polite nipple count on the celebration pictures, and praises the Daily Mail as the paper not to focus on nubile teenage girls (I’m being kind - the link could have gone on “nipple count” or “Daily Mail”).

Continuing with the exhaustive analysis of A-Levels, As a Dodo writes an obituary more in hope than anticipation.

Further analysis at Burning our Money.

Politics

Moving into politics, Hot Ginger and Dynamite writes a piece entitled “London needs a Liberty Angel”, analysing the development of the London Database State, and the loss of privacy for citizens. Matt Buck over at Hack Cartoons has done a fantastic cartoon on the similar subject of ID Cards:

Quaequam Blog does a financial analysis of the money Labour will give to the Tories attempting to shipwreck Boris’s mayoral chances.

Chicken Yoghurt writes of a potential Legal Challenge to Government over an Independent 7/7 Enquiry.

[Update:

Rachel North has full detail of the potential legal challenge.

Darshna Shoni at Channel 4 News looks at the issue in the context of the Inquiry Act 2005. (via Bridget Dunne.]

Nearly there

Moving into the home straight, Grumpy Old Bookman bewails the gelatine backbones of British publishers compared to the Americans, prompted by our libel laws. Philobiblon writes about the degrading quality of the soil and its effects in a fascinating post. Ambulance Man gives an account of how allocation of emergency vehicles works from the inside. And Trick Cycling for Beginners covers how non-smoking enforcement in the NHS has moved into Carry-On territory with spies in the flower beds - in other words, they are spending your drugs money on electronic nagging machines.

Health and Safety

One of the jobs of blogs is to help groups talk to each other who normally exist in separate worlds, and I’ve been causing trouble in the Health and Safety world.

On The Wardman Wire I’ve been looking at what Health and Safety Officers call “Bonkers Conkers” stories - an equivalent from the Health and Safety world of “EU outlaws bent banana” rumours.

It all started with an item on the Radio claimed that balloons had been banned from a children’s party for Health and Safety Reasons.

My article is here includes a rebuttal interview with Radio 4. There was a response from the President of the Institution of Occupational Health and Safety, no less (she even has a blog). They also had an interview on Radio 4, and a vigorous discussion on their public forum. Good Fun.

[Update:
A good example of a Bonkers story from a few weeks ago is the “£400k to be spent to replaces benches 2 inches too low at Bramcote Crem“: Daily Mail story , Derby Gripe follow-up, Sun follow-up, Blog Article, “H&S Nazi” Blog Article, Another Blog Article and the Actual Facts from the Five Chinese Crackers Blogger who (unlike all the others, including the papers) bothered to phone them up. The moral: swat these stories soon.]

Lunch

[Update: one I missed:

Welshcakes Limencello over at Sicily Scene often features gorgeous recipes on her blog. This week she excelled herself and had a Bank Holiday meal with six dishes (7 if you count the dog).

Dr Who

Since Dr Who is currently being repeated, I’ll take a post out of time. The BBC World Service - in the BBC World Service’s best style - has a Guide to how to use Phwoar! for those learning English. It is - apparently - now used by both sexes; by men about women, or by women about the few men who qualify, to mean “looking at someone in an enthusiastic way”. Listen below - 1980s words in a 1950s style.

If you hear lots of Germans going about saying “Phwoar!” to startled Brits with hairy armpits - you know whose fault it was.

The recommended reply - apparently - is “Don’t mention the Phwoar!”. Better move swiftly on…

A big story we missed that needs coverage next week

And one to prime you for next week - a very important story that has received very little coverage. The Press Complaints Commission has ruled that it will regulate the online versions of printed publications (i.e., newspaper websites). This has implications for bloggers - as it effectively splits the online commentary marketplace into regulated and unregulated sections. That raises a lot of questions, which I hope will get picked up this week. The full story - which all bloggers should study - is in the Independent.

Various questions arise - including whether bloggers would gain more authority if they applied to be regulated. The only blogger who noticed (apart from me asking for articles) was Green Banana who writes from a PR viewpoint. More analysis please, O Bloggers.

If the Islamic Lottery does not come through, the Britblog Roundup will back next week.

Don’t forget to listen to the Audio Version at about 2:30am on Tuesday morning on Radio 5, or p-p-p-p-pick-up the podcast via the Pods and Blogs blog, or keep an eye on the Archive that is hosted here.

By the way - recommendations for next week from Islamic readers will be very welcome, as they will be from anyone else. Send them to “britblog AT gmail DOT com”.

And that is a bumper crop for another week.

Tags: britblog roundup, britblog

[tags]britblog roundup, britblog[/tags]