The 2009 edition is out, including a chapter from myself on the future of British political blogging and also a chapter from my Lib Dem Voice colleague Stephen Tall on the state of the Liberal Democrat blogosphere. Liberal Democrat bloggers Mark Thompson and Stephen Glenn also have their own pieces.
It includes extensive listings of political blogs broken down into different political categories.
Although some of the individual ratings inevitably raise eyebrows, flicking through the lists is a good way of stumbling across blogs that are new to you – and especially those that don’t fall into your own usual political and reading comfort zones.
You can buy a copy of The Total Politics Guide to Political Blogging in the UK 2009-2010
Add your comment...Please be polite, on topic and don't use multiple different names. Thanks!
>It's not just the Lib Dem Blogosphere - in 15 articles in the Total Bollocks guide, 2 have been written by women. That can't be right. Serious question. How far off the representative proportion is 2 out of 15 in real stats? Can you quote the figure for sites listed in LibDemBlogs, for example (I'll be thrown by not knowing everyone). What should the number be? Does there need to be a quota? Before I get roasted, I'd probably look for 4 or 5 not 2. Matt
I'm with Jennie on this one. It's not just the Lib Dem Blogosphere - in 15 articles in the Total Bollocks guide, 2 have been written by women. That can't be right. However, I don't think LDV can be faulted - they do go out of their way to seek out and publicise good blogs. I've certainly got into a few on my blogroll because they have pointed me in the direction of them.
Would you please include my blog into Total Political Guide; into 'google' then type in Mr and Mrs Tanners Home Page
Speaking for myself, the blogs I look at when composing LDV pieces or spotting topics to pick up on are (a) those on the aggregator, (b) those that come up in search alerts on particular terms and (c) ones people have recommended to me. No Blogger or Wordpress bias there :-) (Save a bit perhaps in that WordPress blogs by default come with very good SEO.) Obviously the choice of search terms for (b) reflects my own interests, so perhaps the reason I'm not picking up on blogs or pieces that you would just reflects we have different interests? If you've got some counter-examples of blogs that you think are unduly neglected by all means deploy (c) and tell me!
Broaden the way that LDV looks at and links to blogs. Blogger and wordpress are not the be-all and end all of blogging. Stop waiting for people to submit themselves to the aggregator and actually go out looking for them. As for Dale: Stop sucking up to and linking to the tosser would be a start. Stop telling people he is a must-read blog when he patently isn't. Stop legitimising and contributing to his vanity projects.
Charlotte: agree with you on that; the more diverse the range of routes to "success" (and that itself is something people have very different definitions of) the better. Jennie: do you think there's more LDV can do to help achieve that?
Well, yes, but how can we do that when pretty much everyone, from all parties and all media organisations, acknowledges him as the blog daddy? How can we show that the emperor is stark bollock naked when nobody wants to see it?
Well, there's a need for bloggers to have their own routes to 'success' that don't involve patronage from Iain Dale.
Awwww go on, get started. Please. Cos otherwise I am just a lone whinging harpie who needs to shut up and get back in the kitchen.
* notes that even though the top lib dem blogger is female this year, the gender balance of the Total Bollocks pamphlet is very... traditional *
What I’ve been reading
