Wednesday, July 29, 2009

A public information announcement for 'Liberal Bureaucracy' readers

Click here to vote in the Total Politics Best Blogs Poll 2009

Alright, so the whole things is redolent of a convention of crack whores but... yes, it's time once again for the 'Total Politics' Best Blogs Poll, where a bunch of desperately sad people, craving recognition and stature, prostitute ourselves in search of votes. You'll note that use of the word 'ourselves' there...

However, I'm not actually going to ask for your vote this year, although if you have already voted and included me in your top ten, you are most kind and the cheque will be in the post shortly. If you haven't voted, and were thinking of doing so, time is running out, as all votes must be received by midnight on 31 July.

There are, apparently, rules, and here they are, courtesy of 'Total Politics' Chief Blackboard Monitor, Iain Dale...

  1. You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and ranks them from 1 (your favourite) to 10 (your tenth favourite).
  2. Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. Any votes which do not have rankings will not be counted.
  3. You MUST include ten blogs. If you include fewer than ten your vote will not count.
  4. Email your vote to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com
  5. Only vote once.
  6. Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents or based on UK politics are eligible.
  7. Anonymous votes left in the comments will not count. You must give a name.
  8. All votes must be received by midnight on 31 July 2009. Any votes received after that date will not count.
The problem with this list, as with so many such efforts, is that it is entirely dependent on the nature of the 'selectorate'. Given that the organiser is a Conservative, and most of his readers are Conservatives, the outcome is inevitably weighted towards those of a bluish hue.

I'd be intrigued to see what difference limiting such a poll to just Liberal Democrats would make. Perhaps Liberal Democrat Voice might like to take up such a challenge?

2 comments:

Iain Dale said...

MArk, the poll is cosponsored this year by LabourList and LibDem Voice. More than 100 blogs are also promoting it, including many LibDem and Labour blogs.

Mark Valladares said...

Iain,

I acknowledge what you say. After all, I am promoting it myself, so I'm hardly opposed to participation. However, there is little doubt that Conservative voters will be disproportionately represented, and I would be intrigued to know whether the views of Lib Dems differ widely from the overall selectorate, especially when it comes down to the ranking of Liberal Democrat bloggers.