Common Endeavour » BNP

Morning roundup, Tuesday 5th May 2009

Sadie Smith — Tue, 05 May 2009 05:27:32 +0000

It's thirty years since Thatcher became Prime Minister, and the entire blogosphere has gone Maggie ker-AZY! ConservativeHome appears to have a "Margaret and me. But mostly meme" on, with this from John Bercow on how she inspired him to join the Young Conservatives, and Liberal Lord Alton tells all about his part in her triumphs. There is also a link to the BBC's "politically incorrect" coverage - a description bestowed entirely, it would appear, because Robin Day is [drumroll] smoking a cheroot. Cool. Does that, like, make me a James Dean-alike too?

The Labour wing is also in retrospective mood. Paul Burgin and Tom Harris get their teeth into a 1979 meme, Don Paskini wonders how the Tories got their reputation for economic competence in the face of all of the available evidence, and the chaps at Frank Owen's Paintbrush have been watching the BBC Thatch-a-thon and reveal that Dimbers was trying to pull the ol' "good golly, I'm a bumbling national institution!" schtick even then;
Is Hazel Blears' intervention the beginning of the end for the Gord? A Very Public Sociologist thinks not;
Hopi Sen has a Blairite defence of Gordon Brown;
John Rentoul fisks Jackie Ashley (there's an image) on the BNP;
Am I the only one muttering "bah, humbug!" in response to the Evening Standard's pisspoor "sorry campaign"? The Liberal Conspiracy seems to love it - probably because it feeds into the "everyone is evil and must apologise to ME" narrative so beloved of media commentators and bloggers of recent years;
... and Anton Vowl looks at the Daily Mail's coverage of sexual violence trials passim to find out just who, and in what circumstances, it's okay to rape.

Morning roundup, Thursday 19th February 2009

Sadie Smith — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:17:23 +0000

Dame Vera Lynn takes on the BNP. Does anybody know where we can donate? Go, Vera, GO!
Abu Qatada's deportation papers are signed, and Frank Owen's Paintbrush is perplexed at some of the commentary surrounding the issue;
Olly's Onions continues his rich vein of form with this offering on the alleged Brown-Harriet smackdown (the Telegraph has more, via the Spectator), but an honourable mention must go to his modern day rendering of Spartacus which is sheer genius;

Cameron is attacked for his "populism" by one of his own donors. Ruh roh!
Don Paskini is all, "oh! Think twice, it's just another day for you and me in paradise!" to Phil Collins over his latest comments in the Times. No, not THAT Phil Collins. The other one. We think;
Hopi Sen laments the "new consumerism" inherent in the Tories' localism plans;
Kerry McCarthy MP on children's privacy;
... and not strictly about politics this one. However if you, like me, experienced the twin horrors of Saturday Kitchen where Worrell-Thompson was blaming a recent slump in trade at his restaurants on the Gord and a screaming hangover, this article by Joe Joseph provides a marvellously effective, if belated, aspirin.

Morning roundup, Tuesday 3rd February 2009

Sadie Smith — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 07:06:09 +0000

While you were sleeping ... bloggers started looking into the support for the Wildcat strikes in earnest, the spectre of the BNP looms large over politics, the public transport system's probably still br0ked by the snow, and Cambridge undergraduate gets confused at talk of Chinese premier and starts behaving as if he were taking part in a Varsity rugby match. Japes, eh?

The day begins with a courageous charge over the top on the part of Unity and Harry's Place who are suggesting that the British Wildcats website is nothing more than a BNP front;
Meanwhile the UK Polling Report looks at what will happen to BNP support come the May elections;
The new craze for hurling Jimmy Choos at leaders one doesn't approve of continues: this time the victim is the Chinese PM. As no less a philosopher than Austin Powers once said, "A shoe? Who throws a shoe?"
Recess Monkey, Carol Vorderman, and that advert she did about "replacing the boiler." You're writing the jokes yourselves now, eh?
And via Devil's Kitchen comes a widget that allows you to put your own slogan on the side of the bus, in the manner of the atheist bus campaign without the gurning sanctimony.