Alix MortimerDirector of the Prize, Jean Seaton, says...
The People’s Republic of Mortimer
Andrew Sparrow
Guardian Politics Blog
Chekov
Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness
Hopi Sen
Blog from the backroom
Iain Dale
Iain Dale’s Diary
Jack Night
Night Jack
Mark Easton
BBC News -Mark Easton’s UK
Neil Robertson
The Bleeding Heart Show
Oliver Kamm
Times Online Oliver Kamm
Paul Mason
BBC Newsnight - Idle Scrawl
The Heresiarch
Heresy Corner
Tom Harris MP
And another thing...
In the year we ran Orwell’s diary as a blog, the entries that were selected had to do something distinctive - react immediately to events, take risks, speak to their readers and capture what it means to be at the centre of a story or situation as it evolves. But the best of them do what reporting does - tell us something we need to know, but often with a highly personal voice.
I think about 85 bloggers were considered by the judges. I am delighted to have been included on this long list, although being one of only two right of centre bloggers represented (if you exclude Tom Harris!), I am not exactly confident of my chances of progressing further!
26 comments:
I too am a "right of centre" blogger, Iain!
I stand corrected!
Call me an optimist but I would have thought being *correction* one of only two right of centre bloggers on there would improve your chances. Anyway, you should make it irrespective of that. Congrats and good luck.
"I too am a "right of centre" blogger, Iain!"
Whilst I would fight shy of calling myself 'right wing' my blog is a fan of communitarian Conservatism and the Tory / UUP deal.
Hurray for you all. Long may the blogger blog.
And then there's Night Jack. Scarcely a lefty...
Heck,if the comments carry on like this we may have a right-wing conspiracy.
Good luck anyway.
No nominations for any Scottish blogs. Time we had independence!!
Also note there are no Welsh blogs on the list either (it's definitely time for independence), is this some kind of England-only award? Or does only Westminster politics matter?
Good stuff - Alix of the People's Republic is indeed a fine and frequently amusing read.
Haven't seen some of these before so thanks for posting these up.
Congratulations. I don't agree with most of what you say, but I admire the skill and style with which you say it.
I reckon Tom Harris being a Scottish MP means his blog counts as a Scottish blog Subrosa.
Good luck Iain.
My blog has no politics whatsoever Iain - but congratulations all the same! Paul Mason
@Lenin Cymru: I say this as a Welshman as well as the Orwell Prize administrator - I wish more Welsh blogs had entered (very few did).
@subrosa: see above, though Tom Harris is Scottish.
Hopefully we'll get an even larger set of entries in future!
Many congratulations, Mr Dale.
Given the manifest and long-established dominance of the 'right-wing' blogosphere, does not the preponderance of 'left-wing' blogs on this longlist give a hint of something, well, a little Orwellian?
subrosa said...
No nominations for any Scottish blogs. Time we had independence!!
Couldn't agree more, can you take the Welsh with you when you go? and please close the door on the way out thank you :P
Comrade Mason's apolitical blog is very good.
One group of people decides to give some other people awards. I know you never miss an opportunity to promote yourself but in all honesty who cares.
I find PR (whoever it is on behalf) utterly resistible.
Actually you seem to devote less and less time to your blog these days - no doubt it will eventually end up as nothing more than an advertising board for Iain Dale PLC.
In excess of 90% of the pleasure of your blog (these days) is reading the comments.
I hope this does not sound sour (all credit to you for your achievement) but once you start to believe your own publicity................
OT Just tried to read the e-zine of TP and it's incredibly frustrating to navigate around a page without bouncing randomly around or crashing zoom a la 70s TOTP.
Gave in after first page of Cameron intv and a dozen attempts to make it work.
I know my cloven feet don't help but...
No Guido?
No surprise that LabourList didn't make it. Best of luck!
That's a pretty dull list of blogs, tbh. No Guido, DK, Worstall, etc. Just a list that, in the main, consists of what are rapidly becoming the blogging 'MSN' ~ safe, timid, self congratulating.
Yawn....5 of them are either actually MPs or MSN themselves or as near as is possible.
Perhaps we need an election and a fresh input of angry anti-Camerons to freshen the sphere.
Surely the BIG news this evening is he way Newsnight is featuring the testimony of Lord Adair wielding the smoking gun he picked up off Brown. He blatantly blamed the politicians, ie Blair and Brown for the lax regulation of the banks.
They have even got video of Brown saying they want light touch regulation and saying there would be no American post Enron style regulation in the UK. Paxman even quoted Brown saying we had "a golden age of banking".
Labours Chairman of the Treasury Committee is clearly only interested in defending labour not holding institutions to account.
Congrats. Of course, if this is a truly Orwellian award, then the best blog is the worst one.
With the likes of Andrew O'Hagan and Polly T involved - you ain't going anywhere Iain.
BTW as Trav says last nights Newsnight was a corker - 13 mins in.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00hxv01/b00hxtzl/Newsnight_25_02_2009/
Cranmer's bang on the money. Who are these people who purport to 'select' candidates? If anything Orwell was right-wing, but there's nothing unusual in the Left hijacking concepts and rewriting history to suit their own purposes - witness Orwell's writings.
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