[tony blair] great peacetime prime minister

I didn't think I'd ever agree with Bob Piper but check this out:

Now, I suppose you can overlook Thatcher's little skirmish in the South Atlantic when talking about wars, but can someone please explain how Tony Blair can be included in a poll of peacetime Prime Ministers!

But the best thing about Bob is that he supports Yorkshire in the Roses so the man's clearly no fool.

[blogfocus thursday] bookended by classicists

1 The thinking man's blogger, Heraclites, [please note - Tiberius], says most people would agree that one of the key political issues is this:

"How can talented children from poor backgrounds have the same opportunity as those from wealthier backgrounds?" To assess where we are in terms of this goal, we can look at data on social mobility. The problem is, the data can only be interpreted in conjunction with data about heritability of talent.

Say, for the sake of argument, that “ability” is 100% inherited and has no environmental component.

Another reason to check out this blog is that it is a watering hole for the excellent Nigel Sedgwick, whom I miss.

2 Martin Kelly is back and breathing fire:

"Do not read further if you want balanced commentary and thoughtful nuance." Thus does the Eastern European correspondent of 'The Economist' headline his reproduction of his most recent wordvomit concerning Beast Putin.

I am perfectly prepared to go toe to toe with Lucas about Russia, in a time and place of his choosing - does he have the guts to go for it?

3 Robert Sharp reflects on the contest that is Eurovision:

After watching the annual song contest, beamed to us this year from Helsinki, I cannot help but think that we British are very different from the rest of our European neighbours. There must be something in the water. I thought the commentary of our own national treasure, the Irishman Terry Wogan, epitomised these differences — although perhaps not in the way he might expect.

Year after year, he and we mock Eurovision with glee, pointing out how seriously everyone takes the contest, while we participate with our tongues in our cheek. This year, however, that same attitude boomeranged back to slap us in the face.

4 Char has discovered this nifty thing about birthdays. If you want sheer unbridled joy in a blog - Char's your girl:

I just found this really nifty thing over on one of my fave bloggity reads... Do you know what day you were born? Not date silly! What day of the week? Don't worry, neither did I. Wanna find out? Sure you do. Go and have a look.

5 MJW is another from the stable of britpolit bloggers and he does it well:

I’m glad that the Government has finally come out and admitted that there is a possible future for nuclear power. I know there is a huge anti-nuclear lobby out there who’ll scream blue murder at this and there is also a closely related and increasingly rabid green lobby that will see it as a missed opportunity to push renewable energy sources no matter if they are still some way from being a serious practical solution to the UK’s energy needs.

6 Six for the price of one today with Bob from Brockley and while you're there - check out the post below it as well:

Here are some of the things I've enjoyed in the last couple of days.

Paul Anderson posted a couple of great blues videos from YouTube.

The Bristol Blogger on the strange death of anarchist England (on the BNP and Indymedia)

Jonathan Freedland finds reasons to be optimistic about the Ehud Olmert debacle

Hak Mao on Scottish so-called socialists

A good old lefty joke at Red Left Review

Added at the end of a long Friday afternoon:

Chris D re-assures us that mid-life crises are the beginnings of true knowledge (with quotes from Adam Smith to prove it). So that's OK then. Have a good weekend.

7 Beaman gives us the tale of Malcolm, which Wife in the North might find interesting::

The terrible image of a cat dangling from the fence, caught on a nail or wooden lattice, swamped my mind. I visualised the animal scrapping desperately at the wall, trying to free its leg or tail from some flagitious fixture. The squeaking could only be the whimpering of the poor beast in abominable pain. There was only one thing to do.

I jumped out of bed as quickly as I used to on Christmas mornings as a child. Unfortunately I had forgotten the pile of books that decorate my floor and tumbled over. I got up, brushed myself down and without bothering with the task of putting underwear and clothes on, rushed to the window and ripped the curtains open.

8 To book-end this evening's focus on a classical note, football is a classic sport, as Electro-Kevin would tell you:

The phrase 'bread and circuses' was first penned by the Roman poet Juvenal to describe how low cost/low quality food and entertainment was used to keep the masses happy whilst the Arts, public works projects, human rights and democracy were degraded - does some of that sound familiar to you ? Are we all trapped in Juvenal's play, Satiracal X ? It seems an essential attribute for politicians to have is an interest in 'the beautiful game' and I wonder if this is because football is so good or if it is simply because football is so powerful at this time?

Hope to see you Saturday evening.

[atlanticist quiz] questions across the pond [second round]

You ready there? OK, let's go:

1 Which two northern English counties are misnamed - they should retain the old suffixes -ria? [My opinion of course]

2 Bix Beiderbecke, Bill Bryson, Herbert Hoover, Cap Anson - need any more? Corn! Which state?

3 Which county adjoins seven others, inc. Shropshire and is landlocked? It's famous for a type of bull-terrier.

4 The twelfth-largest state by area, 60% live in the Twin Cities and the state is known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes". Which state?

5 Which county, in Sassenach form, was Forfarshire? Some towns include Arbroath -- largest town, Auchmithie, Brechin and the Bridge of Craigisla?

6 America's Cup 1983, don't forget "Providence Plantations"; it's not an island and the state officially adopted the nickname “the Ocean State" as nearly one tenth of its inland area is covered by salt water. Which state?

7 One of the thirteen historic counties, most of it became Gwynedd later. Waterfalls and small lakes are numerous, the largest being Bala Lake. What was its name?

8 Big Kahuna. Which state?

9 This county was the traditional stronghold of the various O'Neill clans and lost much of its territory to Londonderry.

10 Area code is 907 and its name means "alaxsxaq", literally meaning "object toward which the action of the sea is directed". Which state?

Answers here.

[under construction] blogrolls changing

Sick as a dog today [genuinely] with stomach spasms so a golden opportunity to do the blogrolls which have been on the mind.

They're basically done but there'll be movements now they're in place. Please don't judge anything until late this evening - I'll be going over and over them, remedying errors and shifting bloggers around in the rolls.

[he's back] the wanderer returns

He's back!!!! With chutzpah.

[anatole kaletsky] keep your eye on balls and osborne too

Another interesting snippet from UK Daily Pundit:

Future Chancellor Ed Balls and future Prime Minister, George Osborne, must have behaved themselves at last year's Bilderberg conference - they've been invited back.

UKDP links to the full list, under the title: Welcome to the Lunatic Fringe.

Despite the accurate description - it is indeed madness to pursue an agenda of the financing of wars and the reduction of the population in holocaust proportions and why you'd wish to enslave mankind is beyond me if we can't even get our own lives in order - it seems to me to be a little different.

The Bilderbergers are not the only group - the CFR and Trilateral spring to mind but one can add Club of London, Club of Paris and International Adjustments - and if you're a young, say, Ed Balls and have your eye on the prize, the talent spotters will contact you.

It seems not unlike the things we do as bloggers. To further ourselves, we do Facebook, MyBlogLog, RSS feeds, bloglines and all the little tricks to get the traffic moving.

It's also a series of clubs. As GK Chesterton put it:

You did not have to be anyone in order to be one of the Twelve Fishers; unless you were already a certain sort of person, you never even heard of them. It's president was Mr. Audley. It's vice-president was the Duke of Chester.

There was a brief time when I was a young man of promise [later to be a young man of promises, as Churchill put it]. One didn't belong to one group - one hoped to belong to all.

There's a certain kind of man [and woman] for whom exclusivity is an end in itself. This is what these people play on - the carrot is the clubby hush-power and the cut and thrust of repartee with the highest and the best.

The stick is the constant reminder of the great unwashed and where you'd end up should you not play ball. Cleese's skit about the Architects is right on the money.

Mr. Kaletsky and Mr Balls are playing ball. Mr. Osborne appears to be doing so as well.

[medium is the message] fora and blogs

A non-blogger asked why to maintain a blog when a person could just use MySpace or whatever to meet people. I think the best answer I can find is to quote from a forum. The question was:

Do you ever get over your first love?

Here were some of the replies:

Hey Madonna, wanna join a harem?

Posted by: northofriverman (hopeless flirt) at May 22, 2007 1:23pm

That depends. What's in it for me?

Posted by: Lady Madonna at May 22, 2007 6:41 PM

Email me at northofriverman@yahoo.com.au and you shall find out ;)

Posted by: northofriverman at May 22, 2007 9:21 PM

hey!!!...what's with nicking all our eastern state ladies, huh??? from my 3 years of living in the west...there's PLENTY of potential harem dwellers already over there... the wittle weagles must be getting a widdle nervous about a game in a few weeks...hehe

Posted by: ecboy at May 22, 2007 10:10 PM

Sure I took a vow not to discuss footy anymore. Must fight the temptation, arhhhh, don't give in ,must not mention we look forward to percentage boost from the Bombers. Phew, nearly weakened. As for the eastern states ladies, well if you are not up to it, that's not my problem.

Posted by: northofriverman at May 22, 2007 10:56 PM

Have a great holiday beachy! I'll have to get back to you all on the first love - as yet to meet mine.

Posted by: Anna at May 23, 2007 8:30 AM

Morning Groovers..

Was watching 20 to 1 last night and they did the love song countdown, the one that got me was that song "Your Beautiful" The singer (cant remember who) was on a train in the London underground and he saw his ex with her new boyfriend which cut him pretty bed, nice song though

Posted by: Puppy Love at May 23, 2007 10:30 AM

To steal a line: "For those who like that sort of thing, that's the sort of thing they like."

Am I a snob?

[society] the blame game

From Laban:

In order to tackle what is in effect the breakdown of families - Britain's major social crisis - the Government has introduced 42 new Asbo-type powers. And that figure is no misprint. How can anyone implement a strategy that is changing on this scale? Here is a real test for Gordon Brown in his intent to pass power back to the people.

[visiting] order of visitation

Just deleted a comment - a rare event on this blog.

The reason? It feels like Guido to say it but the format: "I'm lucky to have found this blog, please visit me and comment at …" sounds to me like spam.

Anyway, let's wait and see if he returns. Meanwhile - the visiting technique [revised]:

1] Visit all those in the MyBlogLog panel in the left sidebar;

2] Go to sitemeter, click on referrals and go to whatever sites visited in the last 100;

3] Go to Blogpower;

4] Visit the others.

The problem is people like Bryan Appleyard and Oliver Kamm who never seem to visit anyone and yet how do we know? They might be visiting and my primitive mechanisms don't pick it up. And is "people visiting us" the sole criterion?

Anyway, that's the way it will run for now.

[joy of maps] are you on this one

Do you love to pore over Kummerley and Frey maps or any maps for that matter? I'm sure Bill Bryson wouldn't object. I do and I was just marvelling at the fact that Praguetory, The Last Ditch and Sicily Scene are all on the above map. Did I leave anyone out?