Top Stories and Blog Review Sunday January 18th
Nationwide
RIP Tony Hart 
Smith Cracks Down on Immigrants. Again.
Boris calls Gordon Gutless Over Heathrow…
… although He’s In Bother Again.
“Unnecessary” Childbirth Inductions on the Rise.
International
Five Die in Kabul Suicide Bombing.
Obama Begins the Journey to the White House.
Robert Mugabe’s Wife Beats Up Times Photographer.
European Regulators Go After Microsoft. Again.
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg
Sexual Intelligence has some tips for the new US surgeon General.
Mark Pack reviews a book about the internet on LDV, with special reference to how politics is affected.
UK Polling Report dissects the latest YouGov poll.
El Presidente Ros Scott made a speech in the Lords on transport the other day, and reproduces it at her blog.
Junkfood Science is a bit annoyed at the government’s Change4Life campaign.
Mr Gladstone is slightly miffed that Mr Darwin’s bicentennial is recieving rather more attention than his own (there’s a lot of dead bloggers about, these days, isn’t there?).
And, as usual, SepticIsle has more.
I’d coded most of this before I realised someone else had already done the news review part because normally I do it myself on a Sunday, and if not the post is waiting for me in Drafts; today it appears to have posted itself. For your edification then, the original person’s news picks are here. You can now have fun comparing and contrasting
Top Stories and Blog Review – 12th Jan
Nationwide
Cameron refuses to rule out Clarke despite Eurosceptics
Heathrow’s third runway to fall foul of EU rules
BBC chief backs merger of Channel 4 and Five
Prominent British Jews call for ceasefire in Gaza
International
Carbon cost of Googling revealed
Palestinian death toll tops 900
Few in U.S. see Al-Jazeera’s coverage of Gaza war
Emphasis on economy, Obama looks to history
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg
Charlie Brooker is looking for a wife. He can bog off if he thinks he’s having mine.
Renegade Evolution on Jacqui Smith’s proposals re: prostitution, with some notes on some feminist bloggers (note to the uninitiated: Ren Evol is a porn star, and is somewhat sweary. She’s almost certainly NSFW).
Hagley Road to Ladywood has a sterling post on how to deal with trolls.
(Probably not) The Daily Mail reports on Twitter’s inability to spot a parody (hat-tip: Helen Duffet).
The Honourable Lady Mark is wondering if frugality would help him to survive the credit crunch, and how to go about obtaining this frugality stuff.
Julian Hall posts about political comedy.
Political Betting’s Forecaster of the Year 2009 competition is live.
And finally, Perlmonger wants to know who you think would be the last home secretary standing, if all the surviving ones were locked in a room with nothing but water and very sharp knives till they ate each other (my vote is for Ken Clarke).
Top Stories and Blog Review – 11th January 2008
Gaza Protests in Pictures
Nationwide
Prince Harry is in bother again.
Brown courts Cameron and Milburn is back.
Primark employs illegal immigrants at less than half min wage (allegedly).
Parents of dead climber go to retrieve his body.
International
Hamas Rocket Chief is killed.
EU Gas Monitors deployed in Ukraine.
France bans advertising of mobile phones to children.
Hamas leader blames Israel shock.
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg
Andy Worthington soberly marks seven years of Gitmo.
Strange Frontier posts approvingly (albeit slightly swearily) about the Atheist Bus Campaign. Wardman Wire has a contrasting post.
Peter Black, AM likens the current Labour administration to John Major’s Tories (Spitting Image version)
Helen Duffet fangirls Darwin, and wonders what sort of a blogger he would have been (little does she know he also fanboys her work at LDV!)
Stephen Glenn and Septicisle have photo posts about the Gaza rallies.
UK Polling Report has two posts about the YouGov Euro poll.
Quick links to stuff that amused me: sexy Vince picture on political betting shock; Sunny has a fanboy even more shock; Alex Wilcock putting his Liberal boot in to the Apple Corporation YAY; and The Honourable Lady Mark is an international success (I think I may faint).
And finally, for those of you who just can’t get enough links, the 69th Carnival of Feminists is up at This is What a Feminist Blogs Like.
Top Stories and Blog Review – 6th Jan
Nationwide
Photographers criminalised as anti-terror laws abused
Bookmakers will be forced to pay £5m for studies
M&S cuts 1,000 jobs as fashion sales dive
Tories want tougher primary tests
International
Sarkozy leads int’l pressure; Israel rejects calls
Israelis deny using white phosphorus
Russia reduces gas flows to Europe
Germany ready for economic stimulus U-turn
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg
Andrew Hickey on why he is a Lib Dem.
Lynne Featherstone on why the number of female MPs matters.
Amused Cynicism reports on the début of Atheist Buses (with picture!).
Alas, a Blog! has more reasons why sexism hurts men too.
Rhetorically Speaking has issues with something in The Daily Mail (don’t we all?).
Pickwick punctures prejudice.
And McGillianaire marks the final passing of a British institution. Farewell Woolies.
Top Stories and Blog Review – 5th Jan
Nationwide
New powers for police to hack your PC
PM admits recession could last until 2011
Call to stop ex-ministers cashing in on contacts
Heathrow may get 4.5 billion pound rail hub
International
‘It breaks my heart to see Israel’s stupidity’
Israeli attack splits Gaza; truce calls are rebuffed
Hardliners play well to Israeli electorate
Mostly civilians at a Gaza hospital full of tears
EU sending delegation to Middle East
Obama plans to unveil big tax cuts
Baghdad bomb kills Shia pilgrims
Before election, Iran’s hard-liners crack down on reformists
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg
Mushkush is one of many posting about the proposed new police powers to covertly search YOUR hard drive.
Mr Quist doesn’t want us all to celebrate international fetish day next week at all, honest.
Peter Black AM is pointing out James Purnell’s idiocy.
Stephen Tall on LDV is bleary-eyed and wants your tips for how to get himself out of bed.
Lizbee has a slightly worrying royal comparison.
Casting back: Who remembers the cold war? Here are some Soviet Era maps of Britain for you to geek over.
And Jonathan Calder has this week’s Britblog roundup, and the first Scottish Roundup of the year is now up also.
Top Stories and Blog Review – 4th Jan
Nationwide
London protest ends in skirmishes with police
Disabled rights delay criticised
Clegg joins attack on VAT ‘waste’
Downgrade ecstasy to class B drug, say advisers
International
Death toll at 460 as Israel continues assault
Austria takes over bank hit by Madoff case
Sex and the superdelegates
Gas dispute has effects past Russia and Ukraine
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg
The world is going to hell in a handcart, credit is crunching, Gaza is imploding, and what’s the biggest story on the Blogosphere? The new Doctor Who. The first (and one of the best) of the reactions came from BBC insider Pickwick, but many others followed. Here are the ones that jumped out at me from the clamour: Alex Wilcock, Love and Garbage, Will Howells, Exmoor Cat, NetgirlY2K, Lizbee, Chicken Yoghurt, Baggage Reclaim, Andrew Hickey, Paul Mudie, James Graham, and the sainted GNeil.
In non-Who news: not much
Unity meets the new year, same as the old year.
Aldabra wishes the British government would stop throwing good money after bad.
Junkfood Science on the politicisation of food and the fact that the fandom word bansturbation has gone mainstream.
Dan Dan the Wikio Man gave me an exclusive.
And, as always, Septicisle has more.
Top Stories and Blog Review – 22nd Dec
Nationwide
Purnell u-turn on social fund interest charges
Tata leaps in to rescue Jaguar, Land Rover
Police chief accuses Tories of dirty tricks over Green
Blackouts will be common in 7 years
International
Some Arab women find freedom in skies
China protest decries custom of eating cats
U.S. no longer supports Zimbabwe power deal
Israel’s Livni, Netanyahu vow to topple Hamas
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg
Love and Garbage has a very moving post about Lockerbie 20 years on.
Andrew Hickey wonders why people are shocked that Obama has selected a gay-basher to bless his inauguration.
Lynne Featherstone wonders how deep the Haringey rabbit hole goes.
Chicken Turkey Yoghurt gets all exercised about the possibility of new powers for bailiffs.
Hagley Road to Ladywood wonders if Simon Cowell is killing music.
Mark Pack on Lib Dem Voice has more on Brian Coleman.
Will Howells dissects a typical Doctor Who rumour article.
Amused Cynicism has this week’s Britblog Roundup, and Malc in the Burgh has the Scottish Roundup.
Love-Bombing the Lib Dems
Something that my lovely fiancé has been predicting for a while has started to happen: Tory journalists are being worryingly nice to the Lib Dems. To some extent, this is function creep from Vince Cable’s elevation from third party economics spokesman
to all-knowing prophet of everything
. Only Robert Peston comes close to Vince’s level of respectedness on the economy now, and I don’t think that can be undervalued. But that isn’t a full explanation for what has been happening over the last few days. Tory journalists aren’t being grudgingly nice about Lib Dem politicians, they are actively lauding them. The Award-Winning Alix Mortimer spotted Quentin Tw… Quentin Letts doing it the other day, but what really brought it home to me was when we finally got around to watching the This Week Christmas Special tonight.
Take a look at the year in review segment. Try hard to weather Quentin discussing Gordon Brown’s buttocks (there has to be slash fiction in that) and wait for the final third, where they all discuss Clegg: both Letts and arch-Tory Nick Robinson are particularly nice – I nearly choked on my Blue Nun when Robinson (who was so horrendously misrepresentative of Clegg’s performance at conference) described him as Youthful, Charismatic, and looking increasingly likely to make a breakthrough
. But that’s not as worrying for me as agreeing with both of Letts’ points.
So why is this happening now? continue reading… »
Top Stories and Blog Review – Sunday 21st December
Nationwide
Brown Ally Hopes for June Election.
Stonehenge Solstice Celebrations.
Meanwhile Church Attendance is Collapsing,
and Labour MPs Back Disestablishment.
International
Warner Music pulls out of YouTube.
More violent Clashes in Athens.
Obama Cranks up Green Policies.
Shoe-Thrower was Brutally Beaten in Iraq.
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg
Zombie Darwin has been picking up his science news from an interesting source…
Hal Duncan is gambling with his immortal soul (and swearing lots as he does it)!
Jonathan Calder is also swimming into dangerous waters.
The Honourable Lady Mark is getting into ethical shopping.
236.com have exclusive pictures of the message written on the bottom of the shoes thrown at Bush (geek note: the shoes with the message on are Converse, you can tell from the soles. If you’re GOING to fake something… Still funny, though).
Similarly convincingly, StuffUCanUse has exclusive proof that the moon landings really were faked.
And, as usual, if you have time to kill you can hop on over to SepticIsle for more.
Democratising the Christmas Number One
There is a meme extant on the interwebz at the moment to prevent the X-Factor winner getting to Christmas number one, on the grounds that many music fans are sick of Simon Cowell being musical dictator of this country. A lot of people are buying the Jeff Buckley version of Halleluiah as thier protest. What you may not realise is that this is doing EXACTLY what the Cowell-meister WANTS you to do – for he owns the rights to the Jeff Buckley version too. For my part, I am in on a different Liberal Conspiracy.
If you want to join with me in the anti-Cowell conspiracy, now is the time to join in the world’s biggest RickRoll. Go forth and buy Rick Astley before the end of today. It’ll cost you less than a quid, and it’ll help a British icon enjoy his retirement. Go on, you know it makes sense. Links to various chart-eligible online stores are below the more tag…
Left-right tribalism is meaningless and counterproductive
Our beloved Editor-in-chief had a go at Nick Clegg earlier today. There are a lot of things I want to pick up on from his piece, so bear with me if this gets a little Unity-esque. Those of you who are looking for what’s in the title might wish to skip to the final section.
Top Stories and Blog Review – 15th Dec
Nationwide
Barclays sees UK house prices falling further
Missing GP to return to the UK
Virgin Media broadband to go to 50mb
Two banks exposed to ‘$50bn con’
International
Gaza families eat grass as Israel locks border
Japanese business sentiment dives further
Turkish academics in apology to Armenians
Rich-poor rift adds hurdles to climate deal
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg
Martin Robbins thinks effective democracy is contingent on the importance of science. Why is the government cutting funding to it again?
Unlock Democracy is celebrating 20 years of charter 88.
Anton Vowl asks what Frank Spencer can teach us about the Iraq conflict.
James Graham shows why he got Lib Dem Blogger of the Year a couple of years ago with three great entries: on Brian Coleman, Lembit Opik and equality of representation in politics.
PC Bloggs proves that amongst the weaponry employed by modern police officers are irony, sarcasm, and biting wit.
XKCD made me crack out laughing aloud today.
As did the video of shoes being thrown at Dubya, which you can see hosted by Jonathan Calder here.
And Mr Eugenides has this week’s Britblog roundup.
Top Stories and Blog Review – 14th Dec
Nationwide
The 50 Most Ludicrous Britons (vote for them).
Value of pound is slipping below the Euro.
British doctor freed in Bangladesh after marriage plot.
Ed Stourton lashes out at BBC after sacking.
International
Bush pays farewell visit to Iraq.
Retd British army officer on the Greek riots.
Basque separatists go to war over environment.
White House u-turn over car firms bailout.
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg
Obviously the big story is who won the X Factor. Meral Ece is pleased; Andy McSmith less so. Meanwhile, James Graham is joining the campaign for anyone other than the winner to be Christmas #1. Lets roll! Rickroll, that is.
Spirit of 1976 gives a frontline social worker’s reaction to the Baby P March that our Lynne went on.
Mark Pack delves into the hypocrisy of Brian Coleman. More on this from Mat later, if I can get him out of bed
El Staplador has tips for how to have a Recycled (and thus, less consumerist) Christmas. Gordon Brown (who wants us to spend spend spend) would be appalled.
UK Polling Report and John Rentoul analyse the latest from ComRes.
Lib Dem Voice reveal that Unlock Democracy have a cunning plan for a Private Member’s Bill. I think this is worth getting behind. It could be *gasp* a proper Liberal Conspiracy.
Hagley Road to Ladywood has come over all Jim Royle about the De Menezes verdict.
And, as usual, head on over to SepticIsle for more.
Top Stories and Blog Review – 9th Dec
Nationwide
Traditional subjects go in schools shake-up
Ministers rush to defend Speaker public rebuke
Deep price cuts bring shoppers back to stores
Irish pork contamination probed
International
Will Keynes save the world again?
Police shooting sparks riots in Greece
Pakistan’s spies aided militants tied to Mumbai
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg
The Award-Winning Alix Mortimer has a date with Steve Webb on Lib Dem Voice, and you (yes, YOU!) can be a gooseberry if you like.
Millennium Elephant is sick of the lauding of “hard-working families” and thinks we should work to live, not live to work. Hear, hear.
John Rentoul dissects the figures from the Obama campaign and comes up with some interesting conclusions.
Jonathan Calder reacts to the loss of a Lib Dem member.
James Graham was less than utterly impressed by the Climate March.
Hagley Road to Ladywood bemoans the hypocrisy of the press.
Political Betting examine the situation in Canada.
And Ros Scott has a bunch of (unpaid, natch) job adverts for Lib Dem committees.
Job-Hunting? Be Careful Who You Work For…
In this time of economic uncertainty, you might be laid off by your current employer. Nobody is safe. Hell, even civil servants are facing cutbacks. You’re unemployed, you’re worried where your next meal is coming from, and you’re desperate not to be labelled a filthy scrounger by James Purnell. So you go job-hunting.
Gentle reader, beware. Not all employers are created equal. For instance, there are many companies involved with the government’s much-lauded ID card scheme, and its attendant database. Do not, under any circumstances, accept a job with one of these companies, even if it means you have to downgrade from Ocado to Sainsbury’s for your internet shopping. Why? Because any company that is even slightly involved with the ID card scheme had to sign this non-disclosure agreement (hat tip: wikileaks).
Take a look at clause 5. It’s entirely possible that your boss signed this, if you work for IBM, Fujitsu, Computer Sciences Corporation, EDS or Thales, or various other people who might be involved with this as subcontractors, so go ahead and take a look. Clause five gives “the Authority”, i.e. the home secretary, extremely sweeping powers of search and seizure over not only the companies involved, but all their subcontractors, their employees, and their subcontractors’ employees. Without warrant. Without warning. Without sense. For the next 25 years.
The Times has run with this, and has comment from Shami and No2ID. I haven’t seen it splashed over any front pages or anything, though. How many more salami-slices is it going to take before the general public wakes up and starts to care about this creeping erosion of our liberties? Surely the if you’ve done nothing wrong, you’ve nothing to fear
brigade will have to have their heads pulled out of their arses the sand soon?
Top Stories and Blog Review – 7th Dec
Nationwide
London doctor is held as forced marriage hostage
Bill to allow Commons searches with no warrant
Ministers fight to keep late abortions secret
Welfare mothers to be forced to work
International
Obama pledges public works on a vast scale
Thieves winning online war, maybe in your PC
Indian Muslim protest against Mumbai attacks
World Bank warns of possible Gaza bank collapse
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg
Andrew Ducker reports on the secret censoring of the internet by UK ISPs, with clickable examples. Comments to this are worth reading too.
Lynne Featherstone has news from Zimbabwe.
Political Betting examine the story that one of Gordon’s Cabinet might be leaking to the Tories.
Aldabra has pictures of yesterday’s climate march.
The Honourable Lady Mark has tales of job cuts in the civil service, and what this will mean for the Man on the Clapham Omnibus.
Millennium Elephant’s daddies have been having a bit of a rough week, but they were all cheered (as I was) by the recent British Space Mission.
Peter Black dissects the DNA database, with a little help from Chris Huhne.
And this week’s links from Septicisle appear to be a Karen Matthews special…
Climate Change March Unearths a Scandal in the Lib Dems
Some disturbing news has come to light in the progress of the Climate Change March which is going on in central London as I type. Fellow Lib Dems? We have been infiltrated. James Graham just confessed on twitter that he and Helen Duffett are one and the same, and he’s actually a Slitheen in human clothing. He’s also claiming to be Will Howells, Tom Watson and Stephen Fry.
Follow the unfolding insanity of what happens when you let Lib Dems loose on a protest march with mobile phones and twitter accounts at #climatemarch or Lib Dem Tweets.
In related news, did you know that if you google for James Graham, the third result is “Graham’s Celestial Bed“? LMAO!
More seriously, the Mainstream Media appear to be completely ignoring the Climate March. Has anyone spotted any coverage in the papers or on the telly?
Wikio Charts – Sneak Preview
Dan Dan the Wikio Man sent me a little present today – a sneak preview of this month’s Wikio Politics chart. Care for a nosey?
Top Stories and Blog Review – 1st Dec
Nationwide
UK ‘closer’ to adopting the euro
RBS delay in pursuing customers
Is the Indy losing its independence?
Charities face a £2.3bn funding black hole
International
Swiss back scheme to give addicts free heroin
India-Pakistan relations strained as attacks probed
One man’s Military-Industrial-Media complex
Publishers bet big on Obama
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg
Susan Kramer launches the Lib Dems’ new childcare policy.
Boing Boing has an update on the story of Australia’s Censorware.
Steve Webb is crusading for the end of sexism in pension provision.
Stephen Glenn has a post for World Aids Day.
Lib Dem Voice has comment on Nick Clegg (allegedly) slagging off his colleagues. For more on this, see here, here, here, here and here.
And the Britblog Roundup is on Philobiblon this week.
Top Stories and Blog Review – 30th Nov
Nationwide
Darling: The economy needs another boost
UK rides high in new index of casual sex
PM urged to condemn MP’s arrest
Mandelson targets viable companies
Oh yeah, and for viewers in Scotland? Happy St Andrew’s Day.
International
India faces reckoning as toll eclipses 170
Mumbai: How the attacks unfolded
Indian allegations alarm Pakistan
Wal-Mart worker dies at sale stampede
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg
Alex Wilcock has a post which ought to be entitled Guiding Principles of Libralism 101: Part 1, The Rule of Law, but for some reason, isn’t.
Lynne Featherstone has read the Baby P Serious Case Review, and gives her views on the little she is allowed to talk about.
Amused Cynicism is exposing a scam.
John Rentoul, along with a load more Indy journos, is blogging on Livejournal now. Here he is examining the latest polls and eviscerating Richard Littlecockjohn.
Feminist SF has a huge slew of posts to celebrate Feminist SF blogging day.
On the Damian Green thing, I’m not sure if I like Septicisle or Chicky Yog best, so you can have both and decide for yourselves.
Andrew Hickey is being very helpful to the people who arrive at his blog having searched for unlikely combinations of words.
And, as ever, Septicisle has a big pile more links for you if you have time to kill.
You can read articles through the front page, via Twitter or rss feeds.
» How bad is the feline obesity crisis?
» Why don’t MPs pay back tuition fees instead of increasing ours?
» Obama is right to slam BP – and why capitalists should too
» Why does Phillip Blond see civic cohesion as a security issue?
» So what if the Labour candidates went to Oxbridge?
» Last night’s Labour hustings: will it get interesting or turn to torture?
» It’s now down to Ken to win London for Labour
» The Labour people need
» Blog Nation: what would you like to see discussed?
» The Labour leadership’s token contender.. and it’s not Diane Abbott
» In defence of these fraternal nominations
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