Dear all and welcome to the (unfortunately delayed - I massively underestimated how long this takes) Britblog Roundup, the first held here, hopefully the first of many! Without further ado, Let's get underway...

Blogging about blogging

Beating up on those idiots in the Mainstream media, Matt at the Wardman wire points out that

The Commentariat (as represented in this podcast) seem to be having a few problems getting to grips with the blogging medium - in particular coping with the diversity...

which he blames on a lack of understanding of the aggregators (including the BBRU) and feeds available. Naturally Guido's "profundity of the Punditry" meme gets a mention. However I feel that there are great writers in the dead-tree press. Writing to order may mean they aren't brilliant all the time, but who is? Every medium has its time servers, it's just they're easier to ignore in the Blogosphere.

Politics

Let's kick off with Green Issues this week with Adrian at "Green reading" getting first mention with his welsh water mills. It's a start I guess. He doesn't like nuclear, and something has to be done, but I can't help thinking that they're just a bit, well, small to replace fossil fuels. They're certainly pretty though.

There's a lot from Lib Dems, including this offering from "Just 474 votes to win" which mentions My current rugby club, Hampstead. It's a shame that sporting culture has led us to football, rather than rugby, whose fans I think would have reacted better than those Rangers fans at the Battle of Picadilly. Rangers fans may have a reputation, but a technical failure of the big screen which led to the Manchester riots is being blamed by Blood and treasure at least, squarely at the door of the Manchester city council.

If you’re going to invite tens of thousands of Glaswegians down to Manchester on a promise of all day drinking and the big match televised live, then technical failure is not an option

Quite. While we're on the subject of football, Liberal England brings us the story of the Murder of Aston Villa's Tommy Ball by a deranged policeman.

Chris Dillow at Stumbling and mumbling comes out in favour of Private education in General and My Alma Mater in particular, which is strange but welcome coming from a Marxist.

Meanwhile at the other end of the economic spectrum, Freeborn John gives us a more complete denunciation of the mercantilist fantasy that Tim Worstall, is so fond of alluding to. Basically wealth is access to goods and services, not Gold and Silver, which represent merely the means to pay for them. Hoarding gold is no good if it's inflationary (ie buys fewer goods and services). This is why Spain got poor despite the Inca gold they stole: It didn't increase the amount of grain available. Likewise exports are merely the result of the work we as a country do to pay for the Imports, which are what really make us rich.

Liberal Conspiracy deals with Mad Nad Dorries and the Abortion debate, subjects Matt Sinclair and Chris Dillow have dealt with elegantly too and their posts get a mention. Unlike LC, Stroppyblog is definitely not uncommitted and neither is Cruella. These are all interesting posts, but I for one hope the debate never reaches the poisonous level found in America.

Gaian Economics compares the money spent on Northern Rock, suggesting it could be better spent subsidising loss-making state-owned businesses keeping post offices open. For the record, I wouldn't have subsidised the crock either, but people think that they're clever with sniggers like

...worthless assets (euphemistically known as 'mortgage-backed securities')...

Demonstrating the writer to have no real understanding of the financial markets, PhD notwithstanding. They're not worthless, they're just worth a bit less than was paid for them, and there's a lot of it about, and no-one wants the risk as everyone'e being wrong together (it's called "panic"). The Old Lady of threadneedle street might even turn a profit on these "worthless securities" in time... The real reason, however the post office is bust is because of European competition directive in what should be a natural monopoly taking the profitable (business delivery) and leaving the unprofitable (nationwide delivery to everywhere for 26/31p). Complain about democracy all you like, there's nothing the Westminster crowd can do so save the Royal Mail.

At the other end of the spectrum, Central news is going on about anti-white racism of the PC brigade, and something about MMR. I thought that debate had been closed?

Miscellaneous.

Dr Roy at Early Modern Whale deals with his Tricycle fetish. There was a theme in the inbox of architectural interest: Peter at Unmitigated England tells us of the Sound Mirrors at Denge Marsh in Kent, Philip at English Buildings tells us of Herefordshire's Arthur's stone

The Daily Maybe gives us her take on the BBC Dr Who Knitting pattern copyright theft. She thinks the BBC used a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Mazz was bullied by the corporation into taking her designs down but the fight is not over and, supported by the Open Rights Group, Mazz hopes that the killjoys will relent once they realise their error. That will only come about if the "public service" BBC come to understand that one enthusiast with a very strange hobby is not about to bring down the "brand" but is actually adding to its value.

I'm inclined to agree.

Finally 'My London Your London' Reviews the Blood on Paper: Art of the Book at the V&A. We may have started with the Blogosphere vs the MSM debate, but the real revolution was the Codex book millennia ago, which made writing portable - everything else is just changes the means of conveying the writing. Bloggers should remember The medium is not the message, it is the written word, and the freedom to disseminate it which is important. Having read the review, I want to go to the exhibition. Writing: the means to change someone's opinion, at a distance. Something Natalie Bennett as achieved here at least.

Toodle Pip!

Right... That took ages despite it being a small haul this time. I will, I promise leave a little more time for the next time I am asked to do this... Next week we're over at Suz Blog. Nominations to the usual address: britblog [at] gmail [dot] com.