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.

Common Endeavour » David Dimbleby