European Political News

I am planning to move the Wardman Wire to a different server later this evening.

Service will be intermittent while I am testing the new install.

I suggest visiting www.mattwardman.co.uk, which has most of the same articles (and all of today's parliamentary Reports).

Via … er … Labour Home. I’m inclined to agree with Ken on this occasion. Whether it is true or not that he did smash it - I have no idea. Tags: ken livingstone, new labour

The Lib Dems have some more proposals about voting reform over on Lib Dem Voice. On this occasion it is Laurence Boyce proposing "weighted votes". I have an alternative suggestion.

Three Line Whip suggests that politics is becoming personalised again:

It appears that the magnificent Ken Dodd has a gag in his current stage show about the Prime Minister: “Every time I see Gordon Brown on the telly I think: ‘I bought that suit’.”

Via Simon Dickson on Twitter.

10 Downing Street has started putting out "headlines" via Twitter. I am number 8 in their followers. So Twitter now needs to be renamed "Twister".

I have an image of Peter Kilfoyle MP in my mind this morning. He is in the restaurant of a 4 star hotel. His breakfast kipper lies folorn and lonely on his plate, and he has a rather red face due to exertion. He is chasing a waitress round and round the table with a rolled-up newspaper, because she had the temerity to offer him a complimentary copy of the Daily Telegraph - and he's not putting up with that !

This morning I caught a news item on the Radio about Alistair Darling being barred from pubs for all the tax rises in the price of drinks. Here is the audio. Download audio file (20080326-bbc-radio4-today-alistair-darling-barred-from-pubs.mp3) I first heard about this movement from the Devil: Johnstone Urges Pub Ban For Darling Following an Edinburgh landlord’s decision to ban the Chancellor [...]

Earlier I posted that we were That is confirmed, and we should have our first real Senedd Circular report posted next Thursday. This has now been confirmed, and we will be rolling from next week. You can find out more about Miss Wagstaffe on her blog. Why “Circular”? The official reason is that it is a Newsletter and the Senedd Chamber is circular. You may not believe me, but it has nothing to do with 8.3% pay increases and fatcat (i.e., circular) AMs. Nor does it have anything to do with extra-large AMs after too many political lunches. However, we now have a third reason, and it because of a publicity stunt by Jenny Willott MP (LibDem Welsh Affairs at Westminster) following on from Heather Mills throwing a jug of water over Paul McCartney’s lawyer Fiona Shackleton. Ms Willott responded to BBC correspondent David Cornock’s fishing expedition, after Glyn Davies made a “wet hair” joke. Meanwhile, Glyn Davies told the BBC to take a running jump when they tried to get him on Radio Wales about his blog post. Good call. There are more important things around, such as Tibet / China and the continuing assault on our Civil Liberties (on which I’m happy to acknowledge excellent work by the Lib Dems). (more…)

This is the “John Lewis list” of claims MPs can make. I’m not saying anything because I’m shocked into silence by the idea floating around that the way to deal with a dodgy expenses system with insufficient supervision is to shovel it into the basic salary where there will be no supervision whatsoever. New kitchen - �10,000 New bathroom - �6,335 Suite of furniture - �2,000 Bed - �1,000 Sideboard - �795 Television set - �750 Hi-fi/stereo - �750 Wardrobe - �700 Gas cooker - �650 Dining table - �600 Fridge/freezer combi - �550 Bookcase/cabinet - �500 Drawer chest (5) - �500 Dressing table - �500 Washer dryer - �500 Dishwasher - �375 Washing machine - �350 Rugs - �300 Free-standing mirror - �300 Air conditioning - �299.99 Recordable DVD - �270 Tumble dryer - �250 Coffee table - �250 Food mixer - �200 Book case/shelf - �200 Nest of tables - �200 Lamp table - �200 Dining armchairs - �150 each Workstation - �150 Coffee maker/machine - �100 Bedside cabinet - �100 Dining chairs - �90 each Shredder - �50 Carpets (sq m) - �35 Underlay (sq m) - �6.99 Carpet fitting (sq m) - �6.50   Tags: mp expenses, john lewis list  

It’s Sunday, it’s sunny and I’m at the computer typing because I’m grumpy. This morning the Grobserver has another “top bloggers” list - the most powerful 50 bloggers in the world. This one is as self-absorbed as all the others, being a (drum roll, hold breath, straighten shoulders, salute the Grobserver) list of (taran-tara): The world’s 50 most powerful blogs I hate this sort of list in the national media. The last one I looked at was the Evening Standard’s moronic “New Media London Top 50” list in October 2007. That included Tom Coates, Iain Dale, Tim Montgomerie and Alex Hilton. They are all good bloggers, but the “well informed media people” who compiled it had missed out Pete Cashmore of Mashable who was no. 8 on Technorati at the Time. They may say: but we didn’t know, he’s geeky and we’d never heard of him. Precisely. Now you know why such lists should not be compiled by individuals of species homo-sapiens-sapiens genus metropoli-mediatartus. Some Features of a List of Top Blogs Quotes measurements as if they mean something, but instead just succeeds in looking ill-informed by using different measurements in different places. So what if “Page Views”, “Hits”, “Visitors”, “People”, “Unique Visitors” all sound different - it doesn’t matter, ya? Geographical blinkers, like some racehorses and George Bush. 16 of the 50 most powerful blogs by Brits or based here? I don’t think so. Quotes blogs that have usually previously appeared in the MSM (apart from the “author’s darlings” selection included). The Grobserver List While I’m being grumpy, I note that only one of the authors of this list appears to have a blog. Hmmm. (For the record, Anna Pickard. Hi Anna.) A few questionable inclusions Marbury is in - it is a 3 month old British commentary blog on the US Election. PoliticalBetting, perhaps Britains best political website with much US Election coverage, a specially organised night during one of the primaries, and 1 million page views a month, is not in. Nor are blogs such as the Daily Kos or dozens of other top US Political Blogs. The FWord is in. An excellent niche blog - but the world’s most powerful 50? Come on, boys and girls. Private and Secret Diary. It’s a one man Norfolk version of the Archers, which isn’t even in the Technorati top 50,000. Why? Bean Sprouts. Good blog, but technorati ranking of 27,000. 409 visitors a day (OK call it 800 as Sitemeter misses around half). 84 RSS subscribers. Most powerful 50 in the world - what are you on? These 4 shouldn’t feel got at if you find this list. All damn good blogs that are being misdescribed by the Grobserver (as are about 20 others). If you’d said “50 blogs which we find interesting” you’d have no problem - but why all this “world’s top 50 most powerful blogs” self-puffery? “Power Bloggers” List Recipe for people with Contacts Here’s my recipe for the next list. Keep the list down to 50 or so (don’t exhaust the meme). Take a few (say 20-25%) obviously top blogs (careful to leave a different equally good selection out for next time). Add in an eclectic selection from the Technorati Top 1000 (or top 50000+) - need to be able to do different lists for next year/next month/next week/this afternoon. Add a sprinking of niche blogs very few people have heard of but which the compilers think deserve to be influential. If it’s for the Grobserver, remember to spell at least one blog incorrectly to fit with editorial policy - for example “Peteite Anglaise“. Wrapping Up Next time please save the money, save the administration, save the hassle, and save me the stress. Four suggestions: Try (just once) my algorithm above. Don’t use such an idiotic headline. Give the byline to Max. Don’t mention hills in north London. OK. You can go out to play now. Tags: guardian, observer, grobserver, Jessica Aldred, Amanda Astell, Rafael Behr, Lauren Cochrane, John Hind, Anna Pickard, Laura Potter, Alice Wignall, Eva Wiseman

Via Guido: Guido just received this via email. The perfect end to a perfect week for Clegg. Well it is late on a Friday night… However, there is a quip worthy of the Tavern in the comments: He is now known as Nick C - because he hasn’t got a legg left to stand on…. I say no more, since I only have one source on this and that is Mr Fawkes… Wrapping up Just in case you’re wondering: it’s from Hitch Hiker. I somehow think most Lib Dems would know that already (for the record - that’s a compliment). Vogon poetry is widely accepted as the third worst in the Universe. The second worst is that of the Azgoths of Kria. During a recitation by their Poet Master Grunthos the Flatulent of his poem “Ode to a Small Lump of Green Putty I Found in My Armpit One Midsummer Morning” four of his audience died of internal hemorrhaging, but the President of the Mid-Galactic Arts Nobbling Council survived by gnawing one of his own legs off. The absolute worst poetry was written by Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Sussex. Luckily it was destroyed when the earth was. Tags: guido fawkes, nick clegg  

Every so often a sequence of as few as 3 words grates like a screwdriver on a blackboard. From the Independent’s “computer games” column this week, by Rebecca Armstrong the “Games Mistress” in a review of “Patapon“: …you’re the ruler of a bunch of winsome little warriors who can be manoeuvred through the beat of a tribal drum - but if you don’t have pitch perfect rhythm… Pitch perfect rhythm !!!! Aaaaarrrrgggghhh ! Presumably her lingerie is perfectly aerodynamic, her cold tap is perfectly articulate, the cornflakes she had for breakfast are an excellent building material, and the tyres on her car are ideally flavoured to the correct degree of orangey tastiness. This Games Mistress needs to be gently taught not to make category errors by the Belles of St Trinians (old and new versions below), if necessary by torture on the wallbars of the gym (sorry - I couldn’t find a picture of that scene). (more…)

A rather complacent comment from a member of the piccolo (8% market share) army of smug Mac users: Easy peasy. Now, be a good kid and go buy a Mac! reminded me that I had a Steve Jobs edition of “Double Trouble” in the cupboard waiting to be rolled out. Every time I see a picture of Steve Jobs being cool I think of Yoffy, who used to run a BBC TV Children’s Programme called “Fingerbobs“: Yoffy Steve Jobs   Incidentally, I also think of the Sheriff of Nottingham from the latest postmodern version of Robin Hood. That would be the one where Frodo Baggins Robin says to his Merry Men Socially Unacceptable Inebriated Persons of Questionable Legality who Make Their Living by Alternative Means: “If we do this, we will do it as a Team”. Sheriff of Nottingham Fingermouse By the way, this is Fingermouse (with Scampi): Wrapping-Up Probably Not Wrapping Up Cue a wave of outrage from Apple fans. Ooops. Tags: steve jobs, fingerbobs, fingermouse, yoffy, sheriff of nottingham, apple, apple mac

BONG ! I’m working on a new column idea for Thursdays, which I hope will be starting in the next week or two, to be posted in time for you to read over lunch in the usual Wardman Wire pattern. It will be intensely political, and will cover a niche in political blog reporting that is currently as empty as the “Blog Roundup” niche is bursting at the seams. … but that is all I am saying for now. Come back this Thursday and see if it has arrived yet. Wardman Wire: the best writers writing the best columns. You know it makes sense sometimes. [Update: You know it makes sense sometimes looks to me to be a good blog slogan.] Tags: matt wardman, blog column