Blogpower Roundup - Ian_QT

As Blogpower's newest member, I am only too happy to host the 2nd in what I hope will be a long-running series of weekly Blogpower Roundups.

Because Blogpower encompasses a wide variety of types of blogs, I have divided this roundup into 3 loose categories: Politics, Humour, and Miscellaneous.


Starting with Politics...

If I have the capacity to nominate a 'Post of the Week', then I hand the virtual golden statue to CityUnslicker of Capitalists@Work, for his summarization of the state in which the UK economy finds itself after just over 12 months of "Brown-out".

Brown, of course, doesn't see it quite like that - apparently us consumers are to blame (Critical Faculty Dojo)! On a related issue, Grendel is justified in telling Brown to get stuffed. Wolfie at Two Wolves really gets across quite how ridiculous Brown's paternalism is - and who the real culprits behind the 'food crisis' are.

Across the Atlantic, a 'food crisis' of a rather different type. An Insomniac highlights the absurdity of 'Wafergate' and the non-existent 'right not to be offended' that a certain type of religion-adherents can't get enough of exercising.

The 'Big Brother By-election' (Guthrum) in Haltemprice & Howden came and went this week. Was David Davis a fool or a hero for calling it (Tom Paine)? Were the Green party justified in claiming their second place (with under 8% of the vote) was a success (Norfolk Blogger)? Was the £200,000 spent a waste of public money, or relatively trivial (The Thunder Dragon, Matt Wardman)?

Another sort of liberty - that of the blogger: Harry's Place was sued by the British Muslim Initiative this week (Pub Philosopher, among others). My politics are a long way from those of HP, but this is one blog that needs defending at present. In Wales, a threat to online free speech of a different type as sacked civil servant blogger Christopher Glamorganshire takes his case to tribunal (Miss Wagstaff Presents).

The Tin Drummer ladles on the irony in his approach to a worrying story that belongs in the realm of satire, as does Benedict of A Conservative's Blog over the astounding tale of the confessing murderer who was sent to the back of the queue in a South London police station. Paulie (Never Trust a Hippy) wonders why the Irish were asked such a stupid question on June 12th.

At Cynical Chatter, The Morning Star chronicles his battle with depression, here describing the associated feelings of lowered self-esteem. Calum Carr campaigns for Mental Health For All at his blog pseudonymously, however he and his wife were named in an article published in the Edinburgh Evening News in which he details their struggle to get help from the NHS.

In London, Heather Yaxley of Greenbanana looks at the Porsche/GLA congestion charge controversy from a PR point of view. In Iran, Gracchii (Westminster Wisdom) gives a political view of 'Persepolis'. Finally, Bearwatch speculates on Zimbabwe.


Humour:

Some politics/humour cross-over to start with: Letters From A Tory is being crippled by Royal Mail cutbacks!

More satire from The Fake Consultant: All Suspicious Persons Will Be Monitored! and from Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe who asks if Scottish people are sick of being made fun of?

I know, I know, we shouldn't feed trolls. But sometimes it is just irresistible. Dirty European Socialist has pushed all the right buttons by starting a one-man 'Boycott The Tory Blogs!' campaign. Andrew Allison and Guthrum take the piss.

Apparently the search term that leads more people to Harry's Place than any other is 'roaring fork peace coalition adam holland'. No, I'm not too sure about that either. Split your sides with plenty more where that came from at The Wardman Wire.

Perhaps not to everyone's taste, but Theo Spark's camel-toe video (definitely NSFW) find made me grin, as did this photo of a very pointless 'special offer'.

The Poor Mouth marks the start of the Scilly season with a rather ill-thought-out job advert.


Miscellaneous:

There's been some stupendous photography showcased on Blogpower's blogs this week. DeeJay of Age Is All In The Mind got this post off to a great start with their safari photos from Tanzania, one of which illustrates this round-up.

Finding Life Hard has been holidaying in France, Sally In Norfolk has been Sally In Ireland this week, while Canadian JMB at Nobody Important has been a tourist in her own country, taking some lovely photos on a family day out in Steveston, British Columbia.

Closer to home, MJW at Observations From The Hillside has a review of the Ealing Beer Festival.

Onto food & drink: Coffee blog Cafe Grendel has a cafe review from Perth, WA with photos. To make something to eat with our coffee, we have tempting recipes from Chervil at Green Living - St Martin's Bread; and Sicily Scene - Pan Bagna.

Back in front of the keyboard again, Crushed By Ingsoc envisions his Internet Eden. Bob Piper has an overview of the main players in the UK political blogging scene from a left-blogging perspective. At Question That, I get down to the nuts & bolts of social bookmarking tools as I finally move into 2008 in the way I save pages for later reference.

Finally, Tuscan Tony has a test for you all. No sneaky peeking at the answers!


Non-Blogpower Blogs:

A few highlights of the week from outside the Blogpower community:

• Let Them Eat Bighand Thornyhead! The day after Gordon Brown exhorts us to cut down on food waste, take a look at the feast he is sitting down to (via Guido Fawkes)
  
  
• Chris Dillow on the uselessness of aggregate statistics when talking about violent crime rates.
  
  
• A Very British Dude on why he is in favour of direct democracy.
  
  
• Runaway leader of my personal 'best new blogger award' nominations, Leg-Iron of Underdogs Bite Upwards, on why photo-bloggers had better watch out. From the same blog, some rare praise for David Cameron.
  
  
• What if somehow New Labour were to win the next election? Old Holborn at LPUK blog is drooling in anticipation. No, really.