1. Tom Harris MP
2. Hopi Sen
3. Stumbling & Mumbling
4. Liberal Conspiracy
5. Recess Monkey
6. Luke Akehurst
7. LabourHome
8. Tom Watson MP
9. Ministry of Truth
10. Dave's Part
11. Sadie's Tavern
12. Harry's Place
13. SNP Tactical Voting
14. Socialist Unity
15. Paul Linford
16. Labour Outlook
17. A Very Public Sociologist
18. Obsolete
19. Ordovicius
20. Normblog
21. Bloggers4Labour
22. Theo's Blog
23. Kezia Dugdale's Soapbox
24. Beau Bo D'Or
25. Bob Piper
26. Forgesian Thinking
27. The Daily (Maybe)
28. Stuart King
29. Lenin's Tomb
30. Pickled Politics
31. Never Trust a Hippy
32. Chris Paul's Labour of Love
33. Bloggerheads
34. Chicken Yoghurt
35. Bethan Jenkins AM
36. Conor's Commentary
37. John McDonnell MP
38. Neil Clark
39. Adam Price MP
40. Snowflake5
41. Jane's the One
42. Progress
43. Two Doctors
44. Rupa Huq
45. The F Word
46. Fat Man on a Keyboard
47. Cynical Dragon
48. Scots and Independent
49. Byrne Baby Byrne
50. Rachel North London
51. Drink Soaked Trots
52. Adam Smith was a Socialist
53. Tory Troll
54. Penny Red
55. Kevin Maguire
56. Nosemonkey's Eutopia
57. Five Chinese Crackers
58. Grimmer up North
59. Guerilla Welsh Fare
60. Welsh Ramblings
61. Kerron Cross
62. Three Score Years & Ten
63. Labour and Capital
64. Mars Hill
65. Wheeler's Website
66. Indygal
67. Tartan Hero
68. John's Labour Blog
69. Charlie Beckett
70. Ian Bone
71. Another Green World
72. Harpymarx
73. Blog Menai
74. Kerry McCarthy MP
75. The Exile
76. New Direction
77. Lancaster Unity
78. Modernity
79. Organised Rage
80. Madam Miaow Says...
81. Calum Cashley
82. Clairwil
83. Councillor Terry Kelly
84. Stroppy Blog
85. Shiraz Socialist
86. Labour Left Forum
87. Amlwch to Magor
88. Defend the NHS
89. Jon's Union Blog
90. Paul Flynn MP
91. Scribo Ergo Sum
92. Andrew Burns's Really Bad Blog
93. Don Paskini
94. Oliver Kamm
95. Bid for Freedom
96. Macuaid
97. Reading Marx's Capital with David Harvey
98. Sit Down Man
99. Tygerland
100. Jon Worth EuroblogThese blogs were voted for by the readers of more than 75 UK political blogs and the readers of TOTAL POLITICS Magazine. Each person voted for their top ten blogs. Their favourite was awarded ten points, their second favourite nine points and so on down to one point. 1,142 people cast a vote.
The full results will be published in the Guide to Political Blogging in the UK 2008-9 which is published on 5 September and will be available at all the party conferences. You can now also pre-order it via the Total Politics website for £12 inc p&p. You will receive it in mid September.
71 comments:
This blog seems to be becoming and endless list of top 100 lists, its in danger of becoming the blogosphere's equivalent of vh1
I have to agree with Anonymous - these lists are incest for bloggers.
So tedious.
I love the fact that I'm clearly not as left leaning as some of the Tartan Tories I beat in the Scottish poll. Always giggle when this one comes out.
The more I blog the lower down these lists I end up. Oh dear. And the idea that Nosemonkey has a left wing blog is surely a joke?
Put me out of my misery.
Was I number 101??
Obsolete should be higher. Pleased to see S&M at #3, OTOH.
No Enemies Of Reason?
Finally, yes @jonworth: what is Nosemonkey doing in here?
wot no glyn davies
Just noticed: Sadie's Tavern, a blog that only started in February and is very low on content IMO at #11?!?
There definitely seems to be a big advantage conferred by happening to be on the radar around the time of the voting. Tom Harris MP was of course in the midst of the 'be happy' controversy around then.
This is the equivalent of one of those old-fashioned local newspapers which print great columns of flowershow/dogshow results on the theory that everyone listed will buy a paper to see their name in it. Or local radio stations which read out tedious lists of listeners' requests.
The reality is that most people will just think: "Who are these people and why should I care?"
what's Tim Ireland doing on there? shouldn't he be on the list of "most mental bloggers"?
17!
Considering my readership is but a mere fraction of the other blogs in the top 20, I'm quite chuffed. I'd like to thank my friends, my family, etc etc.
Me left of centre? News to me. I left Plaid Cymru because of their lurch into left wing politics.
Nice to see I'm above Paul Flynn MP though, thanks for the votes.
I see that a certain blogger with a surname that is also a country and who is ranked in the 30s is upset that his blog is even in the list and is considering his "options".
Those options presumably consist of:
"Blog about it complaining like a panty wetting big girl's blouse"
"Scream about it complaining like a panty wetting big girl's blouse"
"Send emails complaining like a panty wetting big girl's blouse"
"Buy pampers"
Suprised Kerron Cross is so high up? His blog is barely political anymore.
Are you doing a list of the best English blogs Iain?
@Dizzy, or he could phone up someone's ex-directory number and yell down the phone at them?
Just a thought.
I think the votes for Bloggerheads, Liberal Conspiracy and especially Bob Piper would have been a lot higher had they not made clear they didn't want to take part.
Their position is, in a way, analagous to that of write-in candidates in an election. Given that votes in favour of such people are usually treated as spoilt papers, there is at least some support for TI's argument that he (and presumably also LibCon and Piper) should not have been included in the final list.
Speaking from my lofty new position, can I suggest yet another Top Ten: Blogs Whose Authors Don't Want To Be Included In iain's Polls. The results would be extremely entertaining.
Thanks to all who voted for me.
Tom, that is a very wicked thought. But let me try...
1. Bloggerheads
2. Liberal Conspiracy
3. Chicken Yoghurt
4. Er, anyone know any others?
I should point out, that I didn't include them in the poll. People who voted for them did.
What was I supposed to do, rig the voting to exclude them?
I don't understand all this "I don't want to take part" malarkey.
Utter bally tosh. Your blogs are in the public domain so they can get commented on and voted for without your consent or approval.
Do the bloggers in question ask the subjects of their ire whether or not they "want to take part"? Would they give a blind tinker's cuss either way?
@Chalie Root - *yawn* oh dear, I telphoned someone up and shouted at them. Tim has never done that to Iain when his comments were not published. More pot, kettle and panty wetting bullshit.
Long lists are just plain boring.
Only winners tend to be remembered and then not for very long.
Typical Dizzy comment. Signed up to be Dale's catamite again, I see!
God I wish blogspot supported tables.
How charming of you Ken. Ever considered the possibilty that I might just think Tim really is a big girl's blouse?
Dizzy is great, he's a grown man yet he still trolls like he's some 15 year old in an internet chat room.
Dizzy, I'd love to meet you in person because I don't reckon you'd be anywhere near the horrible little shite you come accross as online.
Maybe I'll catch up with you at Auston Court?
I love that you'll publish abuse directed at Dizzy, but will censor any mention of the fact that he published someone's personal data on his website just to get at them. You're a wanker, Iain.
Errr no I didn't. I posted two strings of numbers, neither of which was a phone number, with no identifiable data linked to those string. I also posted a string of numbers encoded in Base64 which was not a functional phone number. Hate to piss on your bubble, but the claim that I posted "personal data" only holds if what I posted was identifiable to a person and it wasn't. The only person that would have figured it out was Tim, and it as done because I was sick of the amount of detritus emails I and others received from him.
I'm immensely surprised to be as high as 18th; there's no way that I can even hold a candle to Chicken Yoghurt, which should have been far higher, as probably should have Lenin's Tomb, whose lower placing is probably down to how left-wing he/they are rather than the quality of the actual blogging.
Nosemonkey is probably best considered centrist or unaligned, I would imagine; in any event he too should be far higher on whichever list he ought to be included. Oliver Kamm's inclusion on the list is probably more controversial than Nosemonkey's should be, actually...
"The more I blog the lower down these lists I end up. Oh dear. And the idea that Nosemonkey has a left wing blog is surely a joke?"
Second that.
"What was I supposed to do, rig the voting to exclude them?"
You rigged the vote by including them, Iain. Surely you can see that.
It's not just rigged, it's funded by he NSA and CIA and has strings of numbers in it in amusing sentences with no identifiable data. Can't you all see what the truth is?
Er, no I can't actually because it is perverted logic to even suggest it.
Part of the book is a directory of UK political blogs. It is supposed to be as comprehensive as possible.
And as for the poll, why on earth would I exclude blog people have voted for. It would render the whol exercise ridiculous.
It was never meant to be scientific. No poll like this could ever be and I have never pretended it was. Because of the number of people taking part and the number of blogs promoting it, it is certainly more representative this year than in 2007 and 2006.
Did I hit the nail on the head Dizzy? What a shame, gloat while you can but you strike me as another big girl's blouse grousing. Stick to being Dale's bitch, you haven't got the brains to be much more, little boy.
You're a wannabe;Dale is a never was, you're perfectly suited.
I'd expect nothing better from a man (I use the term loosely, Dizzy, so it encompasses you as well) who makes nuisance calls & finds it amusing.
FYI Bart Simpson does as well. So I rate you at the same level as a cartoon ten year old. And from what I can tell, so do most people.
"Dizzy thinks" ?
Yes, but only after Dale & Guido have first.Says it all really.
As for Master Dale; well, there are lies, damn lies, & anything Iain Dale claims on his blog.That says the rest!!!
Anyone who reads either Bloggerheads or Chicken Yoghurt would know that they didn't want to be considered or voted for. Therefore a realistic conclusion must be that those votes for the blogs in question were either from people a) didn't read either blog, or b) decide to mess with the poll by voting for blogs by people Iain dislikes, or perhaps c) right wing bloggers who wanted to wind up Tim and Justin by voting for them, or c) just possibly are total dickheads.
Hardly a ringing endorsement of the poll whichever way you looked at it. In some respects it is like an election where one of the candidates dies after the deadline for the ballot papers. Certainly in some countries, the deceased's name remains on the ballot and they can be voted for. It would be possible then for a cadaver to win an election. At which point the only logical solution would be to hold a new election.
The sensible option would have been to treat votes for Bloggerheads and Chicken Yoghurt as spoiled ballots, and to have publically stated as such. But I guess that would have killed an opportunity for Iain to wind Tim up.
Such insight, such brilliant writing, you should go far. I wonder why you waste your time on this blog if it is such crap. You should feel free to spend your time with Mr Ireland. You are both made for each other.
How many people voted in 2006?
The above comment was related to Ken Hurst.
Confused, you really are, aren't you? Tim Ireland winds himself up. He needs absolutely no help from me. Witness this thread on Quaequam, which I retired from, but Ireland gave James Graham the benefit of the full treatment. It's sad in a way.
http://www.theliberati.net/quaequamblog/2008/08/29/blog-deathmatch/
Anonymous 9.02. Last year around 500 people voted in the main Top 100 category. In 2006 it was done on a very short timescale so I ranked them all by myself. But the left and right and Libdem lists were scored by panels of between 6 and 10 bloggers.
Ken Hurst said..
Did I hit the nail on the head Dizzy?
Was that question in relation to you implying Iain is a pederast, or me taking it up my arse from him?
Iain, you included someone who you knew did not want to be included, and went in knowing that they had told readers not to vote for them.
That only rigs the poll against one blogger, but the poll is still rigged.
From the moment you decide to include someone who wants out and says so, the fix is in.
"I ranked them all by myself"
Oh, really?
And where did you place?
Glad to see it's not just me who's confused about my being labelled a lefty.
Does this mean I have to start pretending to know the words to the Internationale and burn my signed copy of Alan Clark's Diaries?
I keep all the emails I get from Ireland. You never know when they might come in useful. I can find no email from him saying he didn't wish to be included in the poll. Normally when he goes off on one he barrages me with copies of various emails has sent. Some of his emails go straight into my Spam folder anway, so it's perfectly possible that this one did.
In this post http://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2008/07/iain_dales_bias.asp
he says he won't be taking part. That presumably means voting as he encourages others not to vote either.
But either way, I don't really care if he wished to be included in the poll or not. People voted for him, so their votes counted. If I had discounted his votes, Liberal Conspiracy or Chicken Yoghurt, no doubt others would have pointed the finger at me also.
And the point about the fact that they boycotted the exercise so therefore they didn't get many votes is fatuous, as Liberal Conspiracy's vote demonstrates. It was Number 4 in the list.
It amazes me that this supposed internet guru wastes his time on pointless feuds like this. The only point for him is to draw attention to himself and scream "it's so unfair". He needs to grow up.
This exercise has always been a bit of fun and meant to promote blogging more widely. 99.9% of UK political bloggers think it's a good idea and can see the point of it. What a shame that fewer than half a dozen seek to spoil it for the rest.
"I ranked them all by myself"
Not rigged at all, then.
Confused went to the trouble of raising a point, but you brushed him off.
The Bloggerheads vote was all but killed off from the moment an intention to boycott was announced there.
You do know what it means when someone boycotts a vote, don't you Iain? Would you run an election that included candidates on the ballot that had dropped out weeks ago?
Nosemonkey, apologies if you have been wrongly categorised. What should you be? Right of Centre?
"And the point about the fact that they boycotted the exercise so therefore they didn't get many votes is fatuous, as Liberal Conspiracy's vote demonstrates. It was Number 4 in the list."
It was Sunny that boycotted the vote, not Liberal Conspiracy. You know this.
Your answer collapses under the weight of the many other editors on Liberal Conspiracy who wished to take part and actively sought votes.
Anonymous 9.28, I ranked them myself and never pretended otherwise. I was quite open about it. That isn't called rigging. It's called ranking. Move along, now.
Pretty much dead centre / nonpartisan, I'd say (though to be fair I've been accused of being both a raving lefty and a barking right-winger in my time). I never quite got the memo on left/right being binding ideologies, so sometimes lean one way, sometimes the other. Generally hover around the moderate centre ground, though.
Ta, etc.
You missed a spot:
The Bloggerheads vote was all but killed off from the moment an intention to boycott was announced there.
You do know what it means when someone boycotts a vote, don't you Iain? Would you run an election that included candidates on the ballot that had dropped out weeks ago?
"I ranked them myself and never pretended otherwise. I was quite open about it. That isn't called rigging. It's called ranking. Move along, now."
Unfortunate typo in there Iain, though only the "E" key separates the two characters you transposed so the error is forgivable.
"This exercise has always been a bit of fun and meant to promote blogging more widely. 99.9% of UK political bloggers think it's a good idea and can see the point of it."
Oh really? A bit of fun eh? Would never consider the publishing of a book to be a bit of fun. Be honest and call it what it is, an exercise in marketing and promotion. As for promoting blogging more widely, that belongs in Iain Dale's Book of Unintended Humour. Especially when you follow it up with the 99.9% figure, presumably plucked from thin air. Technorati lists nearly 5000 blogs in the Politics category, but I bet the real figure is maybe between 4 and 10 times larger (assuming blogs updated on a regular basis). Even restricting it to UK political blogs would probably leave in the region of 5000 blogs. And you claim 99.9% of them expressed an opinion....
The IPDI did a study on American Political blog readership back in October 2006. The readership demographic was such that expansion beyond those already politically engaged was minimal. So all your poll is likely to do is preach to the converted, not "promote blogging more widely". And that statement should really refer to political blogging, because Spuggy and Mazzer and their mates who think Nickleback are cool and hang out in the bus shelter drinking White Lightning are unlikely to think "Wow that Dale dude is kewl. Let's hang out online with Dizzy and Guido".
At the end of the day, this lists are no more than the political blogging equivalent of playing Soggy Biscuit. Everyone rushing to come first in order to avoid the moist mess at the end. And your willful inclusion of blogs who wanted no part in the process is akin to dragging some poor unwilling sap from the playground into your messy little exercise in self-indulgence.
You do yourself and blogging no favours with such conduct.
The complaints in this thread by Tim and hs supporters are so specious it's unbelievable
Confused, no there are not 5000 political blogs in the UK, although I suppose it depends on your definition of political. The TP blog directory lists around 1350 in the UK and we reckon we have most of them covered.
Fewer than half a dozen have any issue with the publication of these lists, hence the 99.9% figure.
Ireland hates this because he considers himself the Godfather of British political blogging and cannot abide the fact that I did this before he thought of it. What a child.
Any intention to do a list of English blogs at all?
"The complaints in this thread by Tim and hs supporters are so specious it's unbelievable"
Tim's left a complaint here? That's amazing as a) I see no comment from him and b) Iain's banned him publicly so how could he? Or are you accusing one of the anonymous comment posters as being a Tim Ireland sock-puppet? And just because someone takes Iain to task doesn't make them a Tim Ireland supporter (or bitch or other insulting epithet as Iain seems to prefer. Perhaps you're making the simplistic "An enemy of my enemy is my friend" assumption?
"Fewer than half a dozen have any issue with the publication of these lists, hence the 99.9% figure."
How many were supportive and how many expressed no opinion whatsoever? I have a political blog, not included in TP's list. And have expressed no opinion there at all. Does that make me part of the 99.9% or not?
1100 of the 1350 UK based blogs in the Total Politics directory are based in England. The list I will be publishing on Thursday will contain the Top 100 UK blogs. 89 of them are based in England. Would you seriously like me to do one minus those? I don't think it would be very meaningful, do you?
And please dont accuse me of being biased against England. It's very tiresome and seeing as I am a vocal proponent of an English Parliament, you would be narking up the wrong tree.
I can still see that spot you missed.
There you go.
Now everybody here knows what 'boycott' means.
You boys should get a room, or maybe in a ring?
Can I please ask why I've been dragged into this? Apart from one comment on Liberal Conspiracy on the nature of how this guide was being publicised I don't think I have publicly expressed any opinion whatsoever.
I have not mentioned to anyone, least of all Iain Dale, my opinions on my inclusion on or exclusion from any lists or votes. It's been my policy to ignore all this almost entirely. I couldn't even summon the enthusiasm for any kind of a boycott. I frankly could not give a toss and want that on the record.
So, include me or don't include me - be my guest and no complaint from me either way - but please don't anybody suggest that I have any interest or involvement at all in any of this.
So Iain doesn't even know who boycotted the vote?
Iain I apologise in advance for being tiresome. It's because you support an English Parliament I am surprised you don't do an England list.
I know it seems trivial to many but England gets bypassed all the time - take the Olympic celebrations as a recent example. The Scots and Welsh welcome back their Olympic "heroes" but no English welcome for English athletes.
Britain trumps England every time.
The Olympic example is trivial compared to what's happening to England politically. Over there the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish are busy carving themselves a nice new Barnett funded future. Meanwhile; England and the English are denied recognition, funding and representation.
The list doesn't matter but you're in a great position to get England further up the political agenda... why not run the "English question" as a big feature in Total Politics or something? I know I'd buy it.
I see Tim has decided to respond to my comment here on his blog by saying:
"He graduates from heavy Spin to Outright Lie when he says "I posted two strings of numbers, neither of which was a phone number" but he does this kind of thing often when he's safely behind Uncle Dale's moderation wall. The coward."
Apologies Iain for having to post this here but Tim won't allow me to comment on his blog, which is his choice and I respect that, but I would just like to point out that Tim is doing his usual tactic here of selectively quoting. He has missed the final part of the sentence that said "with no identifiable data linked to those string."
This actually blow a big gapiong hole in his claim about data. There was no reference made, at any point, to what the numbers meant, who they belonged to, or anything of the sort. The only one spinning on the facts is him, and he knows it.
Why change the small print in the list post from readers of more than 60 blogs to readers of more than 75 blogs?
Did you miscount?
I undercounted. The figure is actually 79. Do a Google search. It will come up with 95, but some are duplicates.
"recognisable" is not "identifiable"
We at Lancaster Unity are just happy to be on the list. Thank you to everyone who voted for us. :-)
Dizzy, am I right or not in thinking those data you published would resolve to Tim's home phone number and that you have since deleted the evidence that would let us see what you did for ourselves?
Not right. Two strings independently posted in the context of a television prgramme and what I was watching at the time. The other data was encoded and included letters so was not a functional number. As for the final question about deletion that is a fallacious question along the lines of "when did you last beat your wife?"
I am happy to be beaten by Lancaster Unity, they are a great blog.
#78? next year I'll aim for 76
Cheers!
"The other data was encoded and included letters so was not a functional number"
In other words, something like "l234S" - and nobody's going to figure it out.
Aren't you the puzzle master.
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