Jennie has posted a few times now on Liberal Conspiracy about thinking along the same lines as me, and has linked to me a couple of times, so here is a return of favour under similar circumstances. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation says we need at least £13,400 each to simply live and be above poverty. Jennie, on the other hand, contests this amount as ludicrously high when taking in to account the wider picture of global poverty.

In all honesty, on this subject I am torn. I agree completely with what Jennie is saying, she is spot on and the fanaticism that has gone on with poverty and these kinds of figures with the media and politicians is disconcerting. However isn't there also a place for these kinds of poverty figures in developing society?

Dave Hill, over at his blog, has written a very insightful piece that delves into the heart of the ambiguity over what we define as "patriotism". Stemming from the news that academics suggest we start taking a critical approach to the subject when taught in History lessons. The idea is, simply, that you have to show that Britains past is at times morally corrupt and therefore why simply teaching kids to "love Britain" is wrong. Dave ends his very personal thoughts by suggesting that because there is a complexity in the debate that it should be discussed at schools. I don't disagree, but I don't think that is where the academics are really coming from.

I'm trying something new here, not sure if it's going to work as well as intended but here it is. Read more for the transcript of this movie.

To the "hard working" yet easily frustrated representative of my constituency,

I would, in turn, like to thank you for representing your constituency in parliament, but have yet to see the evidence. Apparently my taxes go towards paying for you to groan and shout in the house of commons, to feed the prime minister an easy question to boost his performance at PMQ's or playing the partisan blame game. When you debate it is not to get to the best solution but to deride it for not being your party's solution, and when you vote it's because of what a handful of politicians think rather than what thousands of your constituents think.