Britain Today today is brought to you by English Beat's 'Save it For Later', and a sad kitten who has eaten too many biscuits. 

From the nation that brought you colonialism comes more immigration hypocrisy, this time with the hysteria preventing artistic exchange.  Daft as a paintbrush.  On a somewhat similar topic, Anton Vowl writes intelligently on 'white' Britishness (and rumours of demise). 

Under daft as a brush, see also: Lord Young, who has resigned after suggesting that during the 'so-called recession' we've 'never had it so good'.  The most interesting comment, of course, has been over whether what he's gone and said might be true: tosh, says the Spectator, though, wait a second, says Stumbling and Mumbling.  Meanwhile, Dave Osler at Labour Uncut notes that Lord Young (and his well-off ilk) have always had it better. 

More big news came last week of course in the looming spectre of the royal wedding.  My thoughts about Prince William don't get much far beyond wondering whether he is actually the most boring man in Britain, or whether an accountant from Milton Keynes might just pip him to the title.  For sheer entertainment value I'd rather see Fergie and Andrew try it all over again (after re-uniting on I'm a Celebrity, of course).  Anyway, here's Paul Richards on the wedding, the monarchy, and the Labour party's relationship to it all. 

The Indy reviews Jesse Norman's The Big Society and suggests it might be the clearest explanation yet (but that isn't necessarily saying much!). More book reviews over at Open Kingdom, where two books about why the Tories didn't gain a majority at the election are put head-to-head. 

Since the Coalition took power, Britain has become one of the 'most data-friendly countries', according to Datablog which wonders whether government spending data can really change the world?

Here's the full text of Nick Clegg's recent political reform speech.  Worth reading, I think.  In more Clegg coverage, William Davies asks 'who is the fairest of them all?'. 

The general election is evidently, to publishing, the gift that just keeps on giving.  Andrew Rawnsley's The End of the Party has been around a while, though it is out in a new edition which the Indy have briefly reviewed (briefly, as is their wont, and why I don't usually get up my hopes about their reviews).  The Guardian have a bumper review of all the election/policy books you could ever need, accompanied by a somewhat weird picture of the Camerons (does Samantha's hair symbolise it all?). 

It's national adoption week, and Nina Lakhani's Indy article suggests that the current adoption system is not working with local authorities preferring to pay annual expenses for care rather than a short-term expense for agency adoption.  H/t ToryDiary. 

This looks really cool: Sukhdev Sandhu's Night Haunts: A Journey Through the London Night. 

Finally, some history of the kings and queens variety, with the Literary Review onto two new books about Catherine of Aragon and Henrietta Maria, respectively.