Independent Political Bloggers: May 2011

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Another dozen

To our collection of independent British political bloggers, another twelve are listed below. We are well on our way to the first hundred-mark:

The problem for all of us is the volume, and sorting the wheat from the chaff. You could easily spend the whole day touring the blogosphere and, while you would pick up some superb material, there would also be a lot of dross.

However, I am no great fan of the ranking system that Iain Dale used ... how do you rate one blog as better than another? But, I'm minded to look at grading, such as the star system, widely used elsewhere. Three criteria come to mind: writing (quality of); frequency; and presentation. A technical marking scheme should not be too hard to devise.

Combine that with perhaps symbols to denote specialisms, and there may be the germs of system that would help see off the likes of Huff-Puff and the MSM, which would like to take over the blogosphere, giving guidance to the reader who is, after all, the "customer".

What think you ... what say you?

The MF Five A Day

Following on from this recent post, I'm introducing a new feature which I hope to maintain on a regular basis. It's quite simple really ... a selection of five posts from independent bloggers that I hope you will find amusing, entertaining and/or informitive.

So here we go with the first five ... enjoy ;-)

Monday, May 30, 2011

A Few More To Be Going On With

I have selected twenty or so blogs from my ‘daily reads’, which don’t yet appear in Richard’s list, to help you further extend your journey of discovery into the excellent writing, wit and independent opinion that the political blogosphere has to offer.

Enjoy ;-)

An invitation

Now that it is up and running, this site can accept up to 100 authors. We are now two, which means the system can accept another 98.

This blog, I feel, should be a joint property, and I would be more than happy to register any other independent political blogger on the site, giving them equal rights and co-ownership. If anyone wants to drop me a note on the comments, smoke signals or whatever, I'll send you an e-mail and get the process started.

I'm also thinking of doing a blogger-a-day feature: 200 words description, a screen grab of the site, and a link. Anyone who fancies kicking it off, send me their 200 words and I'll post it (subject to all the usual caveats) on EURef and this site.

Fighting fifty

The first tranche of fifty independent political bloggers. That is fifty (more, in reality, as some are group blogs) real people, with something to offer:

A fantastic fourteen

Here is another selection of independent political bloggers – fourteen this time in order to bring the total to fifty. I'll post that list, in alphabetical order, in this directory, but here is the fourteen to be going on with:

What strikes you is the huge range, the quality of much of the work, and the freshness. There is some clever, original writing here, passion, and wit. There is also – something the MSM have long ceased to provide – some really specialist knowledge.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Another twelve

It says much for the genre that the MSM and the political élites have invested a great deal in trying to destroy it. But despite those attempts, the independent political blogosphere (IPB) survives and prospers – here are another twelve to be going on with:

Not all the writing is brilliant, and some is erratic – only in mediocrity will you find consistency, though. But to suggest that the independent political blogosphere is in any way lacking in variety, depth and fine writing is a blood libel. It beats the low drone of the MSM into a cocked hat.

Bring on the bloggers

The art of political writing is alive and well, residing in the independent political blogosphere, where it is ignored by the MSM and the political classes alike. Here are twelve blogs to be getting on with.

There are many more besides - they are the authentic voice of free Britain.