In at number 18 came Pete Waterman's latest group, Steps. Their release was 5, 6, 7, 8, and owed a lot to Boot-scootin' boogie. Steps were the second act represented by Waterman following his divorce from Stock Aitken, after one-hit wonder Tina Cousins. When he first heard it, Waterman thought that it sounded like I should be so lucky speeded up, and the band looked like ABBA. In other words: a guaranteed hit. Conner Reeves had his third top 20 hit of the year, Earthbound at 14; Metallica's The memory remains entered one place higher, and was this week's top-selling seven-incher. Out of the top ten went Texas (10-26), Gary Barlow (7-19), Moby (8-16), Sash! (9-15), and the PF Project (6-11). The last one of those was Ewan McGregor reading out part of the script of Trainspotting over a disco beat. It's one of those records that could only be made in 1997, and that - rather than its more marginal musical merit - is why we're including it in the collection.

(More: Formula 1 bites Labour, Mike Oldfield, Bobby Brown, Jewel, Pulp, Hanson)

Highest new entry honours went to the All Saints, Never ever is in at 3, beating the debut position of I know where it's at. We'll have more to say on this over the coming weeks. For the third week, Torn is number 2, behind only Barbie girl. Aqua have now moved to a clear third in the best-sellers of the year chart, and will sell the millionth copy of the single next week.

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We were rather expecting to provide splat-by-splat coverage of last week's Question Muck special involving the Liberal Democrat leadership candidates. Thankfully, a dedicated team of Bungalowheads led by Mr. GB liveblogged the show as it happened, saving us the bother. Instead, a few notes on topics arising.

Mr. Huhne suggested that the Lib Dems are the party of Radicals. We spoke about the Radical tradition in British politics a couple of years back. (Follow-up, Feb '06) The Radicals - those in favour of social reform, personal liberty, reducing the powers of the Crown and the Church of England, avoidance of war and foreign alliances, free trade - defected to Labour at the 1922 and 1923 elections, found themselves courted by Ramsay MacDonald in 1924, and never recovered that sabre-rattling streak. The platforms espoused by Mr. Huhne and his opponent, Mr. Clegg, are certainly in keeping with the first four defining factors we noted above: social reform, rolling back the state, personal liberty, avoiding war. Free trade is now accepted by all significant players.

Later, there was a discussion on breaking the two-party system. The fractures within the Conservatives have been clear for the past decade, and the fractures within Labour are causing massive tension beneath the surface; only careful papering over of the cracks by leaders since Mr. Kinnock has preserved the illusion of party unity. If PR were adopted widely - and it would be a sine qua non of any Lib Dem coalition - we can see both Labour and the Conservatives splitting into parts. First past the post encourages big tents riven with internal division; PR prefers small parties with clear differences. Labour might split into a Far Left, heading in the direction of RESPECT and the many other splinter groups; and Moderate Left, those in the Brownite-Blairite mould. The Conservatives would also fragment, into Progressive Conservatives and Reactionary Conservatives, the latter annoyingly close to the UIP. In this situation, the Lib Dems would have to define themselves by something, and it's likely that their Radicalism would be that unique selling point.

The final score? The BBC is giving Cleggy a hard time: two prepared questions from the moderator here, and harsh questions on Sunday's Politics Show. We're giving the advantage to Mr. Huhne, because he didn't give an obvious hostage to fortune: Mr. Clegg's commitment to abolishing FPTP within two parliaments will come back and haunt him. Will the hand thing disadvantage Mr. Huhne? It's something for Rory Bremner to be working with, and it could be that any publicity is good publicity.

Greatest missed opportunity: Mr. Clegg suggested that a perpetual leadership contest was working to the party's advantage. Try telling that to the Conservatives!

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Random jottings about the massive data loss from the tax office: Mr. Brown wants these cretins to handle biometric data. It is difficult to change bank details, addresses, and so on. It is impossible to change fingerprints and eye-scans. We may as well all put our information up on Fay's Manuscript, and set the security setting to none.

To circle back: is this theft going to make it more difficult for people to obtain credit, because there's a higher risk of fraud following the Finance ministry's bollocks-up? And is this going to torpedo the government's plan to create a database covering every child in the country, because they clearly cannot be trusted to do anything.

Yes, there needs to be a policy, firmly expressed, and re-inforced to everyone. The national government can't escape responsibility: it has consistently downplayed the importance of keeping data secure, consistently underfunded the office of the Information Commissioner, and done everything it can to make data protection a dirty word, not a necessary protection for the innocent citizen.

Mr. The Soup Dragon's response? He portrayed himself as God, leaving behind a final message to the problem of his creation: We apologise for the inconvenience.

What hasn't been explained is why the National Audit Office actually wanted all this information. Particularly as the NAO had a complete data dump earlier in the year. Anyone would think that they're peering down their noses at the general failures of the child benefit office.

Pushed off the Daily Hell's Front Page

Yet again, the Europhobic press has cooked up a soufflé of lies, and then gorged itself fit to burst. This time, it's the question, When did you start living with your partner? It's used in a proposed list of information that Eurostat would find useful when doing statistical analyses of bits of Europe. The phrase used by the draft document is consensual union, a verbatim translation from the French union consensuelle. And the phrase used for the overall data-gathering exercise is census, a verbatim translation from the English census.

To the surprise of no-one, the loony right-wingers of the UIP-BNP are frothing at the mouth, which hardly counts as news. Only this time, they're giving the words such a hard twist that they break. The nutcases are leading people to think that some Eurocrat will turn up at their front door, probably wearing a beret, striped jumper, and with a string of onions around his neck, and ask everyone when they first had sex, and when they last had sex. Which, in the case of most UIP-BNP MEPs, will be very similar dates. The UIP-BNP also dreamed up questions about gardens, evidently mistranslating the term representatif retardée. Not that any of this will stop the petty little Englanders under the thumbs of Murdoch and Associated Liespapers, people who are so scared of foreigners that they'll only make contact with people from the continent if they're cowering under the ignorance of a Terrywogan.

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Stairway to heaven was written in December 1970, during a writing session for Led Zeppelin's fourth album at Headley Grange. The song is mostly written in the moderately tedious A-minor, and uses 4/4 time throughout. It was first performed at the Ulster Hall on 5 March 1971. It was a nine-minute behemoth of a song, causing many of the patrons to wonder if there was something more interesting to come. By the time the album emerged in November 1971, Stairway..., complete with meaningless lyrics, had caught the drug-addled zeitgeist.

Never released as a physical single - the group refused to allow a radio edit, and the song was too long to fit onto 7-inch vinyl - Stairway was generally the last song performed at the group's concerts; this lack of variety caused vocalist Robert Plant to mutter that the song was becoming sanctimonious and an albatross around the group's neck. Guitar-shop owners certainly thought so, suggesting that people try arpeggiating something other than the opening bars. As we mentioned on Sunday, the song has become a top 40 hit following its release on downloads.

Led Zeppelin split in 1980. It wasn't until 1985 that the first single version reached the UK charts, the only hit for Austrian supergroup The Far Corporation - producer Frank Farian, and including members of Barclay James Harvest, Trio, and Boney M. They made number 8. Pranksters Dread Zeppelin released their version in 1991, combining reggae and Elvis Presley; it stalled at number 61.

By then, Australian chat show The Money or the Gun had been and almost gone. Andrew Denton and his guests fronted a topical satire, which included a version of Stairway to heaven performed by someone who had a vague link to the matter in hand, except when they had no link and just did it for the hell of it. An album of this phenomenon, Stairways to Heaven was put out in 1991, featuring versions by tribute bands such as The Australian Doors Show, The Rock Lobsters, and Vegimite Reggae. There were also some stars in their own right involved, including John Paul Young (of Love is in the air fame) and HRH Sir Rolf Harris. Rolf said that he had never knowingly heard the song until he came to record it, but improvised from the sheet music. As far as the UK singles chart is concerned, Rolf's version is the definitive one, peaking at number 6 in February 1993.

In the early 1980s, a publicity-hungry godbotherer told the press that, if you listen to Stairway to heaven backwards, you hear a message exhorting the worship of Satan. This is, of course, complete tosh. However, we can exclusively reveal that if you listen to the Rolf Harris version backwards, and slow it down by 10%, you will hear a tenth more Stairway than if you heard it normally, only it'll be in reverse.

It makes us wonder.

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Behind the scenes at al-Jazeera, a station we would rather like on our cable box. And Raymond Snoddy points out that the BBC should stop competing with The Comedy Channel and air proper news all the time.

Airlines are whinging. Again. This time, it's following a vote by MEPs to include them in carbon-trading schemes. But we only make USD 5.6md a year squeal the bloated companies. The MEPs respond, If you were properly taxed to undo the damage you cause the planet, you'd be losing billions of dollars. Or, as we call it in Strasbourg, the price of a frugal lunch.

Noah's flood: did it begin agriculture as we know it? According to research in Exeter and Woolongong, the collapse of an ice sheet in the Bosporus increased sea levels by 1.4m, and caused inhabitants of land now under the Black Sea to flee, taking their cultivation of the land with them.

Good stuff: The Scene That Celebrates Itself: Sweeping the Nation reviews a retrospective of Some Bits of Britpop. We're happy with our review of 1997, but we'll never get a job making compilation albums. (Tracklisting)

Saturday is election day in Australia, and we're digging out our wobbleboard and copy of The legend of King Rolf. Opinion polls suggest that the country is bored after a decade of unchallenged rule by the right-wing, and wants something bland. Readers may also be interested in the electoral mechanics. The lower house uses a single transferrable vote in single-member constituencies, insisting that all preferences are specified. The upper house uses STV in multi-member constituencies, allowing (but not enforcing) the use of party-specified preference orders.

John Howard's already slim chances of winning a majority in Australia's elections evaporated in the early hours of Thursday, when his party distributed a racist leaflet in a Sydney marginal.

In other news, Mr. and Mrs. Duckery-Shootery of Sydney have been unhappy that they've been shot at. The birds entered a suburban golf club, pecked their greens to death, then took a spade and dug the mess up. The ugly duckling strikes back in a new play being staged in central London.

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Back to the benefit data loss for a moment. We were told in Thursday's papers, the NAO had asked only for basic details about child benefit recipients, without information on personal bank accounts, but was told by "high level" at the HMRC that it would be "too burdensome" to separate this data.

(More: SQL for all, what we think happened in human terms.)

The bottom line: the government needs to employ people who know a decent database design when they see one, and who can explain their work to seniors who don't know the details of what they're doing. Our contact details are at the foot of the page.

Information commissioner Richard Thomas wrote in the Indytab that there should be a criminal sanction against reckless or repeated security breaches. Making deliberate and systematic data breaches a criminal offence would serve as a strong deterrent and would send a very strong signal that it is completely unacceptable to be cavalier with people's personal information. The IC has been given new powers to make unexpected checks on government departments, but still cannot check private sector companies without their consent.

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25November

Timberyokel is straight into the top in Germany; an active week sees Ich + Ich enter at 4 with Stark, Sasha's Hide and seek enter at 8, with Kylie and Take That into the top 15. Céline's in at 7 in France. Ola hits number 1 in Sweden, where Kylie's up to 3, Kristet Utseende enters at 4 with Dragon city skaters, and Cascada's version of What hurts the most makes 5; the original by Rascal Flatts has done nothing in Europe. Morten Harket (yes, the former A-ha frontsman and Eurovision host) hits 3 in Norway with Movies, and outsells Stairway to heaven by a couple of places. Within Temptation make 13 in the Netherlands with the rather good All I need. CAUTION: the first festive songs of the year are out, Zwaai maar dag sinterklaasje is into the Dutch top 20 for Gebroeders, and Tino Rossi's version of Petit papa Noël is in France's chart. Shayne Ward's Breathless is in at 5 in Ireland. New number one in Finland, Pelimiehet on kortilla by Mr Nordic Bet. New topper in Flanders, too, Laura Lynn and Frans Bauer make Kom dans met mij ahead of all.

20 re Christophe Willem - Jacques a dit
19 NE Sheryfa Luna - Quelque part
18 11 Scouting For Girls - She's so lovely
17 re Pestside - Home
16 20 Enrique Iglesias - Tired of being sorry
15 19 Nelly Furtado - Do it
14 14 Ketevan Melua - If you were a sailboat
13 NE Take That - Rule the world
12 13 Alicia Keys - No one
11 10 Freemasons - Uninvited
10  5 Britney Spears - Gimme more
 9 17 Céline Dion - Taking chances
 8  9 Rihanna - Don't stop the music
 7  7 Leona Lewis - Bleeding love
 6  4 Mika - Happy ending
 5 NE Kylie Minogue - 2 hearts
 4  3 Plain White Ts - Hey there Delilah
 3  2 James Blunt - 1973
 2  6 Timberyokel - Apologise
 1  1 Sugababes - About you now

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25November

We'll start with good news on the airplay chart, where Amy MacDonald is the highest new entry at 19. This is the life. New entries for Wyclef's Sweetest girl (66) and Reverend and the Makers' Open your window (65), but we have no idea why Mr brightside re-enters at 64. Se Sa put Like this like that at 63, and Maroon 5 climb 11 to 61 with Won't go home without you. Big move back up for Newton Faulkner, 14 places to 53. The Council Estate Slappers's Sexy no no no re-enters at 52, and Michael Bublé's newie Lost makes 51. KT Tunstall's newie Saving my face is in at 50, and back amongst us at 46 is Mariah Cantsing's festive screech. At least we don't have to hear retune to avoid it until Advent Sunday. And, out of the top 40 after fifty million zillion weeks, goes Umbrella. All the way to number 41.

Kayne West has two in the bottom ten, and the Foo Fighters go back up, surely only because their song is rubbish. Gallows have shouty rock at 31 Staring at the rude bois; quite how a small wood can be impolite is beyond us. A 29-place climb for Soulja Boy to 24, his song suffers ever so slightly from being utter trash. Dizzy Rascal climbs 34 to 23, but his performance has a similar, fatal, flaw. The lesser version of Always on my mind re-enters at 17; is it really twenty years since the Pet Shop Boys' definitive version blew raspberries at Rick Ghastley? It's a grade 1 disaster for the Spice Girls, as Headlines can only make number 11. That's ELEVEN. Not two, like their previous biggest hit, and not one, like their other nine formal singles. Should Mrs. Victoria Posh Spice Beckham-Aadams be talking to the FA about their vacancy, because it's clear they're no singers any more.

The Sugababes hold at 10, and the oestrogen levels are cranked higher as the Council Estate Slappers, the Daily Star to the 'babes's Guardian and Spices Mirror, come in at 9 with Call the shots, now sixteen top ten hits, all of which sound exactly the same. Canvas Ignoume falls to 8, Alicia Keys slips a place to 7. Good lord, a bloke! Shayne Ward has Breathless in at 6, it's not a Corrs cover. Amy Whingebag holds at 5, her fourth week there in the last five; Timberyokel drops one to 4, Take That slip to 3, and T2's Heartbroken climbs from 14 to 2. The last two songs to make that leap - Justin Munberwang's My love and the Baha Men's Who let the dogs out both peaked there. So five weeks at the top for Leona Lewis.

Things are quietening down on the albums front, as quasi-classical albums secure three places in the top 11. Leona Lewis remains at number 1, with Pestside bouncing back up to 2. Katherine Jenkins has the highest entry at 3 with Rejoice, beating the Council Estate Slappers's Tangled Up. The Zep round out the top 5, Andrea Bocelli is 8, and the Fron Male Voice Choir come in at 11. Alicia Keys's As I Am enters at 14, and Lee Mead at 16. Much lower, Duran Duran's Red Carpet Massacre can only make 44. Obscurities for the Slappers and Gorillaz also enter the top 75.

 1  1 Leona Lewis - Burning love
10 10 Sugababes - About you now
13  8 Bloc Party - Flux
15 12 Freemasons - Uninvited
19  9 Runrig / Tartan Army - Loch Lomond
20 18 Hoosiers - Goodbye Mr. A
28 24 Mika - Happy ending
32 31 Scouting for Girls - She's so lovely
39 37 Led Zeppelin - Stairway to heaven
45 54 Hoosiers - Worried about Ray
50 NE KT Tunstall - Saving my face
53 67 Newton Faulkner - Dream catch me
57 34 McFly - The heart never lies
59 60 Robyn - With every heartbeat
60 46 Linkin Park - Shadow of the day
64 re Killers - Mr brightside
65 NE Reverend and the Makers - Open your window
68 47 Åvril Lavignnesøn - Hot
70 45 Hard-Fi - Can't get along without you
71 56 Céline Dion - Taking chances
72 50 Wombats - Let's dance to Joy Division

.. 33 Lahayna - In the city
.. 59 Darren Hayes - Me myself and (I)
.. 64 Led Zeppelin - Whole lotta love
.. 66 Boys II Men - End of the road
.. 69 Killers - Tranquilise

The secret update: Richard Fleeshman, the Sugababes, Booty Love, Uniting Nations, and David Guetta landed in the top 100. Lee Mead's second single landed at 107 - you may not remember him from the Joseph casting show earlier in the year. Amongst the entries into the 200 are Amy MacDonald, k d lang, and Andy Williams performing It's the most wonderful time of the year. Never a hit, until now! Former Nightwish singer Tarja released an album, it made 134.

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25November

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

• More or Less (OU / Radio 4) Predicting the spread of bird 'flu, measuring the wait in the NHS, plus moron speed cameras, and why Dawn Primorolo is a lying cow. This show
• I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (Radio 4) Three-ten to you, ma.
• Listen Against (Radio 4) Radio 1 employs a two-year-old child.
• October '87: Crash and Comeback (CNBC) A twenty-year retrospective of the crash of October 1987. Storm in a teacup, but at the right age.
• Feedback (City Broadcasting / Radio 4) Interrupting, children in dramas, and the last question on transcendental.
• The Late Edition (The Fourth Programme) Killing people isn't a resigning matter, losing a game is. Norman Baker on the death of David Kelly. Wotserface plugging her sex toys business, with samples for Ann Widdecombe. And Marcus tries to tell a series of jokes based on It's a Wonderful Life. Never mind, he'll be able to seduce Lixz.

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25November

Elections in Kosov@ were won by the pro-independence PDK, ahead of the ruling LDK. Kosov@ has been run as a UN protectorate since 1999, and new leader Hashim Thaci is expected to push for full independence. Proposals for more gradual autonomy have been made by the EU, but are meeting resistance from Russia; Spain and Greece are also thought to be unhappy with the idea of independence now, as it might encourage their local seperatist movements.

12,000 nurses in Finland resigned their posts in protest against a poor wage settlement. The parliament tried to ignore their mass quittal.

The tax and customs service in the UK lost 25 million computer records giving financial details of every parent in the country. A disk simply vanished in transit. The head of the tax service has resigned, obviously, but it now appears that the Finance ministry has compromised the financial security of almost half the UK. The Finance ministry is in further difficulty as the scale of the failure of Northern Rock continued to unfold: the bank is now, effectively, worthless, and is backed with £24md (€17md) in government loans. More: Nick Robinson | Spyblog

Denmark will have another referendum on membership of the European single currency. The country gained an opt-out after initially rejecting the Maastricht treaty in 1992, approved by a further vote the following year. In 2000, Denmark declined the option of joining the euro when it launched.

Pakistan was formally suspended from The Commonwealth, as the state of martial law persisted.

Kevin Rudd and the Labour Party gained a 6% swing in the Australian general election, sufficient to oust the conservative Liberal-National government under John Howaerd. Mr. Howaerd, who had been prime minister since 1996, lost his own seat to the opposition.

We regret to report the death of Teresa Brewer, music music music singer; of Rob Deacon, publisher of Volume, the CD-magazine from the mid-1990s; of Ian Smith, former prime minister of Rhodesia; of Maurice Béjart, choreographer; and of Jeremy Paster, photographer and humanitarian.

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25November

A snowfall on Sunday night - Monday morning left about 2cm of wet slush by Monday morning. It's believed to be the first time since 1996 that there's been a significant snowfall in the English midlands before there's been a snowfall on the Avalon peninsula. After it cleared, there was a progression of averagely warm days and cold nights, with a particularly sharp frost on Saturday morning.

19 Mo snow o/n, cloud    0/ 9,10.5
20 Tu fog to drizzle     5/ 8, 1.5
21 We cloud              6/ 9, 1.5
22 Th cloud              0/10
23 Fr sun                0/ 6
24 Sa cloud, showers    -4/ 7, 1.0
25 Su cloud              6/ 9, 0.5

Rainfall in November: 55.5mm; monthly average: 84mm

Degree heating days: 115
2006-7: 34/499
2005-6: 79½/684
2004-5: 74/556
2003-4: 110/754

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