Stuart Maconie responds to that Policy Exchange report in The Mirror:

By a combination of guts, adaptability and hard work, the North weathered a concerted attempt to annihilate it during the 80s.

Now the offspring of these people get paid well to dismiss half a nation with an airy wave of their hand in a Hampstead bistro.

“Getting on your bike,” they used to call it. Well, bon voyage to those of you who are going. Change at Crewe.

You’ll leave even more room in Cumbria and Northumberland for those of us with the right kind of moral compass.

Stalinist Hooray Henry and public school product Mad Dog Milne has a new piece of crap up at Comment Is Fucking Worthless. Here is an accurate synopsis of his shit.

PS. Development: The US will withdraw from Iraq within three years under the terms of a draft deal with the Iraqi Government. Here and more detailed report here.

No Fucking Surrender.