"Birdwatchers thrilled at first ever sighting of a girlfriend"

John O'Farrel, one of the finest political satirists on the Left, and author of the "Global Village Idiot" has set up Newsbiscuit to encourage British humour on the internet. Those who remember his column in The Guardian can look forward to the same biting sarcasm, not always consistent but more often than not, biting.

"My plan is to get young talented humourists all over the world to send their stuff to me. Then I can rubbish their material, destroy their self-confidence and hopefully postpone any serious competition in all media for another decade or so.

Whether NewsBiscuit will last and grow I have no idea. We all remember the dotcom crash when all those over-ambitious ventures collapsed within a year or so. I'm told the internet's much quicker than that these days."

Here is a post that I liked:

Hundreds of excited twitchers converged on a remote Welsh Estuary yesterday where a fellow birdwatcher was spotted with a girlfriend. Ornithologists think this may be the first ever sighting of a birdwatcher’s girlfriend on the British mainland.

‘Isn’t she a beauty!’ said Ray Meader, 57. ‘I’ve seen drawings and photos before but I’ve never seen one for real.’ The girlfriend was clearly visible on the far shoreline; holding the hand of a young male birdwatcher, having a drink and, to the gasps of watching twitchers, giving him a kiss.

But hopes that the pair might breed in Britain were sadly dashed. After a couple of hours of being photographed and stared at by middle aged men in anoraks the girlfriend suddenly fled leaving the young male birdwatcher looking confused and disorientated for a few minutes.

Later he spotted a guillemot and perked up again.

On a less (unless it is equally) humourous note, the New Statesman has an unabashed apology for Tony Blair. And there is also Anthony Giddens- the theorist of the third way along with Manuel Castells- trying to convince why Blair really is the man of the Left.

And if that is not convincing, read this bit on Blair's latest move as reported by Newsbiscuit.

Ahem.

Link to Newsbiscuit via Retro Boy