A new entry - though not the highest - for Morrissey. Just three years into his solo career, Moz was already onto his third solo album, Kill Uncle, from which the lead single was Our Frank. It's his most radio-friendly song so far, beating even the doom-laden gothery of 1988's Every day is like Sunday (which had just been a 28-record-token panel beater on Simon Mayo's Identi-hit Quiz). And, of course, being entertaining is the last thing Morrissey fans wanted, resulting in the single entering at 26, and getting no higher. It was the first time Morrissey had failed to crack the top 20 with a solo single, and this would turn out to be the circle he would live in for the rest of the 1990s.

This week's fastest climber, up 13 to 23, was Chris Rea's Auberge. He'd had a strange career, hitting the top 30 in 1978 with Fool if you think it's over, but not then making the upper reaches again until 1985's Stainsby girls, all about his old school in Middlesbrough. His biggest hit was 1989's Road to hell, written after a particularly bad traffic jam on the motorways around London. This was the lead single and title track from his first album back, and had been a rather uninspired choice of Simon Mayo Record of the Week. After that shaky start, Rea managed one top 40 hit every year between 1987 and 1994, though only in '91 and '92 did he have two hits. He's perhaps best remembered for Let's dance and On the beach, and a song that took eighteen years to make the top 40, Driving home for Christmas.

(More: The end of the war as we knew it, Deee-lite and the chart's strange tie-break rules, the Railway Children, MC Hammer, Thunder, Chris Isaak, Nomad, and songs by Morrissey and Chris Rea. Look, it's 1991, what are you expecting?)

The Simpsons remained at number 1 for a second week with Do the Bart, man. Unlike anything else in the top 7, here was a good, fun, pop song that was actually entertaining, at least on first listen.

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It's fairly rare that we agree whole-heartedly with Johann Hari, but there's always room to be surprised. One such case was his call to boycott the Olympics because of China's support for genocide in Darfur. We're adding this to the list of the regime's many sins, including its occupation of Tibet and Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Tessa Jowell claims that the boycott would not serve any purpose. This is incorrect: it makes the boycotters feel better, and if Mrs. Jowell wants to find things that don't serve any purpose, she need only look in the nearest mirror.

Does collectivity as an approach bring about real integration or is it forced assimilation that then hides the disadvantages and inequalities faced by minority groups? Best Eurotrib thread we've seen in a very long time.

Another in the file of Best Posts we've Seen in A Long Time: Inner Brat on why creationism is not and will never be science of any quality.

For those who will be watching everything done by Mr. de Bouwer and Mr. Endale over the next 37 (thirty-seven) weeks, Vincente Navarro sets it into context. We're not talking about a political discussion between Old Labour and Thatcherism. We're not talking the somewhat narrower debate between New Labour and the Cameronites. No, the whole thing is taking place in an ideological napkin, a bit like the fight between Dr. Fox and Mr. Davies to be the right-wing candidate at the last Conservative leadership election.

One detail that confuses the occasional traveler here is that you need to take the Sutton train for the quickest journey to Wimbledon (just as you need to take the Wimbledon train for the quickest journey to Sutton).

We wrote last week about how to get by train from the UK to the Costa del Sol. Het Grauniad takes just that trip; the report is filed by Nighttime O'Booze.

Which brings us to news of wood ducks landing in Birmingham. Lost, but very welcome.

Victims of war crimes have been very badly let down by the Metropolitan Police's failure to keep Mr. Almog from finding out about the arrest warrant before it was executed, and its failure to arrest Mr. Almog when it had the opportunity to board the plane at Heathrow airport.

There are proposals to drop the spoken component of modern foreign language examinations. Except there aren't. Instead of having the component entirely assessed by a terminal examination, it'll be marked, in part, by teacher's assessments. We'd like a good proportion of the marks (at least a third, perhaps a half) to be awarded by the final examination, but there is a place for continual assessment. And there must be a requirement to speak the language to get a half-way respectable mark.

And finally, engineers have come up with a method of making the paint on the Forth Rail Bridge last for almost three decades, ensuring that it only has to be painted every quarter-century or so. Satan is believed to be checking the temperature in hell very carefully.

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In comments last week, Quirks noted,

My instinct is that Heat would be more similar to Core than Life, but Life's domain is arguably occupied by the heritage ILRs and that makes Heat + Galaxy a more viable combination.

Heat has achieved much of its coverage by directly replacing Magic on the local multiplexes. In sound, the station is somewhere between Life and GWR's analogue locals. The combo of Heat and a dance station (and Bauer's dance station is Kiss) would work, but leaves a gap for the not-quite-Radio-2 audience. Enter Magic, in Primetime's old slot, and leaving the older folk to Original on D2.

one religious station [gets] in; I was actually pleasantly surprised that one did not replace Core, and wonder what the hell is going on with BFBS.

BFBS1 (as distinct from the mostly-speech BFBS2) can pass for a contemporary music station, so the only rubber-stamping OFCOM needed to do was that government-owned BFBS wasn't going to go out of business. If it did, OFCOM might have more pressing matters than the minutiae of DAB licenses. To get %Religious Radio% in that slot would have been a significant format change, which OFCOM would have had to open to consultation, and couldn't be done at the drop of a share price hat. (On the other hand, a speech-based religious station could easily have jumped into Oneword's license.)

As we understand it, BFBS1 is a trial service, and it will be interesting to see if it lasts past GCAP's year-end on 28 March.

how The Jazz can go from zero to 350,000 in a year and then be forced off air. That's a special kind of incompetence from GCAP there.

It's a fire-sale. It's desperation. It's Fru Hazlitt betting the house on the interwebs and not being taken over before Wimbledon. It's interesting to note that Digital One's most recent newsletter says that GWR only intends to close Planet Rock and The Jazz if it can't sell them as a going concern.

On-air commercials is a thought exercise here; Core had few enough to not be too annoying, or more pertinently to have a huge edge over ILRs. Life seems to not know whether to be ad-free or not, and the current compromise - a single advert at around xx30 for a Classic FM compilation, every single hour - is almost hilariously bad, although it has served me well as a rough time check. Realistically, I think the Core template for commercials may well be a pragmatic one.

Heat's other main point is that it doesn't have spot commercials; instead, every show has some commercial sponsorship. It doesn't quite work, yet, but it's got to be a way forward. Probably a mixture of the two will be the standard outcome.

Finally, a follow-up to a previous point: a poster on Digital Spy suggests Bern Leckie is still with Life. We cannot vouch for the accuracy of any DS poster, but this appears more credible than most.

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Right, on the assumption that Iziblog is down for the forseeable future, there will be some changes. At the moment, we're testing whether Wordpress will allow me to make friends-only posts without allowing the readers access to change them. Expect more on this early next week.

In the interim, let's get up a conversation we were having with Quirks before we were so rudely interrupted. It's about ITV's most tactile quiz of the year so far, Duel.

the big test will be once someone gets to Duel 4. That will be exciting, especially if - and it's not a terribly big 'if' on evidence so far this series - it comes down to the last few chips.

Absolutely: allowing characters to build over three or four episodes allows the viewer to build a rapport and root for or against them (see also: Raven, where we spent last week fluffing up our pom-poms to cheer for the demons should our favourite(s) leave(s) the tournament. What's the use for pom-poms all fluffed up with no-one to cheer?)

the new format is a massive improvement, for one reason and one reason alone; anyone who's smart enough to win the jackpot will win the jackpot, regardless of their fiscal attitude.

A very good point, and one worth immortalising in the next Week. (Goes off and does so.)

We were also discussing the arrangements for the new ITV / Setanta contract for the FA Cup. For Round 6 (early Jan), Round 5 (late Jan), and Round 4 (mid Feb), ITV will have three matches and Setanta two. One of these, surely, could go on Friday nights.

Already, one of the Murdoch Sports matches airs on Friday evening.

Curiously, not in the cup once the big teams enter. It's only league matches that get shifted.

the smart strategy, I'd think, is ITV to use Fridays and put self-contained one-shot dramas in other weeks), along with Saturday lunchtime, Saturday 1715 and two on Sunday.

Gut feeling here is for a Friday night flyer, one early Saturday evening (is there a market for a 7pm kick-off? Perhaps in the quarter-finals...) and one Sunday match. Leaves Setanta with a combination of Saturday lunchtime, Sunday's other match, and Monday night.

The quarter-finals... will they ever coincide with a Formula 1 weekend? If so, that's probably Sunday afternoon for Setanta; even if the races at that point are many time zones apart, ITV1 have a convention of rerunning the race in the afternoon at some point.

At some point, the two will almost certainly coincide. This is not a particular problem, ITV will just shift the re-run to fit their sports portfolio, as they did for the rugby world cup. And as they surely did at some point in the 98-01 contract. They'll get as many viewers dropping the flag at 11am as they will at 2pm. The more difficult one could be the semi-finals, if they were to clash with a European race, but ISTR the FA insisting that all the semis would take place at building sites in north London, so would have to be one on Saturday and one on Sunday, allowing more flexibility for kick-off times.

Would the terms of the contract allow them to air [replays] on ITV4?

Good question, it would be surprising if that were in contract, but not a tremendous shock. Even without increasing their channels, Setanta can accommodate two live replays without blinking, four with some clever schedule-juggling. And if we're being honest, Setanta don't quite have enough material to fill their existing two channels.

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New national number ones, and other notes...
France Tina Arena's back, and Entends-tu le monde? is straight into the top ten. Also included on her album (and through her My Spay's site, Tina Arena Music) is a version of Sparky's Everybody hurts. It's very sparse, and if only Tina had thought about what she wanted to do with the big emotional climax...
Denmark The British invasion continues: Duffy goes straight into the top ten, Adele the top 20, where she's joined by great hope Seal with his new song Kiss from a rose. That's new as in fourteen years old.
Norway Hold on be strong from Maria Haukaas Storeng is the new number one, but never mind that. Never mind a new entry at number 4 for REM, or two in the top twenty for Michael Kiddyfiddler Jackson. No, the big news is in at 6. Det vakreste som fins is the first new song in donkey's years from the one, the only... er, the none, the only, Jahn Tiegen!!!
Estonia 581C is the new leader for Laura.
Latvia Opyat' metel' - Alla Pugacheva & Kristina Orbakajte. And, no, we've not tracked down a copy.
Germany Kuschel song from Schnuffel is new at number one, and we have images of penguins, strawberries, and most of all turkeys. More dangerous, new at 11, is DJ Ötzi with I will lebn. His last single, Ein stern, is just one place lower in its 54th week on the chart.

How bad must something be if the presence of Kelly Osbourne makes things better? No Rock 'n' Roll Fun watches the BPI awards so you don't have to. This is your hint.

New at 74 for Leona Lewis, whose new single Better in time is selling on downloads. Nick Cave puts Dig Lazarus dig at 66, and Westside's Us against the world makes 58. Many re-entries following the BPI awards, including Mika, Katherine Nash, and Daniel Merriweather, all just outside the top 50. The Council Estate Slappers Can't speak French at 49, and Foals come in at 47 with Cassius.

All of which means that there are no acts making their debut in the chart, and no record has come straight into the top 40. It's a very rare event - excluding those weeks around christmas when the industry takes a rest, this hasn't happened since the chart dated 22 July 1989. Highest new entry that week was at 45, the Darling Buds' You've got to choose, which did absolutely nothing more. We have to go back to 16 May 1987 for a lower highest new entry position, number 49 for Nick Kamen's Nobody else, which did... absolutely nothing more. The last highest new entry outside the top 40 to do some significant business was the seventh-last one, Manic Monday, in at 43 on 15 February 1986, on its way to number 2.

David Craig has climbed six into the top 40. Still doesn't mean we have to like 6 of 1 thing. Far better is Yaël Naïm, whose New soul moves into the top 40 after two weeks just under. No physical release planned, which is a shame. Chris Brown's With you climbs 18 to 35. The BPI awards included a performance from Leona Lewis, it was entirely average, and Bleeding love is up 4 to 33.

If anyone's still confused by the video to Phantom Planet's Just, have a look at that graphic there, which condenses the Radiohead original into 40K. The new version is the week's fastest climber. Mika also has a BPI Bounce, two places to 30, and Have This take a six place rebound to 24. Taio Cruz's Come on girl is up 19 to 23. Amy Whingebag is the big winner, back up nine to 13, and making her 20th week in the top 20.

In the top 10, Onerepublic moves 11-9, and Lykie Ignoume goes 18-5. If her albums are 20% groove and 80% wow she's got a good body, this song must be the arse. Basshunter slips one to 4, Nickelback drops to 3, allowing H Two O to climb five to 2, and Duffy holds at number one for a second week.

The Feeling have the new number one album, Join With Us holds off the BPI-approved challengers, as does Nickelback at 2. Amy Whingebag (14-3), Mark Ronson Presents (22-4) and Mika (9-5) all have big climbs. Jonathan Ansell comes in at 9 with Tenor at the Movies, Joe Brown's best of enters at 16, and Sheryl Crow's in at 20 with Detours. Other new entries include Andrea Bocelli at 30 and Simple Plan at 31, while big falls include Scouting for Girls (8-17) and Morrissey (5-32).

 1  1 Mercy - Duffy
 7  4 David Jordan - Sun goes down
 9 11 Onerepublic - Stop and stare
12 13 One Night Only - Just for tonight
16 10 Goldfrapp - A&E
17 15 Hot Chip - Ready for the floor
21 31 Utah Saints - Something good
25 21 Scouting For Girls - Elvis ain't dead
26 24 Alicia Keys - No one
28 26 Simple Plan - When I'm gone
29 19 Mark Brown / Sarah Cracknell
  - The journey continues
30 32 Mika - Relax take it easy
31 73 Phantom Planet - Just
33 37 Leona Lewis - Burning love
34 23 Robyn - Be mine
36 44 Yaël Naïm - New soul
37 34 Wombats - Moving to New Amsterdam
43 38 Cascada - What hurts the most
45 35 Scouting for Girls - She's so lovely
46 46 Duffy - Rockferry
47 NE Foals - Cassius
50 17 Paramore - Misery business
51 re Daniel Merriweather - Stop me
54 49 Hoosiers - Goodbye Mr. A
57 re Mika - Grace Kelly
60 50 Sugababes - About you now
62 51 Amy MacDonald - This is the life
64 NE Alphabeat - Fascination

.. 36 Morrissey - That's how people grow up
.. 54 REM - Supernatural superserious
.. 66 Robyn - With every heartbeat

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

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From Cyprus, a surprise. The French-style presidential election has resulted in the defending champion Tassos Papadopoulos losing in the opening round, defeated by conservative Ioannis Kassoulides and communist Demetris Christofias, who will go into the run-off next Sunday. Both of the leading candidates are open to talks on the unification of Cyprus, and would hope to open peace talks sooner rather than later. Next thing we know, the Cypriots will be voting for Turkey in Eurovision.

From Pakistan, a surprise. The PML-Q party of Pervez Musharraf has been soundly defeated by the opposition PPP (Mrs. Buttho) and PML-N (Mr. Sharif) parties. It was not immediately clear whether the opposition could command a two-thirds majority to impeach Mr. Musharraf who has assumed the office of president, nor whether they would be able to outvote his placemen in the Senate.

And from Cuba, a surprise. President Castro has announced his retirement. Sr. Castro assumed power in 1959, overthrowing the illegitimate military dictatorship of Sr. Batista. Cuba has been blockaded by its near neighbour Florida since 1962, a blockade supported by some other provinces and territories on the continent. Some commentators there called for open and democratic elections; it would, perhaps, be reasonable to expect them to put their own house in order first, and to build the ground for a viable democracy: freedom of speech, freedom of movement, the ability to protest. Meanwhile, Sr. Fidel Castro's duly appointed successor appears to be his brother, Raoul.

No surprises from Westminster, sadly. Illegal British bases were used in the illegal and utterly despicable policy of Extra-Ordinary Rendition. The foreign secretary, Mr. Millerband, said that two flights carrying people abducted in the name of terror had stopped on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia to refuel. The airbase there is itself illegal, as it was only constructed after the local Chagos islanders were turfed off. The government has persistently ignored High Court rulings that this was also illegal. Mr. Millerband confirmed that at least one of the people who had been kidnapped was still held at the illegal prison at Guantanamo, Occupied Cuba; the other is believed to have been taken to Morrocco. Sharmi Chakrabati, who has been banging on about this matter for three years and three foreign secretaries, is still not impressed. Neither are we: this is barbarism of the highest order, and the people responsible deserve to be thrown in jail and never, ever, let out.

Week three of the Five Nations, and England actually manages to hold on to a lead, defeating France by eleven points in Paris. Wales continued their bid for a grand slam by defeating Italy, and Ireland was too strong for Scotland.

We note the death of Jack Lyons, philanthropist and fraudster.

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The week began with exceptionally cold nights and warm days. Mist and fog on Tuesday and Wednesday concealed the passage of a weak front, which introduced a westerly airflow, ensuring temperatures began to climb. Another front passed on Sunday afternoon, giving a few minutes of rain, and knocking 4deg;C off temperatures. The outlook: rain spreading south during Monday, then mostly settled, so do wrap up.

18 Mo sun               -8/ 8
19 Tu fog to sun        -5/ 2
20 We mist and fog      -3/ 6
21 Th cloud              4/10
22 Fr cloud              9/13
23 Sa cloud              4/12
24 Su cloud              9/11, 0.5

Rainfall in February: 29mm; monthly average: 54mm

Degree heating days: 553
2006-7: 351/499
2005-6: 508½/684
2004-5: 429½/556
2003-4: 557½/754

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