Thursday, July 24, 2008

A bureaucrat decides - my top ten blogs of 2008

Apparently, there is some sort of poll going on to decide Britain's best political blogs. Last year, I didn't vote (alright, I was deep in the throes of passion and was therefore far too busy). This year, I'm still too busy, but there is a space in my diary and I feel guilty, so...

  1. Liberal Democrat Voice - The LDV Collective: I love these guys, mainly for providing me with a chance to moan very occasionally. I can chip in when I feel like it, and I tend to use it to find out why everyone hates party bureaucrats (except me, of course, I'm lovable)
  2. Peter Black AM - Peter Black: alright, he's Welsh (nothing wrong with that) and I have no real connection to Welsh politics. On the other hand, as an insight into how politics works at the coal face, I really enjoy his work.
  3. The People's Republic of Mortimer - Alix Mortimer: crazy woman, brilliant writing style. I thought that I could do sarcasm and irony but I bow before the reigning monarch... hmmm... reigning dictator for life?
  4. Liberal England - Jonathan Calder: still churning out great work. Besides, as Lord Bonkers' diary secretary, he should be preserved for the nation.
  5. Cicero's Songs - James Oates: some really good writing, an intellectual approach to blogging which will hopefully become more frequent.
  6. Because Baronesses are People Too... - Baroness Ros Scott: to paraphrase Victor Kiam, I liked the candidate so much, I married her.
  7. Quaequam Blog - James Graham: perhaps he's saving his best work for a bigger audience (and who can blame him) but still one of the most robust bloggers on the Lib Dem circuit.
  8. Norfolk Blogger - Nich Starling: I don't always agree with him, and I'm sorry to disappoint him by voting for him, but it isn't his positioning that bothers me sometimes, I simply don't agree with everything he writes. He certainly livens things up though...
  9. Dib Lemming - Stephanie Ashley: a relatively new blogger from somewhere far from the M25 (any further and you fall into the sea, I'm told). I recognise the template and like her style.
  10. The Yorksher Gob - Jennie Rigg: another new addition to the ranks of Lib Dem bloggers, even though she is categorised as 'Left Wing' in the Total Politics Blog Directory. Her style and mine are poles apart, but she is enthusiastic and unfettered. I suspect that she'll go a long way.

Curiously, for a Londoner, the majority of my votes have gone to bloggers outside the M25. I find that reassuring in an odd way, perhaps because it reinforces the lessons I've learned during my relationship with Ros, i.e. that there is a tendency to believe that people are only truly politically alive the closer they are to Westminster.

3 comments:

Jennie Rigg said...

"I was deep in the throes of passion and was therefore far too busy"

O_o

That's some staying power to be deep in the throes of passion for the whole summer! Have you been taking pointers from Sting?

* cough *

Anyhoo, thanks for the vote. My ego is now doing backflips! I think I got categorised as Leftie by Iain, sorry, Total Politics because I write for Liberal Conspiracy, and he couldn't be arsed actually looking at my blog (which is, after all, festooned with "I'm 4 Ros" and "Lib Dem Voice Golden Dozen" buttons). However, given that three whole people have now put me somewhere in their top ten (to my knowledge) he may have to give it a cursory glance... I live in hope anyway, although I wouldn't blame him if he didn't, it's not like I read HIS blog, after all.

I'm interested to note how many of the same people you've voted for that I did... Gah! Grammar is awful this morning. Sorry. LOL. Hopefully Alix at least will make it somewhere near the top ten, she totally deserves it.

I shall be going far in a couple of weeks. Yorksher all the way to Devon to stay with the inlaws....

Steph Ashley said...

Oh, and Peter isn't Welsh he's basically a scouser :P

Mark Valladares said...

A bit embarrassing really... I meant to publish this comment from Steph and rejected it by mistake...

Thanks Mark! That is almost precisely how I tell people where I live, oddly enough ("just get to South Wales and drive west, west, west, west and if you drive onto the ferry to Ireland you've gone a tiny bit too far..") - who have you been talking to? I should make noises about being humbled, and I kind of am - I mean I can think of better people you could have replaced me with in that list without even trying - but really I might as well be honest and say I'm really chuffed that people are not only reading but liking my blog! Amazed and pleased!Echoing what Jennie said about Alix, though I am keeping my own votes to myself. Air of mystery... or not wanting to increase publicity for a man who would like to have dinner with Benito Mussolini, whilst boring people who have seen everyone else's lists? Who can say, eh?