World War One - pictures of soldiers.

A treasure trove of First World War photographs was discovered recently in France.

So says the Independent.

If you've got a bit of spare time and feel like taking a wander through history why not take a look at the pictures. You never know, you might recognise somebody.

The story, and link to the first set of pictures, is here.

More about the pictures, and zip files for all 400 images here (John Lichfield)

Discussion is here (Independent Minds - Jack Riley).

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Pictures of the day

Mr Bob Ainsworth and his umbrella, courtesy of the Mail.

and

Bless!

And to think this man is still in charge of the MoD.

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Vote Labour for us?

This picture is meant to be proudly showing off the latest election posters.

Let's look at it carefully.

Remember that everything will have been carefully planned beforehand, down to the finest detail - but nobody thought to get rid of the rubbish. It's there, piled up behind the people who think they're important and to the side of the advertising screens. Mrs R thinks it somehow adds to the emptiness, the desolation of an empty, wet, car park.

The 'eyecatching' (rule of thirds) part of the picture says "Vote Labour for us" - the intended punchline is concealed by the all those important people, who really do want us to vote for them. They want us to vote for them so they can keep earning their wages. But they needn't worry too much, because they've already arranged brilliant severance pay and lifelong pension packages for themselves.

The picture was taken by Richard Pohle, for the Times.

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Pictures of Gordon

Published on Friday 30th April and taken at Manchester Piccadilly Station the day before.

All pictures taken by Richard Pohle and published in the Times Election Photoblog.

The next picture was taken in Wolverhampton, on the same day.

And here, talking to the faithful - but nobody looks particularly pleased to be there, not even the Business Secretary who is, possibly, seeing his empire crumble before his eyes.

It's unbelievable to think this man has been both Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister.

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Victor Meldrew and art.

The Mail reports that the BBC has decided to carefully pre-empt viewers complaints.

Let's put you in the picture with a bit of help from Flog it! presenter Paul Martin :-

'Yes, they had to have the painting moved. It wasn't a big deal but they do get complaints about this sort of thing. You'd be surprised.'

No, actually, there's little that would surprise most British people these days, but let's move on to what Mr Aldridge, the auctioneer, thinks :-

'It is absolutely ridiculous.

'This is a 19th century neo-classical work of art.

So Mr Aldridge tried to deal with the problem himself

'I tried putting a Post-It note over the offending part of her anatomy, but that wasn't good enough apparently.'

The Mail is, of course, less concerned and carries a snapshot of the offending painting - which shows a woman's nipple. And it isn't even a fresh one

As the auctioneer explained, the painting is 19th century, neo-classical, oil on canvas.

Presumably the BBC will now, when making any of their programmes, make ensure that no classical art or sculpture is in the background - nowhere, not anywhere - on case one viewer comes over all faint and nervous, or in case another gets all excited.

This isn't, sadly, quite a full-on Victor Meldrew moment, not really, because this sort of thing already happens in the online photographic world, where photographers have to label pictures of naked people, including statuary, as "adult material" - due to complaints from vociferous one or two (who could even be the same person) who threaten legal action which could take a site offline and their usual excuse is, "In case a child sees it.".

These people are, slowly but surely, suppressing freedom of artistic expression - with one place after another toppling like dominoes - as each becomes an example of "best practice" for others. They've clearly ratched up the ante now, by getting the BBC to conform.

It's not good to speculate who these complainers might be, or what their motives might be, or what their background might be, but it seems more than likely that they are not native Britons.

Sometimes people need to understand that prudity was never listed as a virtue, and children need to know that being without clothing is not a crime.