12June

(More: Beth Orton, the Smashing Pumpkins, and whatever happened to Stephen Dorrell.)

Most unusually, this week's Network Chart Show didn't end with the number one single, nor with an announcement of England's surprise win in the cricket. Instead, the commercial stations' programme went on to play an exclusive record by the Spice Girls. Step to me was the main plank of the group's arrangement with a soft drinks maker, the same drinks company that sponsored the Network Chart Show. This single wasn't going to be available in the shops; the only way to get it would be to drink 6-and-two-thirds litres of this particular soft drink in cans, collect the pink ring-pulls, and send them off in exchange for the CD. Illegal downloading, at this early date, had yet to be invented. Home taping, however, had been invented, and Radio 1 breakfast show hosts Mark and Lard would leave nice long pauses before and after they played this song.

Though touted as an exclusive for the sponsors, the song would see official release as a bonus track in a repackaged version of Spiceworld issued in Japan. A good-quality copy of the promo CD is probably worth about £10, about the same cost as the cola consumed to obtain it in the first place. Gusworld reckons that this is a rather ephemeral track; it's a commercial, of course it's disposible. We agree that Generation next was rather good. That said, we reckon Step to me is certainly in the superior half of the Spice canon. We also reckon that this was the zenith for Spice power: by the time we received our copy of the single, in late August, the wind was going out of their sales.

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13June

Like a cushion, he always bore the impress of the last man who sat on him. - Attributed to David Lloyd-George, referring to Lord Derby. This remark is also credited to Earl Haig. Encarta

Washington wits began quoting, accurately or not, a scathing description of Franklin Roosevelt supposedly offered by Economist John Maynard Keynes: "The President is like a big, fluffy pillow. He bears the imprint of the last person who sat on him." - Time, 30 January 1978; source

Nick Garland ... comes across as a nervous, indecisive type, the psychological equivalent of the cushion which bears the imprint of the last person to have sat upon it. - John Naughton, Dear Diary..., 1989; source

This Queen's Speech has the Prime Minister written all over it, with the imprint of the last person who sat on him. - Tony Blair, 15 November 1995 source

Lord Derby, Secretary of State for War in World War I, was once described as a cushion - always bearing the imprint of the last person who sat on him. Major is such a cushion. - Andrew Alexander, Daily Hell, 26 April 1996.

Blair is and can be too easily influenced by this bunch of brains and always bears the imprint of the last person who sat on him. - Suzanne Moore, Het Grauniad, 11 July 1996.

The prime minister does not know which way to turn. He always bears the impression of the last person who sat on him at the European negotiations. - William Hague, June 2000. BBC report.

Mr Blair counters that the "big picture" is about leadership, and Mr Cameron "bears the imprint of the last person who sat on him". - PMQ liveblog, Het Grauniad, 13 June 2007. source

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13June

Lots of little cuts each day, and the occasional feature articles. It's worth a shot. Once we get rolling, the custom will be shorter than this, but we have a couple of weeks to catch up on...

Oi! Kids! Stop snogging, and go read James Waterson on You were the generation that bought more shoes and you get what you deserve.

From a contemporary anthem to a slightly older one - Bob from Great Big Sea talks about Jerusalem.

Dynamic range is a thing of the past, according to the Universal Daily Registertab, in an article exploring why everything sounds louder than everything else, and why modern popular music is so tiring to listen to. Next: why the gramophone will be replaced by the eight-track cassette.

There should be a single economic space from the Atlantic to the Urals writes Hamish McRae, in a strong argument for closer European ties to Russia. Starting with respect. We're hoping that the inevitable Russian Eurovision Song Contest win (let's be honest, it's when, not if) will help to cement ties.

Steve Richards has spotted the quiet revolution of people who don't drive and don't fly because both activities are too much trouble. Has Mister Tony Blair signed the easiest agreement ever?

Putting up the barriers around Fortress Moronica. A spokestwat for the rebel government of the North American Colonies has told Der Spiegel that Europeans from 13 EU states entering under a visa waiver programme should register online and submit a questionnaire 48 hours before they travel. According to Mike Jerkoff, We want to increase the levels of security with an electronic authorisation. He also issued a veiled threat against Europe, which is unhappy about the rebel's desire to snoop around on potential travellers, saying, The Europeans should realise that we will never let another government decide who comes into the country.

There's a radio commercial doing the rounds for Calvin Harris's very mediocre new single. One of the actresses has been given the line, It's got a good beat! Too young to remember The Mary Whitehouse Experience reference, clearly.

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14June

One final note from the most recent 1997 nostalgia post. Or, to be exact, four-and-a-half minutes of final notes, courtesy of the new entry at 40 from Beth Orton.

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14June

The CBScrobbler Mainstream Test: which of the BBC's music stations has been the weirdest this week? For the week to 10 June, Radio 1 was 22.25% Mainstream, Radio 2 just 15.19%. 6music, in spite of leading with the obscure Kate Nash, had 21.28% Mainstreamness, but it's 1xtra that takes the Weirdness accolade, having an almost completely unknown top four ensures they return just 9.36% Mainstream. For comparison, Virgin 1215 was 36.68% Mainstream. If Snow Patrol hadn't been returning a big fat zero, the station would probably be about 98% Mainstream.

Interesting to note who chaired the Cabinet last week, while prochain ancien prime minister Mister Blair was in Germany, and prochain ancien deputy prime minister John Prescott was in hospital. The job fell to the Lord Privy Seal, John Straw. Should have spotted that outcome a mile off, really, as the LPS was the top job until the invention of the prime minister.

The Dismal Corporation buys Cricinfo for an undisclosed sum. We're surprised to learn that the site was sold to the Yankees back in 2003, by Mark Getty. The site has had very little development, and still doesn't have meaningful RSS feeds.

Speaking of woeful under-investment, NTL-Telewest is to beef up its FTN television channel. We were rather pleased earlier this year, when the programme - available on cable, DTTV, and satellite - started showing old episodes of The Crystal Maze and The Krypton Factor in amongst the call-and-lose shows (now replaced by a roulette game, of all things!) You'll know the channel is in trouble when it shows That's the Question.

Still with television: has The Sopranos (pronounced to rhyme with the surname of Franz Ferdinand's lead singer, natch) been ripping off Skins or something?

Privacy International says that G****e is the worst of the web's big operators for privacy breaches. The pisspoor ranking stems from the sheer amount of data it gathers about users and their activities, its incomplete privacy policies, and its poor record of responding to complaints. G****e's response was to shoot the messenger, claiming that everything in the garden was rosy, PI were a shill for Micro$oft, and retaining all information forever and a day was perfectly fine. And, when G****e shoots, its claque cheers as if it had just scored the winning kick from the penalty mark in the World Cup final, never mind the fact that the referee had decided the match ten minutes earlier by sending off the opposition's star striker. Incidentally, here's something we never thought we'd write: Shelley is wrong when she says I don't have the option to divorce Google. It's absolutely trivial to do, and you'll never look back.

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16June

Share of the votes at provincial and federal elections in Newfoundland since 1949, including the latest opinion poll. It's another poll, Mr. Harper! It's another all-time low, Mr. Harper! Seventeen percent! Even George Galloway is more popular.

It's clear that ancien British Labour party leader Mister Tony Blair is not a fan of the new-look Indytab. It is avowedly a viewspaper not merely a newspaper, said the soon-to-be-former prime minister. He misses the point - the Indytab's readers know and understand this. The people whose gaze falls upon lesser organs, such as The Universal Daily Registertab or the Daily Tabloid don't see the noxious mix of comment into their paper's news pages.

Founding editor Andreas Whittam-Smith muses, That Her Majesty's ministers dare not shut themselves away for two days because of the media has only to be spelt out to see what a back-boneless proposition it is. Simon Carr, the paper's sketch-writer, chimes in, For 90 per cent. of the time they are open for business, the debating chambers of the Commons are 90 per cent. empty. Current editor Simon Kelner added, What clearly rankles with Mr Blair is not that we campaign vociferously on certain issues, but that he doesn't agree with our stance.

Ancien British prime minister Mrs. Margaret Thatcher delivered a soliloquy on the 25th anniversary of the liberation of the Falklands. Two thoughts: one, she's really sounding old, and we wouldn't want to stake money on there being four living ex-prime ministers any time soon. And two, that may be the most powerful, dignified, and honourable speech of her career. Transcript, audio.

An interesting carbon tax proposal, based on the temperature change that the IPCC says is the most likely anthropogenic: temperatures in the tropical troposphere - measured 15km due up, and within 20° of the equator. As the temperature rises above a baseline, so the tax increases - the current proposal is for a tax of about €3.50 per tonne of carbon dioxide. The system would be revenue-neutral - increases in carbon tax would be offset by reductions in other taxation. Or, for Gordon Brown, increases in bribes to Labour voters. If the IPCC projections are correct, the tax will reach €16 by 2015, and €150 per tonne by the end of the century. However, if the projections are incorrect, and existing measures suffice to trim the rate of warming to nil, the tax will remain pocket change. If the anthropogenic global warming hypothesis turns out to be incorrect, and temperatures actually reduce, the tax may even become negative.

Mikita Brottman on the endurance of all things goth

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17June

Before we begin, a Parliamentary Broadcast. To-night at 6pm, BBC Parliament will be repeating Falklands Night. The programmes were first shown on 1 April, and here's what you're going to see. Or miss. And we've got INFAX links to the complete programme contents, and a further discussion of the events that led to the resignation of the presenter of Panorama. Don't forget, the absolute highlight comes at two seconds to nine o'clock, and we're not going to tell you what it is. After that, a three-hour experiment in setting pictures to the radio broadcasts from the Commons.

Back, by popular lack of demand, it's Question Muck The Leaders!

These people are going for the highest elected office in the Labour party. If they want the prize, they'll have to work together as a team. If they're clever, or very very lucky, they may win the odd first preference or two, and they may be able to turn those into something completely... unremarkable! Who are these scintillating six?

• Jon Cruddas, a no-nonsense lad from Dagenham.
• Peter Hain, a cricket fan from South Africa.
• Alan Johnson, a postman from off the street.
• Harriet Harman, a sycophant from Peckham.
• Hilary Benn, a famous son from Festive Road.
• Hazel Blears, an insubstantial careerist from Manchester.

(More information about the panellists, and the debate in full. - 1600 words)

1. What do you think was Tony Blair's biggest failure?

2. Jon Cruddas is proving popular with the public with his old Labour principles; should the other candidates take a leaf out of his book?

3. This Labour Government has been accused of excessive law making. What piece of legislation from the last 10 years would you most like to see repealed?

4. Recognising excellence in others is fundamental to good leadership, so can you name the single greatest political achievement of one of your co-runners?

Phew. We completely forgot just how difficult this was. We won't be doing it again, though the presence of Mad Boris might have us tuning in...

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17June

Laura Lynn comes in at 2 in Flanders, performing Dans je de hele nacht met mij. The year's shortest title - 1 - comes into the chart in Estonia, courtesy of this year's Pop Idle.ee winner, Koit Toome. Book him for Eurovision '09 now! Boring scenes in Latvia, as Rihanna is most-played at radio. Ditto in Ireland, as Enrique Igloos is in at 6; we're interested by the Coronas, new at 18 performing The talk. Incredible scenes in Denmark, where Trine Dyrholm drops down to number 3 for the first time since last year. Even more incredible scenes in Norway, where Seasons in the sun - the Terry Jacks original from the mid-70s - re-enters at position 17.

20 re DJ Ötzi - Ein stern
19 18 Mika - Relax (take it easy)
18 20 Travis - Closer
17 NE Twang - Either way
16 12 Fray - How to save a life
15 17 Michael Bublé - Everything
14 15 Boys Aloud - Ruby
13 14 Mark Medlock - Now or never
12  9 Timberland et al - Give it to me
11  7 Mika - Love today
10 10 Manic Street Preachers - Your love alone
 9 11 Maroon 5 - Makes me wonder
 8 13 Ville Valo and Natalia Avelon - Summer wine
 7  8 Mutya Buena - Real girl
 6  5 Mika - Grace Kelly
 5  6 Rihanna - Umbrella
 4  3 Beyonce / Shakira - Beautiful liar
 3  4 Linkin Park - What I've done
 2  2 Nelly Furtado - Say it right
 1  1 Åvril Lavignnesøn - Girlfriend

17June

Download entries for Nataaaaaaaaasha Bedingplant (70), Justin Numberwang (63), Stacey Ferguson (60), and Gwen Stuffeny (55). Proper new entries from Pendulum (Blood sugar / axle grinder at 67 ... tasty!) and Richard Grey's cover of Tainted love. No leap in the first chorus? No good. Just missing the top end are Cherry Ghost (People help the people, 49) and Rumble Strips (Motorcycle, 46), neither of which we can recall hearing. My Chemical Romance land at 42 with Teenagers.

Gossip follow up their very successful Theme From Skins with Listen up, a more moderate number 39 hit. Erasure put out their fast and repetitive song at 33, this time it's called Sunday girl, and is not to be confused with any other song of the same name. It's also the first time Erasure have missed the top 30 since the original release of Oh l'amour peaked at 85 in April 1986.

Useless Chart Stat Of The Week Åvril Lavignnesøn puts a second song into the top 40, When you're gone arrives at 32 on downloads. Her older work, Girlfriend, lands at 31. It's the third back-to-back in the top 40 so far this year, following My Chemical Romance (14 Jan) and Take That (11 Feb). Back-to-backs at 31 and 32 have previously been achieved by Elvis Presley (One night I got stung and A fool such as I, 13 Feb 2005), Tommy Roe (Heather honey and Dizzy, 26 July 1969) and the Piltdown Men (Goodnight Mrs Flintstone and Piltdown rides, 12 Mar 1961). It's also been done with two versions of the very same song; on 5 June 1994, Prince charted the original The most beautiful girl in the world at 31, and a bundle of remixes entitled The beautiful experience was number 32. We reckon that this is the most remarkable achievement in UK chart history.

We're surprised to see Snore Patrol's Signal fire slump from 12 to 27. Not disappointed, you understand, just surprised. The Chemical Brothers climb just two places to 23, but physicals are still eight days away. Koopa's The one-off song for the summer lands at 21, the biggest hit for the still-unsigned band. Wave of the future? Perhaps, but they'll have to buck their ideas up from this wave of predictable rock.

And speaking of predictable, Fray climb fifteen places to 19 with their new song. In at 18 comes Lee Mead, the winner of the BBC's recent Make Andrew Lloyd Webber Even Richer Than He Is Already programme. His rendition of Any dream will do - a number 1 hit for Jason Donovan in 1991 - enters at 18, in spite of some of the worst production since the invention of the gramophone. Just ahead comes Maximo Park's Books from boxes. Marillion's dedicated fanbase ensures Thanks whoever you are was a big seller on Monday, but has slipped away since, ending the week at 15. We don't expect to hear it in the top 40 next week. Holloways, we do - they're up 25 to 14

Kelly Clarkson has the highest new entry at position 9, her fifth top ten hit. The biggest was Since you've been gone, a number five hit two years ago. Feels much more recent. The top five: Mutya Buena drops from 2 to 5, Kelly Rowland and Eve climb from 18 to 4 on its physical release, Enrique Inglaziers moves up from 9 to 3, and the White Stripes from 13 to 2. We were rather hoping it would be the new number one, partly because it's better than Rihanna's song (but then so is at least 90% of the top 75) but because it would give us a very good excuse to recall the song that made that particular move twenty years ago to the week.

On the albums list, congratulations to the Travelling Wilburys, whose Collection is straight in at number 1. The pent-up demand couldn't be anything to do with the way no new copies of their works have been pressed since about 1993, could it? Bon Jovi's Lost Highway enters at 2, and The Police enter at 3. There are also big climbs for Genesis (14-5) and Hank Marvin (13-6). Queens of the Stone Age enter at 7 with Era Vulgaris, and the Who's Then and Now returns to the chart at 9. Other old fogies climbing this week include the Clash's Singles (23-13), Joe Cocker (33-19), and Rod Stewart's Seventies Collection (new at 20).

The old fogies continue lower down - Van Morrison has a best-of at 23, collections from John Lennin at 30, Aerosmith at 44, and Oasis at 46. Climbers include Snore Patrol (39-29) and James Morrison (65-55). Much lower down, new entries from the Tiny Dancers (Free School Milk, 64) and Alfie Boe (Onward, 72). He's a tenor from Fleetwood, according to the Smooth Classics website.

 2 13 White Stripes - Icky thump
 5  2 Mutya Buena - Real girl
 9 NE Kelly Clarkson - Never again
12  8 Reverend and the Makers
  - Heavyweight champion of the world
14 39 Holloways - Generator
15 NE Marillion - Thanks whoever you are
16 NE Maximo Park - Books from boxes
19 34 Fray - Over my head
20 17 Twang - Either way
21 NE Koopa - One off hit for the summer
28 24 Fray - How to save a life
30 NE Editors - Smokers outside the hospital doors
31 21 Åvril Lavignnesøn - Girlfriend
32 NE Åvril Lavignnesøn - When you're gone
33 NE Erasure - Sunday Girl
35 26 Mika - Love to-day
39 NE Gossip - Listen up
42 NE My Chemical Romance - Teenagers
43 27 Pigeon Detectives - I'm not sorry
44 33 Manic Street Preachers
  - Your love alone is not enough
47 38 Mika - Grace Kelly
50 42 Mark Ronson - Stop me
64 58 Calvin Harris - Acceptable in the eighties
66 72 Arctic Monkeys - Flourescent adolescent
69 35 Ghosts - The world is outside
72 74 Linkin Park / Jay Zed - Numb/Encore
74 re White Stripes - Seven nation army

.. 49 Biffy Clyro - Living is a problem
.. 63 Gossip - Standing in the way of control
.. 65 Pink - Leave me alone
.. 67 The Enemy - Away from here
.. re Arctic Monkeys
.. 71 Tiny Dancers - Hannah we know
.. 73 Arctic Monkeys - Brianstorm

17June

This week, we've been watching and hearing...

• Coast (BBC-2), a trip along the Property Coast from Bournemouth to Plymouth. Particularly interested by the impressive homes of Sandbanks (though not by the ten million quid price tags) and by the art deco hotel on a tidal island outside Torquay. And on what other show would you see Alice Roberts making sandcastles. Programme page
• Start the Week (Radio 4) It's rare that we get a chance to hear this show, so the convo about Charles Spencer and his soldier antecedent, David Talbot and the Kennedys, and Shirley Williams and Magna Carta, was a good one. Programme page
• Andrew Marr's Modern History of Britain (BBC-2) trawled through 1975-90, with nary a mention of Jim Calorgas. Plenty of publicity for Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, though, but for the first time this series, very little that's particularly novel. Mr. Marr's concluding statement, that everyone is Thatcher's child, is simultaneously obvious and fallacious.
• How We Built Britain (BBC-1) showed David Dimbleby trying to conduct an interview by shouting down a chimney. Didn't work, but it gives us a good idea for what Jeremy Vine can do on the next election night. We also saw Dimbers try to squeeze into a priesthole. Didn't work, but it gives us a good idea for what Jeremy Vine can do on the next election night.
• The Falklands War: What If (Discovery) explored hypotheses about the 1982 conflict, with the aim of demonstrating a fragility of the British victory that's been forgotten with the passage of history. The major new points - the invasion was originally planned for December 1982; and an Argentinian commander confirming that the Belgrano was acting as a decoy to lure the British into a trap. All of this was rather nullified by the channel's tricksy and distracting presentation, and the over-large on-screen graffitti. Discovery is not a channel for serious television.
• Feedback (Radio 4) looked into the balance of listings in the Radio Times. Why does Radio 3 overnight get a complete listing, but not the morning shows? There's also an interview with James Alexander-Gordon, and a discussion on reporting of the middle east.

17June

National elections in Belgium have defeated Guy Verhofstadt, prime minister for the past eight years. His Flemish Liberal party has been ousted by the Christian Democrats led by Yves Leterme, prime minister until 1999. The far-right Vlaams Belang - the successor to the Vlaams Bloc - also gained ground. In Walloonia, the French-speaking part of the country, the Reform party of Didier Reynders broke the dominance of the Socialists. Full results in English (+ Français, Deutsch, Vlanderen)

The first round of voting in France points towards a huge majority for the UMP and other Sarko-loyalists. 109 UMP candidates and one Socialist secured an absolute majority in the first round of voting, and are spared next Sunday's two-candidate run-off. That leaves 467 seats up for grabs, and it's expected that at least 300 of those will go to the Popups.

After a week of negotiations, and at least one breakdown of talks, the Green party and Fianna Fáil agreed a programme on Tuesday night. It was agreed by a special conference of the Green party on Wednesday by about 6:1. As promised, party leader Trevor Sargent resigned, having promised not to work with Fianna Fáil in government.

Israel's Labour party does contest its leadership elections, and former prime minister Ehud Barak won the Labour party leadership, by 53% to 46%.

Britain's highest domestic court ruled that the European Convention on Human Rights does apply to people detained by UK forces, even when that detention is outside Europe.

Pope Roland Ratzenburger has advised his followers not to donate to Amnesty International, because the group promotes abortion under certain circumstances. Cardinal Reggie said the financing of Amnesty by his organisation would end, but Amnesty in Italy said it did not receive any funding from the Ratfans in the first place.

If a lawsuit was filed for every broken government promise, there wouldn't be enough lawyers - Lorne Calvert, Saskatchewan premier, as he prepares to sue the federal government over equalisation payments.

Following a battle in which dozens were killed, troops loyal to the militantly repressive Hamas faction have taken effective control of the Gaza Strip. President Abbas of the more secular Fatah faction, which continues to hold the West Bank, attempted to dissolve the government, but his call was ignored by the Hamas-led coalition. BBC report

Obituaries: Kurt Waldheim, member of the Nazi party 1938-45; secretary-general of the UN 1972-81; president of Austria 1986-92. David Hatch, top BBC radio spod.

17June

Some of the most extreme rainfall ever seen was the week's big weather event. The week began with warm and increasingly humid air moving up from the south-west. By Wednesday, one set of vigorous fronts were moving up from that direction, and another was moving down from the north. The two systems collided over northern England during the course of Thursday, and stalled each other. When two rain-bearing fronts clash, the result is that their battlegrounds will become very wet. The West Midlands and South Yorkshire were particularly badly hit, with flash floods affecting many areas.

In south Birmingham, a brief shower on Wednesday afternoon was the first measurable precipitation in thirteen days. There was about 10mm of rainfall on Wednesday night into Thursday morning, as the first front cleared from the south. Rain resumed around 7pm on Thursday, and continued for about twelve hours; in that period, rainfall was just over 50mm - the entire monthly average. Sharp showers continued until Saturday, including a brief thunderstorm around 3pm on Thursday.

11 Mo sunny spells       9/22
12 Tu sun               16/22
13 We cloud, rain pm    12/22, 3.0
14 Th rain              14/19,15.0
15 Fr heavy rain o/n    13/20,58.5
16 Sa showers           12/19, 9.0
17 Su sun to cloud      11/19

Rainfall in June: 85.5mm; monthly average: 50mm

Degree cooling days: 28
2006: 66/360
2005: 19/238
2004: 54/198
2003: 50/328