In his fine piece on blogging at The Sharpener, Nosemonkey had this to say:
The better - or simply more popular - bloggers end up reading each other and linking to each other and, increasingly, finding themselves less able or inclined, due either to time constraints or the knowledge that their current blogrolls contain enough good [...]

Yep - yet another article about blogging by some blogger. What do you expect?
There has, however, been a noticable shift in the Britblogging world over the last few months, and one which could yet spell big changes for the way the place operates. Noticable, but at first almost imperceptible and quite hard to put your [...]

On some blogs such as Samizdata, the discussion often has an element of an echo chamber or a circle jerk about it, but occasionally we come across gems. Here’s one, about the difference between the ancient Romans and the modern West:

James Purefoy is playing Mark Anthony in the hit TV series, Rome, and one [...]

To those of you who have been eagerly waiting for this week’s TV review, my apologies for the delay which was caused by a combination of life getting in the way and my being in a state of shock at discovering that the BBC will be broadcasting two new Stephen Poliakoff dramas next year, which [...]

On Friday night, I went with a group of friends to see Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali at the ICA in London. The event was part of English Pen’s campaign for free-speech. Before Ayaan was interviewed by Timothy Garton-Ash, the film that she made with Theo van Gogh was shown.
Ayaan is still [...]

Is it just me or are other people beginning to smell the whiff of media disappointment that the country has yet to collapse into anarchy as a result of new laws allowing people to drink around the clock? In fact, this so-called liberalisation of our drinking laws is looking more and more like a damp [...]

“An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.” —H.L. Mencken
New Labour Soup, the snazzily-packed, dark red gloop with an oddly-familiar aftertaste that is the chosen brand of the most important 21 per cent of people ever to have graced Great [...]

Mr Eugenides wouldn’t describe himself as a blogging virgin, exactly, but he’s certainly still at the inexpert fumbling stage. Be gentle.
On Kilroy
Let’s start with the suntan.
I’m going to go out on a limb; no suntanned British politician has ever been anything but a shyster and a fraud. Three quick examples; Tony B. suddenly turning [...]

The publication of the Meyer memoirs has reopened questions about the proper relationship between the civil service and the government. This is an important question with possible implications for the style and form of government we have. In this post, I set out to demolish five common fallacies about the role of the civil service.

Supposedly, we’re in a golden age of TV comedy. Like all golden ages, though, it doesn’t seem much like one when you’re living through it.

Britain has slipped ignominiously out of the top 50 nations for women’s political representation, strengthening calls for all-woman shortlisting (AWS).
All political parties have had the option to use AWS following the the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002, but only Labour has taken this up. Consequently, 77 per cent of female MPs are from [...]

Eagle-eyed regular readers will have noted the day (Thursday) the time (nearly lunch already) and will be wondering what’s happened to our Thursday rant this week. For everyone who hates it: I’m sorry, we haven’t decided to kill it (yet). But it is having a week off, mostly because I was going to have a [...]

The US military has raided an Iraqi Interior Ministry building and found evidence of torture and maltreatment of prisoners:

On Friday, Chris Dillow asked: are suicide bombers rational? It’s a fine question, which he partly answers with reference to this new paper by Eli Berman and David Laitin (pdf):
Suicide terrorism, they [Berman and Laitin] say, is rational if you believe terrorism will be rewarded in the hereafter, or if you are altruisitic and [...]