This article was written for Liberal Conspiracy, and comments have been left on that discussion.

If there is one thing I detest when it comes to TV it is adverts that make spurious claims about a product based upon the dismal opinion of less than a handful of only one demographic; also usually people that at the same time are reading a magazine or buying at a store that has a heavy advertising deal with said product. Be it hair products where 93% of 140ish people surveyed in Marie Claire said it was definitely the most awesome hair care product (that they received a free trial of with the magazine), or butter that less than 50% of people say they preferred (yet the loop hole of those 7% of people that "don't care" allows the brand to claim "most" people like them best).

So then, with that lengthy precursor to the article, perhaps you can understand why Hazel Blears and her team of community action planners have so frustrated me this week, publishing a report about the attitudes of white working class people in the UK. Well, I say published but the master of making information accessible to the public has yet to even ensure that even the news is reported on the communities.gov.uk website (as of Midday, 5th Jan), let alone the actual report, methodology and findings.

What is personality? According to the announcement of the short-list for the BBC Sports personality of the year it is clearly something you can't have if you are disabled. One has to assume that the glee and excitement our Paralympians had in Beijing is a somewhat less endearing personality than the also professional glee of people like Chris Hoy and Bradley Wiggins. But perhaps it's all about achievement? Even in this category it would seem that for the papers that selected their nominations a single gold medal in the Olympics is worth more than the four golds and silver that an inspirational Darren Kenny hauled in for the Paralympics cycling team only weeks later.

Hazel Blears has become one of the first to fall in line with Obama rhetoric, damning career politicians and cynics across the spectrum.

Saying some ministerial colleagues live on "planet politics", Blears complained that their lack of real-life experience - as well as a cynical media and political bloggers - have left politics "in trouble".

ePolitix.co.uk

Well, that's interesting. I'm sure that people like William Wilberforce, and the people that have benefited from his work...and no doubt the work of other career politicians of their time...are in absolute agreement with Hazel. Not that the assertion that being a career politician is a good thing can ring true either, after all we only have to look to Gordon Brown there.

I don't think they should be nationally vilified. I think we should all listen to it before we pass judgement. I wonder if a lot of those people that complained will have read what was said in the paper, when it's taken out of context it can sound very different.

Who's words? A measured and objective leader perhaps? Someone in charge of the country urging calm? No...hostess of Big Brother, Davina McCall. The person that SHOULD have been uttering such words was too busy condemning the BBC and suggesting that they should be doing more to "give in" to tabloid pressure.

After some positive sounding, if not ultimately quite plain, news from the Tory conference; along with some more news of common sense policy pledges, it is good to see that the Tories can be trusted to revert to type at some point. This time it is the popular issue of benefit "scroungers" and the Tory plan to implement a "three strikes" rule

I hate to say it, but the Tories are sounding like a party heading for Government. While the Lib Dems have also done well in announcing some strong policies for the future, before conference season (a bit of a mistake, perhaps), the Tories have hit the nail on the head in getting their coverage at the right time. In the process they have already managed to thoroughly embarrass Labour on issues that Labour should traditionally be at the forefront of.

Just a short one today, I have a bigger post coming tomorrow (hopefully), but this is just a brilliant highlight of current events from Always win when you're singing. It's all about the Today program and an interview with George Osbourne. Check it out.

Here is the good old netcast. It's a bit of a bumper one today, and you can read the list proper over at Liberal Conspiracy. As for myself, I'm in another busy work period so blogging will continue to be light, especially as the political landscape is only just starting to hot up again.

Now for the extended list...

Tygerland, and no doubt many others, are quietly laughing and despairing at this interview of Sarah Palin.
Lib Dem Voice and Septicisle, and Unity highlight the latest findings from a complaint submitted by Sunny Hundal regarding Nadine Dorries.
Caron has some views about those wishing to block the safeguarding of children from preventable cancer.
Bob Innes reports, I'm glad to say, on someone in some power actually pushing to free up empty homes for use by people that need them.
Chicken Yoghurt has a short and sharp analysis of the ID card announcement today.
Lib Dem Voice reports that Lib Dem's MPs are the top social networkers online. Give yourselves a pat on the back.
CiF/Simon Fletcher thinks that Brown should be grateful for Boris being in the London job.

If there is one thing that this news of a renewed push by Compass and it's supporters of the Windfall Tax shows, it's that Labour are indeed in desperate times. It's not really that they're pushing for a potentially market destabilising tax at the height of an economic crisis, nor that they're actually ignoring their original mantra and reasoning for pushing for a windfall tax by also ignoring that Brown and Darling has done their first and only good deal on long term energy saving measures paid for primarily by the energy companies. No, it's all about the language they're using.

Calling for a windfall tax to help working families, Mr Woodley said "lagging the lofts won't stop us lagging in the polls". - BBC

Hello again! Haven't I been light on the ground with my blogging? For shame, much as certain other bloggers have said they've been experiencing a weariness in the current political climate I too have to say I am and it's affecting my motivation. Are we really moving forward in this country, is there any chance for a positive future in the next decade, or are we powerless to see authoritarianism take hold at the expense of liberty regardless of who gets in to power? It's all enough to just make someone get a bit fed up.

I will try and dig myself out of the rut though, and as we're starting to move towards another political season I hope there will be more I feel like discussing. On now though to the meat of this posting.

My extended list is as follows...

Your friend in the north defends the BBC license fee...just.
LibCync wonders if being too optimistic can be a bad thing.
Political betting.com states that Vince, Vince, he's our man, and if he can't do it no-one can!
CiF/Tim Footman joins the ranks of people thinking that Tim Berners-Lee is perhaps being a little too precious about how information is disseminated around the web, and just how "useful" such information is.
Decline of the Logos gives a unique account of their experience at the Lib Dem conference.
Kerry McCarthy MP asks who is going to shoulder the blame for the current economic crisis?
Olly's Onions decrypts the real feelings of Nick Clegg by the end of the Lib Dem conference.