Blog of the Week: Blood and Treasure

Having attempted political blogging myself in the past, I know just how hard it is to get the right level of satire injected into your words several times a day to be noticed. Modern UK bloggers are almost akin to “sketch writers” of old, except much, much more vicious.

Given the difficulty of the task, I’m pleased to say that local blog Blood and Treasure deserves our collective attention.
Let me be clear, some of his entries might not be quite suitable for kiddies (as I write this the top story asks “Is Lady Thatcher syphilitic?”), and the wit might be a little off-putting for those who think – incorrectly, in my opinion – that politics is a wholly serious affair, but what do you expect from somebody who describes themselves as a “…man of excellent naturall Parts; but very Sarcastick and the greatest Buffoon in the Nation”?
Over four years old, this blog by “Jamie” (as his email address aludes to his name being), has managed to keep up the furious pace of political blogging and picked up a couple of thousand links in the process – any political blog picking up a few thousand page views a week has to be doing something right. So what is it that makes it stand out? The writing. Look:
In response to the argument about whether China was Olympic Champion (most golds), the US was (most medals overall, or the countries which use Euros as their main currency (which beat them both), he observes:

I like the idea of athletes representing currency zones. I propose that representation be further granted to areas with monsoon seasons, interesting lizards and branches of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Anyway, it kind of puts the utterly pathetic performance of the “Sterling zone” into perspective, doesn’t it?
The interesting thing about Britain’s Olympic strategy was how much it dovetailed with China’s: selecting likely winners at the expense of general participation and throwing money at sports no one else was too bothered about. Three hearty cheers for our Yingling class yachtsmen!

Oh go on, you know it makes a refreshing change from the “Our boys are golden!” verbiage of mainstream media in recent weeks.
And what about rumours that Gordon Brown is just a touch on the mad side?

People used to call Thatcher barking all the time, including half the people who voted for her. On the other hand, Eden was at least half barmy when he took us into the Suez adventure, a fact that could have done with more airplay at the time.
I don’t think it works with Brown, though I can understand why the Tories are doing it. There’s no risk of a sympathy backlash so you might as well just pile on. But they’re overshooting. He’s obviously not nuts; he’s just the guy in the office who no-one wants to be around, for reasons they can’t quite name, the guy to whom suspicions of sexual harassment tend to gravitate naturally, the one you feel good being unfair to.

Refreshing. Tightly written for the most part. I like it. Given it’s a political blog you might not, but then not every blog of the week is going to be to everybody’s taste.
What other great politics blogs (other than David Ottewell’s of course) are there out there locally?