Britblog roundup: the Eyjafjallajoekull edition

Apologies for the delay in this week's edition but I've been stuck on an island in the North Sea and I've only just made it back to the mainland. It was tough going: I only had a fun sized mars bar (which as a vegetarian I cannot eat anymore and thus had to use it as a paddle) and a lilo in the shape of a crocodile.

This volcano has been something of a fag for all those wishing to commute anywhere apart from Dunstable or similar but luckily Mr Eugenides has flagged up this incredibly useful BBC site keeping you abreast of all your ash cloud related enquiries.

For those not just concerned with travelling, there is also a handy BBC article on ash related health questions. Thank goodness for that.

But of course the General Election is still on. It must be quite frustrating for candidates that despite their best efforts to get voters involved, they are being outdone by an inconvenient cloud of dust. As exciting as it is that for the fifth day people can't travel, might it not also illustrate that this campaign is really quite dull?

And this is despite the 'historic' leaders' debate which saw three men stand in front of lecterns clearly demonstrating the difference in their parties through the medium of ties in primary colours.

Not a Sheep has written about the one topic which saw the largest increase in support from those who were being monitored during the debate: immigration.

Meanwhile Letters from A Tory asks if the country can extricate itself from Cleggmania and looks at some stats being released this week which should have an impact on the news agenda.

Keeping on the subject of television, this week had a big impact in our world when The Devil decided to, well, dream up imaginative ways of killing people following an interview on The Daily politics.

Jackart doesn't think he should have apologised so quickly and although I agree, it's much easier to say that from behind a computer screen.

Does anyone think Chris, Old Etonian and decent chap would actually feed someone to a bath full of fire ants? Or make them suffer "Candiru fish craziness"? Any more than I would Skull-fuck the entire Labour cabinet to death or fire them into the North Sea using trebuchets? No. It is just saloon-bar invective, in Chris' case well written and, in context, highly entertaining. I think the apology and retraction were a mistake.

Meanwhile, Stumbling and Mumbling" picks up on Gordon's claim that Labour will be 'relentless reformers'.

Wat Tyler has been canvassing and finds that people aren't loving politicians, despite the promises to 'clean up politics'. [But then they did elect a speaker who was also embroiled in the expenses scandal himself: perhaps not a wise move?] The result of this apparent move towards a hung parliament is that this coalition people might wish for will instead be a 'Lib-Lab wash up'.

Technically this was last week, but Charles Crawford writes about the the legacy of Lech and maria Kaczynski.

Meanwhile, whilst we've all been looking at domestic politics and sqabbling over whether we should have a £6bn tax or not, A Place To Stand points out that we may have sight of the end of the cold war.

That's all from me, and for those of you wondering why it was a slightly right of centre round up it's because I only had one nomination this week.

When we're at Charlie's place next week, please do send in nominations to britblog [at] gmail [dot] com or I will send obo round to lead the entertainment at your children's birthday party.

Until then, pip pip!

Trixy