Philobiblon

Welcome to the roundup of the best, the brightest, the shiniest posts of the British blogsphere, hung on this festive midwinter tree for your amusement as the wind howls and the rain falls outside.

Despite the conditions, bloggers seem to have been getting out and about with commendable energy in the past week. Kate on Cruella-Blog was at the Reclaim the Night march in London, while Antonia was in the frontline of the protest against the Oxford Union debate. On the other side of the wall, Jonny from Hug a Hoodie was watching the debate

But Peter on Earthquake Cove is more concerned about a Stop the War Coalition invite to Hizbollah.

On Random Acts of Reality, there are suggestions for some sensible targets and joined-up thinking on health care from the frontline. Make that man health minister, I say – Gordon Brown could do a lot worse…

Gavin on The Whiskey Priest is less constructive, but delightfully vituperatively fluent, on the progress so far on the war against an abstract noun.

Turning more seasonal, Camden Kiwi finds that there’s no room at Camden council’s inn – it wants to keep St Pancras all glossy and shiny, and inhuman, it seems.

Man in a Shed has a short and pithy comment on the Saudi flogging case – I entirely agree, which might not happen too often, since he’s a man who bills himself as “Tory since 1973”.

And Renoir on Olly’s Onions lives up to that blog’s always high standards with an explanation of the fatwa against the creator of Paddington Bear. (No, I won’t give away the punchline – you definitely should visit for yourself.)

On Jon Worth’s Blog, there’s an early account of the runners and riders for the UK European Commissioner after Mandelson – no, please not Clarke, I couldn’t take having to run any more photos of him… Staying in Europe, Suz Blog has an inside account of the defection of a Lib Dem MEP to the Tories.

On Liberal England, Lord Bonkers is watching Nick Clegg in the garden – cacti’s the thing, it seems.

Turning international, the founder of this roundup, Tim Worstall, has an account of a nasty little storm around Condoleezza Rice – but it is his final suggestion that really makes the post. (But be warned you might want to turn the volume down before clicking – Tim, really not keen on whatever that noise you have embedded is!)

David Osler on Liberal Conspiracy looks at Annapolis, and concludes that it is really only Oslo for slow learners.

Finally on UK political funding – Brian Barder on Ephems cuts through the muck to try to pin down some hard facts. He finds one.

Heading away from the political lines, reading this post on Early Modern Whale immediately took me back to my school days, and to an inspired ancient history teacher who kept us interested by occasional reading of “the dirty bits” of Seutonius – of which I recall there were quite a few. Here Roy is back in 1697, with a serious hot-under-the-collar puritan collecting all of the “dirty bits” of the Bible – strictly for education purposes, of course.

And while I’m on history, I can’t but not that the monthly history carnival (a relative of this one, but international) is up on our own Westminster Wisdom – a fine and varied collection of reading, from Ninon de Lenclos to footballing history. Also on sporting history, the Political Umpire on Fora is exploring the shortest and saddest Test cricket careers.

On Pandemain, an integral part of British culture is explored in her inimitable manner – darts: “When the country is 47% smaller thanks to rising sea levels and all of Her Majesty’s swans have been eaten by asylum seekers who haven’t even heard of Princess Diana, as long as Tony Green is still adding twenty nine extra letters where they are not needed there will be a corner of ludicrousness that is forever Britain.”

Katie on Inky Circus is getting more down to earth, with an insight into a “secret” new gallery at the Natural History Museum – and a confession about her secret love.

Molly on Gaian Economics is however seeing cultural change – cities becoming places for growing food, as she welcomes an invasion of the city by revolting peasants and their filth. Along similar lines is the inventive blog How Can I Recycle This? In this post they tackle the subject of cat litter, but if you’re wondering about any odd thing at the back of your cupboard, they’ll try to offer a suggestion.

The finally, in a category you might call “life”, Petite Anglaise is realising just that children don’t get the right answer to does my bum look big?”; Living for Disco is trying to get mocha in rural Wales; Ruth on Meanwhile Here in France is watching cats in winter; Diamond Geezer a the village idyll that wasn’t, and Nick on Darlington Councillor is finding that the Playstation generation has a different take on The Hobbitt.

And that’s all for this week – a nicely mixed collection of winter potpourri – rich, fragrant and complex, I’d say.

Don’t forget – in the next week if you read something and think “that’s worth sharing”, drop a quick line to britblog AT gmail DOT com. And should you be a nightowl you’ll hear the audio version on FiveLive early Tuesday morning, or you can check it out at Pods and Blogs.

Next week’s roundup will be with Gracchi on Westminster Wisdom.