A few weeks ago I wrote a post listing the Top Ten Political Columnists in British according to an Editorial Intelligence poll . They have just sent me a booklet called THE POWER OF THE COMMENTARIAT which contains a whole host of nuggets, including a Top Ten (you know how I love them) Political Blogs - i.e. those who the Commentariat deem to be most influential on British public policy and public opinion. Here is the list in all its glory...
1. Nick Robinson
2. Robert Peston
3. Guido Fawkes
4. Comment is Free
5. Comment Central
6. Iain Dale
6. Boulton & Co (joint)
8. Red Box
9. Roy Greenslade
10. Ben Brogan
11. Brassneck
Yes, I know that's 11 - it's because they put Boulton & Co and me joint 6th. As I am included in the list I am slightly reluctant to comment on it. So I leave it to you, dear reader! Be gentle now. the only thing I will say, though, is how on earth this list includes Roy Greenslade but not ConservativeHome or PoliticalBetting defies any amount of logic.
I will read the full report and may post again on it, as it really does look rather interesting. The one thing which the report immediately provokes me into asking, is just who the Commentariat influences apart from its own members? How many 'normal' people are influenced by newspaper leader columns or indeed blogs? Do we all not feed each other in some amorphous way rather than be a crucial individual influence on a particular debate? The role of an individual commentator (and I include bloggers in this sweeping generalisation) seems often to be to try to influence the herd, by which I mean the herd of commentators rather than those who wield power. I have lost count of the time I have heard a commentator noting with pride the fact that a fellow commentator had agreed with their wise words of wisdom in a recent column - ergo they must be right. So when I use the rather crude term 'circle jerk' I do it knowingly. Much of the commentariat is a giant self preening society to which I admit I am, on occasion, not immune myself!
PS You can download half (yes, half!) the report HERE. Sadly, if you weren't lucky enough to read a free copy, you will have to fork out £20 to read the 44 pages. And before anyone points out that Total Politics will also have a cover price (a mere £3.99 for 64 glorious technicolour pages, since you ask) if you're not an elected politician, the entire content will be free on the website!
Nick at number one...I don't think so...Guido is good..But you Iain are prolific and in my opinion you are number one...Martin
ReplyDeleteI am profoundly surprised not to see Melanie Phillips's blog. She routinely gets 60 or more comments from articulate people who can think in a straight line.
ReplyDeleteI'm also surprised that the group blog at The Speccie didn't make the cut.
Nick Robinson? That's a joke - hardly ever updated, and dull as dishwater when it eventually is.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know Robert Peston had a blog. Did anyone else?
I'm just amazed that the delightful insights from Chris Paul don't feature on this list!
ReplyDeleteRe your PS, Iain. Which site will the entire report be on, and when?
ReplyDelete'Spex and The City' da top blogga?
ReplyDeleteYou're 'avin a barf 'aintcha?
Really though darlings, Spex is like sooo 2007.
A year or so ago I heard Julia Hobsbawm of Editorial Intelligence speak on the 'power of the commentariat" and blogged much the same conclusion as you.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.stuartbruce.biz/2006/07/cipr_nothern_co.html
The Commentariat merely influences itself, it's even more introverted than the blogosphere. But Julia's grasp of the internet is so weak she didn't even bother to defend herself - ironically it's still one of my most popular posts, mainly people searching on her name.
Ha! What a ridiculous list!
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean I was a normal person until I started reading this blog?
ReplyDeleteNick Robinson at number one just shows how much of a bubble the talking heads live in. Unless of course he's influence in an opposite to everything I say is right way.
ReplyDeleteIn my entirely unbiased opinion you should be at or near the top of this list, which should feature the Coffee House and Three Line Whip.
ReplyDeleteNick Robinson is so noncommittal as to be rather dull at times, and doesn't post much.
Guido can actually be rather disappointing; the comments he attracts are abysmal: lower than the gutter.
Keep up the brilliant work.
What is a 'circle jerk' Iain ??
ReplyDeleteIain, I happen to like your blog an awful lot.
ReplyDeleteDo not, though, get carried away with anything that comes out of dear old Julia's EI.
In all serio9usness, it is a product of the mad, policy-wonk smugness that has shafted Labour in a massive way.
It is symptomatic of an entire publicly-funded industry that has contributed diddly-squat to life by churning out an awful lot of meaningless words for a stupendous amount of very meaningful money.
Why would Tories ever get involved?
Well done, there's impressive!!
ReplyDeleteYour rationale for there being 11 is incredibly though There are 11 because the compilers have no discipline or perhaps because the last two should be 10th equal.
The name checking today has been at an all time high Iain, mostly from anons and SPs as it goes ...
I think Comment is free should be a the top. Not because it is incredible but it has so many writers.
ReplyDeleteanon 8:48pm
ReplyDeleteits a diagram they put up at NuLab think tanks to show how they are going to reconnect with the voters.
machiavelli
ReplyDeletePeston has a blog on bbc.co.uk/news. if you turn the sound up you can hear his squeaky voice
verity, call me an nu skool tory but when I read Phillips I think they should bring back the scold's bridle. Or at least the ducking stool.
ReplyDeleteAnon
ReplyDeleteThe report is here:
http://tinyurl.com/6n487w
Matt
Peston's blog is a must read, albeit a bit more corproate than Iain of Guido. He is much better written than on the telly.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot more that can be said about this list, and the tendency of the MSM in general in cross-link almost exclusively to their own blogs (You, Guido, CH and PB.com are generally exceptions to this, but there aren't many others.) I didn't know Peston had a blog either, Greenslade's blog is about journalism, not politics, and Comment is Free is a blogging platform, not a blog. Coffee House and PB.com should certainly be on the list, but so in my view should some of the gems of the "independent" blogosphere eg (to take a political cross-section) Liberal England, Chicken Yoghurt, and Dizzy.
ReplyDeleteStop Common Purpose said...
ReplyDelete"If you don't know what Common Purpose is, I suggest you find out."
I did. I think you are a paranoid conspiracy freak who is littering every blog he can find.
I've only ever heard of 2 on the list. Ian and Guido. Is this a list for anoraks?
ReplyDeleteNick .... are they having a larf!?! - Ian, you and Guido top the lot of em
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDelete"I've only ever heard of 2 on the list. Ian and Guido. Is this a list for anoraks?"
Then you must never watch BBC news. Nick Robinson and Robert Peston are on BBC TV literally every weekday.