Six of the Best 64

UK Lolitics (I think - I never understand LiveJournal) has an obsessive invaluable guide to "The many ties of Nicholas Clegg".

The problem with British democracy, says The Futility Monster, is that MPs are the new social workers. There is a lot in that, though ultimately there has to be someone to intervene on behalf of those crushed by the arbitrary machinery of public administration. Think of the man from Shropshire in Bleak House.

Craig Murray explains the current violence in Osh in Kyrgyzstan/ It's all Stalin's fault: "The Soviet Union was in theory just that - a Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Kirghizstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan were three of them. But whatever the theory, Stalin had no intention of allowing the republics to become viable entities or potential powerbases for rivals. So they were deliberately messed up with boundaries that cut across natural economic units like the Ferghana Valley and cut cultural and ethnic links."

Writing for The Huffington Post, Michael Roth argues in defence of traditional liberal education.

Patricia Cohen in the New York Times says: "People between 20 and 34 are taking longer to finish their educations, establish themselves in careers, marry, have children and become financially independent."

And Wartime Housewife has a recipe for elderflower cordial.