Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Top 100 Left of Centre Blogs

Here are the first ten of the Top 100 Left of Centre Blogs. For the full list click HERE.

1 (1) Tom Harris MP

2 (2) Hopi Sen

3 (-) LabourList

4 (-) Alastair Campbell

5 (13) SNP Tactical Voting

6 (6) Luke Akehurst

7 (12) Harry's Place

8 (-) Next Left

9 (3) Stumbling & Mumbling

10 (27) The Daily (Maybe)

This list is the result of more than 1,500 people who voted in the Total Politics Annual Blog Poll during the second half of July.

Click on the blog to visit it. For a full list of all 190 LibDem blogs click HERE.

If you own a blog on this list please do display this image in your sidebar if you'd like to...



All these lists, together with articles from leading blog commentators, will be published in the TOTAL POLITICS GUIDE TO POLITICAL BLOGGING, which will be published in mid September at £12.99. You can preorder your copy HERE.

45 comments:

Newmania said...

Blimey is that it, Hopi is a fantastic when he`s on form. Next Leyty features Sunder Katwala who is a thoughtful writer on occassion.

Harsh on Bob Piper , he is a great blogger.

( Is Harry`s place left wing , seems mostly pro Israel to me , ie right wing ? )

Man in a Shed said...

Surely they are all equally last regardless of merit ?

After all that's how the left runs our education system.

Anonymous said...

You're not on this Iain? ;-)

DevonChap said...

It says a great deal about the vibrancy of Labour blogging that Number 88 (Snowflake5) hasn't posted anything for 3 months. How long does a blog have to be moribund until it is declared dead?

Scott said...

And what a dreary and dreadful lot they are, with perhaps the exception of the top two.

OscarIndia said...

70% of this blog now is lists of lists of lists. It's like a teenager's exercise book. Dull.

Malc said...

Iain,

I'm more right of centre I think. Judging by the political compass on my blog anyway. And how I see myself.

But I'll take the 20th spot...

nought.point.zero said...

No liberal conspiracy? Do they boycott this or something? And how the hell did labour list come THIRD??? Admittedly, there is much comedy value to be had from many of these, especially LL.

Quietzapple said...

Snowy's blog is excellent, hope she returns.

Since she ceased production her well argued & informative blog posts have remained useful reference points and will for some time to come I would think.

Unknown said...

Surprised to see braindead bob piper as high as 49.

I suppose there's still a few 'socialists' hankering after the gory gory days of the 1970s.

Ian H said...

Is the term "Left of Centre" theirs or yours because I sure as hell would not want MY Left of Centre to be located in the vicinity of Campbell and Akehurst whom I would class as definitely right of me. Labels. Meh.

Sunny H said...

nought.point.zero - of course Dale won't reveal how many left-wing bloggers actually chose to boycott this farce of a list. You guessed right.

Iain Dale said...

Sunny, There you go again. The list has always been publicly available since we launched the poll on 16 July. Thirteen blogs chose not to take part. The list is here.

http://www.totalpolitics.com/blogs/index.php/2009/07/16/the-total-politics-blog-poll-2009#feedbacks

Perhaps you would now care to apologise. No, thought not.

Anonymous said...

The list has always been publicly available (on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard')

Why should Sunny apologise? You haven't revealed that information here, but in a single comment on a different website.

Iain Dale said...

Er, that would be because it is Total Politics which is running the poll.

Anonymous said...

So the same list of boycotters will appear in the Total Politics book you're selling?

Iain Dale said...

Buy the book and find out.

Anonymous said...

It will cost me £12.99 to find out? Really? You must be desperate to shift units if that's the case.

Iain Dale said...

I couldn't give a toss whether you buy it or not.

Anonymous said...

I have to buy it if I want an answer to my question, which you won't answer here. So either you want me to buy it or you not want to admit that the answer is 'NO'.

Sunny H said...

I did email to say please take Pickled Politics of your stupid list and it was still included. Perhaps you should employ sharper people at your magazine. By which, incidentally, I still haven't been paid for an article I wrote months ago. You guys are really on the ball.

Iain Dale said...

Anonymous, you are an anonymous troll and I don't give trolls the answers they want.

Sunny, Pickled Politics was not included in the poll, as you requested.

If it wasn't in that list mentioned earlier I will get that rectified.

I will also chase your query about payment with the accounts manager.

Iain Dale said...

Sunny, I have checked and Pickled Politics is indeed listed as not taking part.

http://www.totalpolitics.com/blogs/index.php/2009/07/16/the-total-politics-blog-poll-2009#feedbacks

What's your issue then?

Anonymous said...

???????????

How does being anonymous make you a troll?

Why do you allow anonymous comments if you plan on ignoring them?

Anonymous said...

I think Sunny's objection is that "it was still included" as he has already said.

Will Pickled Politics appear in the poll results in the Total Politics book you're selling (even after you agreed not to include it in the polls) or does Sunny have to buy it to find out?

Iain Dale said...

Sunny asked to be excluded from the poll. He was. The directory at the back does not have the opt out.

Sunny H said...

http://www.totalpolitics.com/blogs/index.php/2009/09/02/title-25

Iain - PP is listed at number 66 on that list. Please take it off.
cheers

I hope the book isn't published with the blog listed, because I don't want it included

Jeff said...

5th! Yee-hah!!

Sorry, you can get back to squabbling now if you wish.

(Not sure who Sunny H is but I think I passed some of his pram-thrown toys just now)

The lack of Lib Dem blogs does seem strange by the way.

Rumbold said...

If Pickled Politics was excluded, how did we come 66th? I think that is the bone of contention.

http://www.totalpolitics.com/blogs/index.php/2009/09/02/title-25

LM said...

Ian

Don't suppose you can chase the Accounts Manager at my Managing Agents for still not refunding my overpayment of Service Charge.

Iain Dale said...

Sunny, I have finally worked out how that happened. Because you didn't publicly say you were boycotting the poll, either on LibCon or Pickled Politics as far as I know, you were kept on the sheet until the final votes were in, purely so we could see where you would have come. Unfortunately at that stage, the person doing the lists didn't remove Pickled Politics, so I apologise for that. I have now asked for Pickled Politics to be removed from the list on the TP website. I will check tomorrow if the book has gone to print. If not, I will get it removed from that too.

This was a genuine mistake, for which I am happy to apologise.

Rumbold said...

Thank you Iain. That is very kind of you.

OscarIndia said...

Jesus God. A 15 minute debate about whether one blog was or was not included in a list of blogs compiled by another blog.
Hello? HELLO?

Quietzapple said...

Iain, will you be addressing the issues which arise out of the requirement that people vote for 10 blogs, pls?

It is inevitable that many will only like fewer than 10, which leaves the artificial situation that one had to look ate others, or just take some from the lists which people recommend.

As your own blog is the centre for promotion of the poll your own list is an inevitable datum for this, and this must bias the results.

Thank you.

Iain Dale said...

Quietzapple, there are no issues. Those were the rules which applied from the start.

The poll was promoted by more than 100 blogs. The three main sponsors were my blog and the Labour blog with the highest traffic (Labourlist) and the LibDem blog with the highest traffic LibDem Voice. No poll is ever perfect and free from an inbuilt bias, and I don't pretend that this one was, but it was as close as you can get, I believe.

Stephen Glenn said...

Jeff to be fair to Iain how would you split the Lib Dem blogs?

You'd have to place top Lib Dem Blogger Charlotte Gore securely right of centre and your sparring partners in Scotland me and Caron firmly on the left. Then you'd have all shades of otherness some of whom shift slightly left to right and back again post by post. It'd be a hard enough task for any of the Lib Dem bloggers to position all of our list to the left or right of the spectrum

Quietzapple said...

I think it quite clear that a fairer method would allow people to vote for fewer than 10 blogs. That is an issue in my view, and those of others who posted to that effect when you launched your poll.

Better in my view to enfranchise those who would like to vote for fewer blogs, but, it is your poll, and Congratulations on its success.

Anonymous said...

"The poll was promoted by more than 100 blogs."

And yet you only raised 1500 votes. Can you name these 100 blogs?

Iain Dale said...

Look them up on Google or Technorarti if you are interested.

Anonymous said...

"Look them up on Google or Technorarti if you are interested."

So you can't name them.

Iain Dale said...

Indeed I could, but why would I waste the time on an anonymous commenter clearly out to nit pick and cause trouble?

As I say, it's quite simple, just got to google and technorarti and hey, by magic, they appear in one easy to use list.

Anonymous said...

"As I say, it's quite simple, just got to google and technorarti and hey, by magic, they appear in one easy to use list."

OK, I just tried that.

Using http://www.totalpolitics.com/blogs/index.php/2009/07/16/the-total-politics-blog-poll-2009 I got 15 results in Google and only 27 in Technorati. There were also some duplicates in both.

Even if I add 15 to 27, it still doesn't make 100. Do you want to try again with a new number you've made up?

scotch said...

Hello Iain.
I've taken summer off from you.

(scotch is welcomed back. Please hold the applause. No really, you're too kind).

I'm not anonymous and I'd quite like to see you answer the questions you've been asked. How about it, instead of sniping. You are the publisher, after all.

I thank you.

Anonymous said...

I have to thank Rantin Rab for directing me to this hilarity.

Sunny H said...

I apologise earlier for saying that Total POlitics hadn't paid me for an article. They had - the different company name threw me off. Happy to make that clear.