Best of the web 17/01/09 – 24/01/09

(c) altemark

Hello and welcome to my top tips for what you should have watched, heard and read on the intertubes this week.

Decision Time

How to abolish the BBC licence fee? Nick and a panel of former political insiders examine how a government which wanted to abolish the BBC licence fee could get its way, and ask what opposition it would face in Whitehall, Westminster and White City.

Six award-winning students on their hopes and dreams

From their own ambitions to their predictions of the big issues, read what the media industry looks like to those just starting out

Data Store: World Government Data

Governments around the globe are opening up their data vaults – allowing you to check out the numbers for yourself. This is the Guardian’s gateway to that information. Search for government data here from the UK(including London), USA, Australia and New Zealand – and look out for new countries and places as we add them.Read more about this on the Datablog. Full list of government data sites here

Word count: 652. Topic: custard.

It must have been a slow news day in the seaside town of Whitstable, Kent, when the local paper decided to run with the story of a woman who wanted to buy custard, couldn’t find any, eventually found some, but it wasn’t the brand she would really have liked. There are few words to describe such a series of events, but somehow the Whitstable Times found 652.

Election Night Bill Needed

There really is a simple solution to this. The government should introduce a one line bill ordering all general election counts to take place immediately after the polls have closed. It would get cross party support in both Houses and deal with the issue once and for all. This is an issue of national importance. It is vital that the sovereignty of the ballot is protected. The longer a count is delayed, the more opportunity there is for mischief.

Tories Have More BME Candidates Than Labour

Yesterday, Operation Black Vote eulogised about the 30 BME candidates Labour has standing for them at the next election. It was very strange* that the author of the piece, Lester Holloway, made no mention of the fact that at the last election the Conservatives had more BME candidates than Labour (41 to 32), a fact which is probably going to be repeated at the forthcoming election. The Conservatives have selected 38 BME candidates so far. I don’t have figures for the LibDems, but if someone else does, let me know.

Shock! Global poverty and inequality falling

Via Tom Palmer and Marginal Revolution, we learn that global poverty is falling, is doing so fast, and much more so than previously expected. Equality is increasing as a consequence.

This is very cheering news, and it means far more for so many people in the world than all the news stories about bad laws, rapacious corporations, and even attacks on civil liberties. The story probably has countless more implications for human prosperity than climate change.

Daily Telegraph: distorting debate on public sector pay

Yes, there is a gap between public and private sector pay. There is also an obvious reason for it. Most unskilled jobs that were once in the public sector – refuse collection, hospital cleaning and that sort of stuff – have long been outsourced to private companies.

Public sectors workers are increasingly likely to be graduate professionals and expect a graduate professional’s wedge. Of course civil engineers get paid more than crew members at Burger King.

Inevitably, then, comparing mean averages is not comparing like with like. Grade for grade, any disparity remains decidedly in favour of forex traders rather than social workers.

The 4 Big Myths of Profile Pictures

In terms of getting new messages, the MySpace Shot is the single most effective photo type for women. We at first thought this was just because, typically, you can kind of see down the girl’s shirt with the camera at that angle—indeed, that seems to be the point of shot in the first place—so we excluded all cleavage-showing shots from the pool and ran the numbers again. No change: it’s still the best shot; better, in fact, than straight-up boob pics (more on those later).