Welcome everyone to this week’s roundup of all that’s best in UK blogging. Today’s roundup is the first of 2008 and incidently also the fist one done by me.
My first two items are by Devil’s Kitchen, who is distinctly unimpressed with the government’s suggestion that people only be entitled to NHS treatment if they live healthy lifestyles. DK also notes that Gordon Brown seems to have nicked the idea from David Cameron.
Moving on to culture, Michelle Kazprzak talks about pop culture versus high art. She concludes that while much of it is garbage, “the best and the worst of it can be fodder for other artists to make bigger, more interesting statements”.
A blog that’s being going for some time, but which I only recently became aware of, details the experiences of William Lamin, a British soldier during the First World War. No, the blog isn’t written by way of a time machine; Lamin’s grandson writes it based on Lamin’s surviving letters from the trenches.
Natalie Bennett writes about the Sleeping and Dreaming exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London. Did you know that some of the first resuscitation devices involved tobacco being blown into the body via the rectum? I didn’t either.
Nee Naw (who works for the London Ambulance Service) writes about the recent fire at the Royal Marsden Hospital, and how some people thought that rescuing seriously ill cancer patients from a burning hospital was less important than their own needs: “If there was an award for selfishness, there’d be two callers fighting for it. A nurse at another hospital, who was waiting for an ambulance for a routine transfer, so she could go home. And a first aider in a well-known department store, who rang because a child had cut his foot and couldn’t walk properly”. Personally I think the LAS should publish on their website the most ridiculous, selfish and timewasting calls they get and invite people to vote on which is the most absurd.
Lady Bracknell is peeved by the amount of packaging for Christmas presents overflowing from people’s bins. And because the people haven’t separated it out into the separate blue wheelie bin for recycling that the council provide.
The Daily Maybe writes that George MacDonald Fraser, author of the Flashman novels, has died. Bummer. Fraser was a brilliant writer and if you haven’t read his books you should do so.
A group of Fifers — calling themselves the Fife Diet — have vowed to eat locally. But is it possible in the Scottish climate?
Philip Booth writes that the Anti-Slavery Arch at Paganhill in Stroud — Britain’s oldest anti-slavery monument — has had its listed status upgraded.
Jonathan Calder wrties that the old Tory Party is alive and well. He comes to this conclusion because Nadine Dorries, a Tory MP, apparently thinks the TV stations shouldn’t broadcast programmes that she personally finds distasteful. Is she not aware of the “off” button?
Peter Dunphy writes about the legacy of the Young Social Democrats, who were only active between 1982 and 1987, but whose alumni have since been influential in the Labour, Conservative and Green parties as well as of course the Liberal Democrats.
Chicken Yoghurt notes the 2-pints rule for aduts with children in Wetherspoons pubs, and remarks that “If you had any respect for yourself or your children you wouldn’t be in Wetherspoons in the first place”.
Bill Jones disagrees with Ed Balls about The Election That Never Was — Balls things it hasn’t harmed Gordon Brown, Jones thinks it has.
The ARCH Blog notes that patients can opt-out from having their records put on the NHS data spine — but they might not be able to do so for their children’s records.
Finally, Bishop Hill is confused by all this talk about “carbon footprints” and “food prints” and suggests a way of simplifying things.
That’s all for this week’s Britblog Roundup. I hope you’ve found it as interesting and informative as I have. Next week’s roundup will be by Clairwil; if you have anything you want to be in it, send your nominations to the usual address, britblog [at] gmail [dot] com.
