Nice to round the year off with an award.

I want to thank CharonQC for this one.

 

I’m honoured and humbled.

Don’t feel left out though, help yourself to one.

Cheers!

AJ

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108

Alas, my sights were set too high, and I didn’t make it into the top 100.

Maybe next year, if I’ve not been driven to a murder-suicide rampage by then.

108 is:

• considered sacred in many Eastern religions and traditions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and connected yoga and dharma based practices.
• in Tibetan Buddhism it is believed that there are 108 sins
• In Homer‘s Odyssey, the number of suitors coveting Penelope, wife of Odysseus.
• There are 108 outlaws in the Chinese classic Water Margin/Outlaws of the Marsh.
• The number of surat al-Kawthar in the Qur’an, the smallest one of the Book.
• There are 108 love sonnets in Astrophil and Stella, the first English sonnet sequence by Sir Philip Sidney.

Thanks for the votes, folks.

Keep reading and keep commenting.

AJ

This is just getting silly

I recently remarked upon my 2010 position in the Total Politics Blog Poll, in the Scottish Blogs section.

Apparently, I came in at #13 in the Scottish list this year, which is a decent enough improvement, and puts me in the mix with some distinguished purveyors of porridge-based prose.

But it’s time to right this wrong, so I’ve dropped TP an email to ask them to put me in the right categories.

And that’s precisely what I did. My email exchange with the very lovely Emily Sutton included the following:

I don’t live in Scotland – I’m English and I live in England. I just happen to support Scottish independence for English reasons.

I’m right wing libertarian.

So now I can be absolutely sure that Total Politics is taking the piss, having just discovered that as well as #13 in the Scottish rankings, I am also #40 in the Left Wing Blogs Top 100, ahead of Jack of Kent, LabourHome, Pickled Politics, Kerry McCarthy, George Monbiot, Bevanite Ellie and many, many others.

It looks like I’m not the only one who shouldn’t be in the list though, so it all looks like a terrible terrible mistake.

I shall communicate further with Ms. Sutton.

In the meantime, however, I’m having the badge, if only for comedic incongruity value.

Sod it, I’m having the Jock one as well.

AJ

Welcome to the 51st shittiest blog, evaaaaaarrr.

You just can’t buy vindication like this:

The UK’s 100 Worst Political Blogs

While Iain is currently rattling off the annual Top 100 politics blogs, it’s time to look at the real stinkers polluting political blogland. This list was compiled from those who voted in the 100 Worst UK Politics Blogs poll that ran between 10th July and 11th August.

60) Shot By Both Sides
59) Butterflies and Wheels
58) Duff and Nonsense
57) Nick Robinson’s Newsblog
56) Though Cowards Flinch
55) Mac Uaid
54) Islamophobia Watch
53) Who Goes Home?
52) Welsh Bloggers
51) Al Jahom’s Final Word
50) Elliott Joseph
49) Luke Akehurst
48) Benedict Brogan
47) The Exile
46) Blurred Clarity
45) spEak You’re bRanes
44) LabourList
43) Aaronovitch Watch
42) Craig Murray
41) Andrew Allison
40) Archbishop Cranmer

Gawd bless all you haters :o)

Because it really isn’t worth blogging unless you can piss people off sometimes.

AJ

Whoring update

Regular readers may recall that last year I came in as the 22nd most popular Scottish blogger in the Total Politics blog poll. This was odd because I’m English and I live in England. I think my support for Scottish independence confused them.

Apparently, I came in at #13 in the Scottish list this year, which is a decent enough improvement, and puts me in the mix with some distinguished purveyors of porridge-based prose.

But it’s time to right this wrong, so I’ve dropped TP an email to ask them to put me in the right categories.

Of course, I should have done so earlier, but there we are. So maybe I’ll now turn up in the Libertarian blogs. Who knows?

Either way, thanks for the vote, folks :o)

AJ

Last orders

Vote for meeeeeeee. Polls close tonight.

http://www.totalpolitics.com/magazine_detail.php?id=963

AJ

The Annual Whorananny Is Upon Us

It’s that time again.

Iain Dale has announced that the polling for this year’s Total Politics Blogging awards has now opened.

As he says:

The rules are simple.
1. You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and ranks them from 1 (your favourite) to 10 (your tenth favourite).
2. Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. Any votes which do not have rankings will not be counted.
3. You MUST include at least FIVE blogs in your list, but please list ten if you can. If you include fewer than five, your vote will not count.
4. Email your vote to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com
5. Only vote once.
6. Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents or based on UK politics are eligible. No blog will be excluded from voting.
7. Anonymous votes left in the comments will not count. You must give a name
8. All votes must be received by midnight on 31 July 2010. Any votes received after that date will not count.

Last year, in my first year of blogging, I came in at #290 in the overall voting and #22 in Scottish blogs.

I don’t expect TP to repeat the category error of last year, so I don’t expect to be in the running for the Scottish Blogging ranks this year. Instead, I want to be in the top 100 overall and the top 100 right-of-centre bloggers.

In terms of relative readership, I have 10x more readers per month now than I did in June 2009 when voting last began, so who knows, eh?

AJ

Let the vote whoring begin

… no. Not the General Election this time.

No, this is a much more important contest.

I am currently skulking just outside the top 30, while arch-berkinalds Kerry McCarthy, Bevanite Ellie and John Prescott are at 29, 23 and 11 respectively.

Vote early, vote often.

AJ