Let’s start with a brilliant resource for all Brit bloggers: localmouth, a way to find local blogs wherever you are in the
Which takes us to the looming
The Heresiarch is having a magnificent run of form. On Lotfi Raissi:
His case should have served as a terrible warning of the way in which New Labour legislation has left the extradition system wide-open to abuse – both with regards to the unequal treaty with the United States and the similar, but more "equal", European Arrest Warrant.
And on Cleggmania which by some chance may or may not be related to Dianamania:
Diana’s posthumous triumph was at least as much Blair’s, though neither Paul nor John Q mention him. He rode the tidal wave of sentimentality and shallow grief with the skill of a champion surfer.
The Diana moment was about the triumph of feeling over logic, but it was also about the desire for a change of mood, an end to the old way of doing things, shaking off the shackles of deference and tradition. In a strange way, it was about hope. And it was democratic – though very far from being egalitarian – but also, as democratic sentimentality tends to be, rather bullying.
There does seem to be a generalised, unfocused, frustrated ennui in this country at the moment. Which translates into ‘hang the lot of them’ outbursts.
Brain Barder (and lucid commenters) helpfully analyse options for the ensuing machinations if Parliament is merely well hung rather than severely hanged.
Kate Smurthwaite (‘a young woman whose principal interests are secularism, feminism and stand-up comedy’) offers us a strange election video which (I assume) attempts to combine secularism, feminism and stand-up comedy.
The polls have Labour languishing in third place, a result as richly deserved as it is remarkable.
Andrew Ian Dodge: A volcanic eruption isn’t the only event causing chaos in the
Huh? Chaos? Or freedom in action?
Elsewhere from the Dodgeblogium: Why Camaron is Bad for
Not as bad as sloppy spelling?
What are elections really for, anyway? To help the government do old stuff better, or new stuff well? Isn’t the real problem that in fact today’s feverishly active style of government does more harm than good?
We hear a lot about banks and huge corporations causing untold damage by being Too Big To Fail. But isn’t this the very problem with government? It’s Too Big. And it’s Failing.
Counting Cats reminds us of earlier times how the poor were once libertarians:
The poor had to be done away with and replaced with something more acceptable to higher class tastes and, by all kinds of social activism and regulation they were, to a large extent, done away with as, their petty capitalism squeezed out by the State, they were dragooned into a compliant workforce for factories run by bewhiskered, interfering philanthropists who voted for Victorian Nick Cleggs.
And in the end, they all got their council flats and a better wage, and all they had to give in return was their spirit.
Or, if you want more government-created tragedy, Ambush Predator describes the way the state has tried to bring nature – and our appreciation of nature – under busybody control:
By harassing and hounding people who pick up stones from a beach, by carpeting the countryside with ‘Don’t Touch…!’ signs, they hope to freeze people into a permanent state of worry, where the only safe thing is to do nothing at all.
Tim Worstall is aghast on the same theme: 1984 was a warning, not an instruction manual…
And up in Scotland, Neil Craig thinks that all politicians have gone insane on green issues:
Holyrood has voted unanimously to destroy 42% of our CO2 producing electricity generating capacity (as well as 100% of nuclear) over the next 10 years. Since electricity closely correlates to GNP, this means destroying half our national wealth because "environmentalist" calculations purport to show that last year’s barbecue summer & mild winter are harbingers of a warming even more catastrophic than such destruction.
I assume, from the fact that the Scottish media have been broadly supportive of this Climate Change Act that they have satisfied themselves that, at least over catastrophic global warming, the alarmist’s arithmetic is entirely correct. If there were any doubt our leaders would have to be, unanimously, clinically insane to have legislated such destruction.
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The point, folks, is that there are only three organised political tendencies of consequence in this country now:
- ‘social market’ + more-EU (best represented by the Lib Dems)
- ‘market social’ + less-EU (best represented by the Conservatives)
- ‘market social’ + quit-the-EU (best represented by UKIP)
Alas we have three parties squabbling over the first two spaces.
Me, I’m voting for the Conservatives who (unlike the more-EU Lib Dems and gasping, grasping Labour) know that without encouraging business and private initiative things will continue to deteriorate. Plus Labour and Lib Dems together bundled through into law the EU’s Lisbon Treaty in the face of clear public hostility, breaking a clear pledge to the electorate at the last election. Nuff said.
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Enough of fetid politics.
Back in the fresh air of real life, and the real life of fresh air, wildlife photographer Andy Rouse has super pictures showing Spring springing.
UK Nature Blog finds a new bat.
In a more urban context, thank goodness for a blog devoted to superb suits.
Suits? Shoes! I don’t think this next one is a British Blog even if it sells itself as such, for SEO purposes no doubt. But who cares? It redefines the English language in a zany Asian direction – and has some freaky cool women’s shoes:
The signality a Christian Louboutin shoes features should not be underestimated. Think about it. If your feet firmly on the ground, the rest of you, if you to not run. Shoes slipping on wet grass or shoes that are for the nails of the drought could reduce the game and you succeed at the end of the day free. It is not always necessary, you can buy a new pair of Christian Louboutin shoes.
In many cases a good cleaning effect and galleries is all you need to do. Put your old tunnel is an easy job. It may take several minutes, but when you’re done, you’ll definitely make a difference in your walking shoes.
Back inside the classroom teaching English, a blog about Whiteboards and interactive classroom technology.
In more reflective mode? Try an elegant intelligent blog about less well known British classical music. Such as the Bluebird suite by Norman O’Neill:
… in his day he was a composer to be reckoned with and made a major contribution to concert and recital room music. However he is perhaps best remembered for composing incidental music to many plays written for the West End Theatres between 1900 and 1933…
Alas most of this music has been lost in the mists of time: however one Suite has survived, albeit rather precariously – the Four Dances from Maeterlinck’s play The Bluebird. The play opened at the Haymarket on 8 December 1909 and is very much a work of its day. It has been compared to Algernon Blackwood’s Prisoner in Fairyland (Elgar’s Starlight Express) and
I suspect he’s right. But it does remind us that once upon a time there was an innocent world before X-Box and padded bras for little girls (aaargh, a subject which brings us sadly back to politics again).
Finally, two overseas Britbloggers.
Over in
The Seinäjoki Tango Festival is held yearly and attracts over 100 000 viewers … I must say that from first impressions there is not a lot in Seinäjoki, being an agricultural area there are mainly fields and barns, but this area transforms in to a Mecca for Tango lovers in July of each year.
The Polandians join the crowds in
It’s 2 am as I post this. There is a profound and absolute silence over the city. The story is over. What is next for
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The next Roundup is hosted by Philobiblon. Nominations to britblog @ gmail.com
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