Thanks to Andrewha who alerts me to THIS article in the New York Times, which is headlined THE YEAR OF THE BLOGGER. It highlights the facilities the Democrats and the Republicans are providing for the two hundred or so bloggers who will be attending their respective conventions.
Sadly, I now won't be attending the Republican Convention in Minneapolis/St Paul for reasons I won't go into here (they are nothing to do with politics). I will, however, be attending all three party conferences. I wonder if our political parties will be making any effort to provide bloggers with comparable access and facilities. I'm not holding my breath.
Come and blog at the first conference of the season:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.conference.westbournemouthukip.com/default.htm
You are lucky that you are missing the boring Republican convention. Who wants to be associated with a bunch of old losers anyway?
ReplyDeleteIt's Obama 08. Obama didn't pick his time - time chose him.
Total Politics. Off topic, I know, but I just wanted to say, Iain, that the design of this month's TP is absolutely first-class. I enjoyed the previous issue (I missed the launch one), but the current one looks very good indeed. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteStuart, thank you for those kind words. people find it so easy to criticse, so it's nice to know that you enjoyed it. We too are delighted with the design of it.
ReplyDeleteGordon Brown's face on the 1st issue really put me off. But I'll subscribe now if you promise you'll never put him on the cover again.
ReplyDelete:-)
No more than once a year :)
ReplyDeleteThe new design is a great improvement. I can only assume that the first two covers (which I call 'fear' & 'loathing', though not necessarily in that order...) were run in some grim Beta-design before the Alpha-graphics came on-stream underneath a picture of, natch, Bojo (3/4 crop, eyes up & off to the right, foppishly moppish barnet, serious & searching expression, every inch a future home sec or some such...).
ReplyDeleteI think that I'm gonna learn all I'd ever want to just from observing the run of covers. Bit like Privat Eye, really, but not enough cartoons!
Thought about attending the SNP conference Iain?
ReplyDeleteYes, we're going to the SNP and Plaid conferences in the Spring. Four weeks on the road is quite enough this autumn for a company that only employs nine people!!
ReplyDeleteyes, ditto africanmum. I wonder how many people in the UK feel a shiver of revulse when they see GB's photo? In the same way that Princess Di's photo attracted sales, how many people does GB's photo deter from buying a magazine?!
ReplyDeleteIain, will regular readers of your blog get a free copy of Total Politics?! *cheeky question*
I for one will look forward to your reports on all three parties Iain. I will be particularly interested on whether you will be blogging on "the lay of the land" so to speak, in as much as what the attendees are mostly muttering about.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see how much critical muttering there is of each parties respective leaders. Nick Clegg I expect will have it rough due to his inability to keep the Lib Dems interesting enough to be newsworthy. Cameron I expect will get the most support, no doubt by the same people who were sniping at him just 2 years ago. Gordon on the other hand......hahahahaha!
So what about it Iain? Can we expect you to blog about such things?
It's amazing that Nick Clegg has turned out to be so lame. He has had the most 'perfect storm' - and he's let it pass by. What a total waste of space Clegg is as leader of the LibDems. A truly wasted opportunity... I reckon Vince Cable might have stood a chance...
ReplyDeleteWe should not feel obliged to worship at the altar of everything our transatlantic cousins do.
ReplyDeleteThe Tory Party is not terribly keen on bloggers I can tell you from experience.
ReplyDeleteThat Obama comment is funny especially since the man just picked someone for VP who plagarised that intellectual wit Neil Kinnock.
Obama as going to lose anyway; Biden is just the icing on the cake.