Cup of Brown Joy

For your inner Young Fogey - or Steam Punk. This is surprisingly catchy - join me for a cup of tea and watch! Will you take Earl Grey, and do you prefer Wedgwood from 1920 or Meakin Indian Tree from 1937?

And I would be remiss if I did not offer you this compilation of links to Steam Punk/Neo-Victorian sites. Down the rabbit hole!

Blair as EU President?

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Update:
Inside Blair's Brain

Showdown for Portly Parliamentarians

Pandora: SAS showdown for portly parliamentarians

By Oliver Duff
Monday, 18 February 2008

"Ping! An arresting invitation lands in the email inboxes of our elected representatives. MPs are encouraged to undergo an SAS training course for a television series that involves "politicians competing against each other in an environment that will develop mental and physical strength".

Unlike the most-lunched parliamentarians, there is not, yet, much flesh to go on the bones. The production company, Sweet Pictures, remains mute on how much mud-diving and living on worms in the desert will be required. It will, however, favour applications from upholstered, wheezier politicians. The "perfect" contenders include that bewhiskered foe of Gordon Brown, Charles "Two Pizzas" Clarke – so called for his acclaimed feat with the quattro stagione in Pizza Express – and Nicholas "Fatty" Soames, whose celebrated love-making technique is, in the words of a former beneficiary, akin to "having a fully loaded wardrobe fall on you with the key still in".

Fifty press-ups! NOW! You snivelling little..."