Jon Bright reviews: The Power of Belonging: Identity, citizenship and community cohesion by Ben Rogers and Rick Muir of ippr.

Ben Rogers and Rick Muir examine our nation's collective identities - what might be lost as they change or thin out, and what could be done to stregthen them.

Guy Aitchison reviews: Affluenza by Oliver James.

This book offers an authoritative diagnosis of the destruction wrought by Blairite values but a less than convincing political cure.

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): My immediate reaction on watching the Blair Years on BBC1, scripted and presented by David Aaronovitch, was to feel slightly soiled, contaminated even, as if the mere act of my watching was a form of collaboration with the odious atmosphere of bad faith and dishonesty. The programme started and ended with clear falsehoods.

Jon Bright (London, OK): When announcing that there would be no election on November the 1st, Gordon Brown said he wanted time to set out his "vision" for the country. On Monday, Sunder Katwala released a Fabian Society pamphlet urging him to do just that - and to make it a bold one.

Stuart Weir (Cambridge, Democratic Audit): Funny what we can say and what we can't say. Perhaps the most prevalent complaint about censorship and self-censorship in British society is that about "political correctness". Actually I do myself often squirm in frustration over some of the absurd prohibitions and circumlocutions that PC-ness leads to (being a fan of plain-speaking myself) and of course give the tabloid anti-PC campaign so much ammunition.

Jon Bright (London, OK): A copy of Nick Inman's entertaining Politipedia dropped through our inbox the other day, and seems worth a plug. A reference tome for UK politics, it gives encyclopedia style entries on all things UK and political. I immediately flicked through to the pages on the constitution, which unsurprisingly ref Bagehot more than a few times.

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): A recent forum in openDemocracy discussed whether there should be a law against politicians lying. It was probably started because the word got out about the programme Richard Symons made for the BBC.