In the modern British lexicon it seems that few words are dirtier or more likely to cause an uproar than the word patriot. Long gone is the proud Englishman professing his love of Her Majesty The Queen and propagating the virtues of his nation, but today even less extreme professions… read more…

Gordon Brown asks Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for campaign advice. The Times. About a third of classrooms in England and Wales will be closed today due to the teachers' strike. BBC. A bill which would force all peers to pay UK taxes is to be debated today. ePolitix. Chinese… read more…

Westmonster hears that the Govester's speech on how Brown is a bally rotter has produced an unexpected backlash. In an apparently innocuous if hi-LAR-ious aside, Gove said of the Gord's succession: Whether it's been Neville Chamberlain after Baldwin, Eden after Churchill or Bush senior after Reagan, the successor model has never… read more…

BONG! News from our American cousins first, and Olly's Onions has this report on Republican Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani which ... er ... okay, so we just wanted an excuse to put up a picture of him decked out like a whore's lampshade. Whaddya gonna do? BONG! Wonkette uncovers an alarming image… read more…