Lib Dems up in two tricky by-elections

My friends have summarised rather well the results of yesterday's parliamentary by-elections. Nich Starling points to a week of ironic contrasts: on Monday pundits were speculating about Ming Campbell; now they are all speculating about the wheels falling off the Cameron bandwagon.

Jeremy Hargreaves describes Cameron's failings - he does not go down well in places like Chelmsford.

EUtube

The European Commission has launched a dedicated channel on YouTube to make its audiovisual material more widely available to the public. For instance, this short film: 50 Years of EU in the World.

The background to this is explained on the Europe in the UK website.

The whole world in one park

Up the road in Hylands Park a tented city is under construction for 40,000 Scouts and leaders - for the jamboree that will mark 100 years of Scouting. Every country in the world that has Scouts will be represented. More about the building work on Latest news

On 1st August every Scout in the world is encouraged to renew their Scout Promise at 8.00am their time. In Chelmsford, hundreds will do so in Oaklands Park. Should be a very special time. Memories of my time as a Scout start to come back......

Royal Artillery - Ready to go (Republica)

This soundtrack caught my attention again when the BBC used it on a film about Tony Blair going. Went looking for the track and found this video to go with it - a bit different from your average pop video.