BritBlog Roundup 162

Welcome to the Easter edition. What with everyone being busy eating chocolate and skiing, we are a bit short of nominations this week. But, no doubt, what we lack in quantity is more than made up in quality. Thanks to all those who did flag up a posting or two. Blogging The Debatable Land informs us that LOL-Blairs are the latest thing in the British blogosphere. The example below is taken from Pickled Politics... Looking at competition between blogs and the mainstream media, Iain Dale asks if size always matters. Clive Soley reports on an interesting development - a group blog by members of the House of Lords. You can find it at Lords of the Blog and the peers contributing are:

• Lord (Clive) Soley himself;
• Lord (Philip) Norton of Louth;
• Baroness (Frances) D’Souza;
• Lord (David) Lipsey;
• Lord (Paul) Tyler;
• Lord (Navnit) Dholakia;
• Lord (Robin) Teverson;
• Baroness (Lola) Young of Hornsey;
• Baroness (Elaine) Murphy.

The Arts 

Another blogging peer - Ros Scott, writing at Because Baronesses are People Too - looks forward to the television adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith's Precious Ramotswe books and mourns Anthony Minghella. The Daily (Maybe) believes George Galloway is a Byron for our times. And Liberal England (I told you I was short of nominations) speculates on what happened to Enid Blyton's Famous Five in later life. 

London Mayoral Election 

The Daily (Maybe) (again) looks at the more leftward-leaning candidates, while Sian Berry defends her decision to tell Green supporters to give their second preference to Ken Livingstone. It's the newts, you know. 

Public Services 

Burning Our Money is sceptical about what will be achieved by the government's £52bn programme to rebuild the nation's schools. Random Acts of Reality discovers rudeness and inefficiency in an unnamed hospital. And Unmitigated England reports on an incident that tells us a lot about our glorious new privatised railway system. 

Environment 

Ruscombe Green tackles the menace of heavy lorries. And Philobiblon reviews Speaking for Nature: Women and Ecologies of Early Modern England by Sylvia Bowerbanks. 

Odds and Sods 

You know what it is like: you work out a series of subheadings, only to find there are still some postings left over. So here they are. A Very Public Sociologist considers Britishness in great depth. Michael Meacher turns his mind to Iraq, five years after George W. Bush claimed victory. These days being bisexual is not enough. Writing on the f word, Laura Woodhouse explores the concept of the "cisexual". And Elizabeth Chadwick: Living the History looks at medicine in the 12th century. 

Next Week 

So there you have it. Next week's roundup will appear on Philobiblon. All nominations to britblog [at] gmail [dot] com please. Goodbye.