Welcome to the latest instalment of the travelling show that is the Britblog Roundup. A snafu meant no roundup last Sunday, so this week is a rollover and there's plenty to get through as a result. Apologies if anyone's been missed in the process.

Free speech was on the minds of many following the EU Council of Ministers' agreement of a draft framework document on "combating racism and xenophobia", which would outlaw Holocaust denial in the Union, but also threatens freedom of expression much more generally. There were quite a few excellent pieces about this troublesome law: the Devil's Kitchen wrote one of the best, and his post also serves as a clearing-house rounding up most of the others, from right and left of the blogosphere.

Tim Ireland wished to remind us of another side of the same coin; academics writing about the Armenian genocide have been smeared as terrorist sympathisers - and, more disturbingly, US and Canadian immigration authorities have blacklisted them as a result. I even agree with Robert Fisk on this one, which is saying something.

On a lighter note, did you know you can't get a drink in Ireland on Good Friday? I found out the hard way, and let me tell you, a forced march over the mountains at the point of a Turkish bayonet would have been a doddle by comparison.

The Flying Rodent has a couple of nominated posts; this incredibly ambitious effort, where he attempts nothing less than the creation of a new taxonomy of political belief systems (and succeeds with flying colours), and this fine (and sweary) effort, laying in to Richard North of EU Referendum:

Who knows, I've never met the guy - perhaps he served with distinction at Goose Green and was with the Black Watch at Camp Dogwood. Maybe he has a fine collection of bullet wounds and Argentinian scalps, but I doubt it.

I'll ask my friend in Basra whether he ever met a bloke who wouldn't shut the f*ck up about the European Union and kept publicly fellating American soldiers. Assuming my friend survives his tour, that is.

Dan Hardie has more thoughts on the Iranian debacle.

Someone wants North Koreans to take part in an anti-Bush protest song via mobile phone. Haven't really thought that one through, have they?

If you live near the Ribble, this might interest you.

There was a fascinating discussion (if you find such things fascinating) between Matt Sinclair and Gracchi about what Matt refers to as Cameron's "Labrador Conservatism". Start here and then read Gracchi's response.

On the other side of the political divide, An Englishman's Castle has the most concise comment yet about the loans for peerages scandal.

Central News tells us what happened when the police "swooped" to ban a game of hopscotch. Chalk on the pavement is graffiti, you see.

Guy Herbert from Samizdata has also been wilfully violating the law. As did a young mother in a poignant case related at The Law West of Ealing Broadway.

L'Ombre D'Olivier has some choice comments about the proposed change in the law that will impose a duty on people to report details about gun crimes.

A week in the life of Lord Bonkers. And Lady Bracknell pens an ode to Tiger Tiger Cup Noodles. Do these aristos really not have anything better to do?

Iain Dale culled a few names from his blogroll and invited nominations for replacements. The ensuing melee was rather undignified, as Matt Wardman relates.

Poons has been investigating the so-called National Vigilante Organisation, "Navigor". Far from being a really cool Batman-style operation, though, he suspects it's a BNP front.

SuzBlog reports on the desperate scramble of the Tories and Lib Dems to find someone who can beat Ken Livingstone. And this was written before the Greg Dyke fiasco. Meanwhile, Peter Black AM has some harsh words for pollsters covering the Welsh elections.

Potatoes not mutatoes. It'll all become clear when you read it. Perhaps.

Science is also causing havoc amongst bees, if you believe the Independent: mobile phone signals are confusing the poor things. The Yorkshire Ranter does a great job eviscerating this particular piece of bad science.

That's all she wrote for this week. The roundup is chez the aforementioned Poons next week; please send your nominations to the usual email address which is britblog [at] gmail.com.

Till then, as the man said: Toodle Pip!