Six of the Best 4

Let's see how we get on without bullet points this time.

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The People's Republic of Mortimer looks at the real reason for young people's political apathy. Alix concludes, rightly I think, that politicians campaign relentlessly on public services and that healthy, childless young people have little contact with them.

The issues those politicians should concentrate on instead if they want to engage with them, it seems, are money, renting and drinking.

I am also reminded of a ward in leafy outer Kingston that was so affluent that a casework survey found the biggest issue was damage caused to cars by squirrels dropping their nuts. Not everyone is obsesses with public services.

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The issue of the day has been the Tobin or Robin Hood tax. Writing from Addis Ababa, where he is working on development projects, Owen Abroad expresses his doubts about the idea.

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It is a pleasure to able to agree with Conservative Home when it says "The Telegraph's Con Coughlin is a disgrace."

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Stumbling and Mumbling is against blogging awards - or at least against judging them by asking people to submit a few examples of fine writing. I am with him. Surely the overall mood of a blog and the quality of its links are important too?

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Boston.Eye catches the BBC pretending that a Plymouth monument is in Lincolnshire because it made a nice picture.

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And the Richard Jefferies Society blog reports that the Jefferies Museum at Coate, Swindon, "will be re-opening its doors to the public on Wednesday 10 February after a five-month closure during which time Swindon Borough Council has carried out structural repairs to the old house".

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Please feel free to suggest links to me for this feature. And thank you to the reader who did so this time.