It seems as though every time I decide I shan’t be doing link-blogging any more, teh interwebs responds with an outpouring of marvellous writings which just make me want to post links up here again.

And so it came to pass – behold! A list I have compiled – verily, a list of the most enlightening, interesting and amusing thoughts that the denizens of the commentariat have shared unto the world…

Oh for Christ’s sake, I can’t keep writing like that.

List. Links. Good stuff. I enjoyed. Read.

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You Are Funding the Taliban

If you read only one blog post this week, read… Well, read my translation of Gordon Brown’s NHS letter, clearly. But if you read two, read this one from Heresy Corner on the way that international aid money from Brits and Americans gets taken by the Taliban and spent on weapons used to kill British and American troops.

Clearly an excellent system for all concerned. The Afghan people get their empty schools, the international contractors get their healthy fees, the Taliban get their bombs and AK47s, and we just get the bills. And the dead soldiers, of course.

No really, go. Read the whole thing right now. This list will still be here when you get back, I can wait. Go.

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The Left Should Take Hannan-ism Seriously

Sunder Katawala is on with an interesting, if mildly inaccurate, overview of what Dan Hannan is going on about from an ideological point of view, and indeed why Labour shouldn’t just outright dismiss him or just attempt to shout him down.

It is never difficult to hear from “outriders” who believe that Cameron will succeed if he is bold in becoming more right-wing in office. Fraser Nelson, Tim Montgomerie, Iain Dale and all in different ways promote a modern Conservatism as the politically successful rehabilitation of the party’s Thatcherite core beliefs. A more Hannanite view still is expressed from outside the party in the populist libertarianism of Guido Fawkes.

By contrast, you may search the blogsophere in vain for prominent Conservative grassroots voices who are “outriders” to the left of the frontbench, upstream of the occasional delphic progressive arguments of Mr Letwin or Mr Willetts. The uber-modernisers are a small group party strategists, journalists and think-tankers. They, so far, lack any significant constituency in the party. The so-called progressive Conservativism has been much more discussed in The Guardian, at Demos, on Liberal Conspiracy or on Next Left than they are in right-of-centre think-tanks and websites.

Worth reading the whole thing if you’re an ideology nerd, although as usual with Liberal Conspiracy, dive into the comments at your own risk.

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New Paternalism

Tom Harris’ blog goes, shockingly, almost positively libertarian as Eric Joyce MP writes an excellent guest post indicting the illiberal nanny state that sees whiskey miniatures being banned from Scottish tourist shops.

Ask yourself this; have you ever seen miniature abuse (I’m not talking the harming of smaller people, here)? Or watched someone neck a bottle of wine as they drove off from a filling station? Or gone mental in the aisles having had Pinot Grigio and a nice bit of haddock in the same field of vision? No, you say? How about folk smoking at home in front of the kids because they can’t do it at the bingo or social club now? Or people spending too much on alcohol because those who aren’t price sensitive think it’s a good idea to keep the prices high? Or independent garage owners of impeccable record losing their alcohol licences and possibly their livelihoods?

Since when did Labour politicians talk like that?

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Piracy on the High Seas

Constantly Furious is unconvinced that Lord Mandelson’s new commitment to combating music piracy is entirely his own initiative – and thinks it may have had something to do with the time he recently spent around David Geffen.

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And Finally…

The Conservatives Are Now the ‘Progressive’ Party

According to a PoliticsHome poll the Conservatives are now seen to be the most ‘progressive’ party in UK politics – but the poll also noted that nobody anywhere seems to have figured out yet what the hell ‘progressive’ means anyway.

Which is heartening, for those of us who’ve been wondering what in God’s name everyone’s been talking about.