So, welcome back to Dylan Jones-Evans and goodbye to Cynical Dragon of ‘Paul Flynn is a Cock-editions 0- 745′ notoriety (and also a fan of the Doors-so he must be alright!).
The churn in Welsh political blogs goes on. No sign of any Labour revival though. Congrats to Ordovicius on topping the Welsh Wikio rankings (we are rapidly coming up behind you, bach!). All we need now is for Alwyn to become less miserable.
The winner of the prestigious Sauregurkenzeit Award for
political blogging in Wales is:
Commiserations to Cynical Dragon who really really wanted to win this.
Congratulations to Pippa Wagstaff on consistently good blog content, on a successfully accomplished redesign and upgrade and, of course, winning the most votes in the online poll.
Judges Verdict: The standard of Welsh political blogs is getting better but is still lacking in significant ‘journalistic cutting edge’, impact on the political process or a coterie of regular post commentors. By rights, Peter Hain should have been the Welsh blogosphere’s first political victim but this opportunity was missed and taken by Guido Fawkes instead. Another major criticism is that many Welsh blogs are just rehashed versions and comments on other blogs or media stories with little original content. However, there are encouraging signs.
Judge’s Favourite blog: NoGoodBoyo
Thanks to Cambria Politico for hosting this award and congratulations on getting a major article published in the Total Politics ‘Guide to Political Blogging’ book about ‘the State of the Welsh Blogosphere’.
Excalibur is the name of a sword – a mighty (and probably heavy) bejeweled sword wielded by King Arthur who did his Round Table bit in and around Wales (or so it has been mytholigised). Unfortunately, it is also the code name of the NuLabour attack dog team who in the early days of the reign of King Tony were used mainly against the Tory Press and Media. But they are now back, unmuzzled, online and out of their kennels with political bloggers in their sights.
The UK’s two main parties are frantically developing fresh blog strategies in a battle to dominate the political agenda.
PRWeek can reveal that the Labour Party is exploring plans for an online rapid rebuttal unit, designed to kill off damaging stories circulating in the blogosphere.Source: PR Week
We at Cambria Politico know where they can stick their rebuttals.
Up their buttals.
Some politicians, in several parties, think that one Clive Betts is as much as they can handle.
They’re probably quite right. After all, my modus operandi all these years I have worked in Cardiff has been to enter a press conference with the aim of upsetting a few shibboleths.
It’s been great fun, and I think both sides have enjoyed it. Simply because I have always (well, almost) respected the person whose views I have been testing.
I’m the only person with my name in Wales, and the journalist of the same surname who has worked from Newtown is in no way related (at least, that I know). Continue reading »
Top ten positions for Cambria Politico in Iain Dale’s list of Welsh blogs (7) and Non-aligned blogs (9) has been achieved after only 3 months of operation.
A BIG THANK YOU to all of you who voted for us. Now for the Sauregurkenzeit Trophy- the ultimate accolade!
Total Politics List of top ten Welsh blogs.
1. Peter Black AM
2. Glyn Davies
3. Ordovicius
4. Miss Wagstaff Presents
5. David Cornock
6. Miserable Old Fart
7. Cambria Politico
8. Bethan Jenkins AM
9. Betsan Powys
10. Adam Price MP
Since this is the silly season or ‘cucumber time’ (Sauregurkenzeit), every blog seems to be running a competition at the moment, so we are going to jump on this bandwagon too. We have made a biased eclectic (knew I’d get that word in sometime) choice from the Welsh political blogosphere for you to select 2 which you actually read and favour. Vote in the poll in the right column.
There are no prizes although some jokers have already suggested that the presenter of this prestigious award should be Rhodri Glyn and the prize should be a framed cigar butt from the floor of the Eli Jenkins pub, or a bronze cucumber for placing in an appropriate spot – but this would not be in the best possible taste.
Hat Tip – Valleysmam for the cucumber ref
Nominations for the best blog post judged by a panel of judges must be done by the end of the month (August) at Ordovicius:
The shiny new ‘official site’ of No 10 Downing St is not a website… it is a blog and a bog standard one at that.
Not only is it a blog but it appears to be no less than a ‘political blog’ glorifying the activities and sayings of our Great Leader. Welcome to the blogosphere, Gordon Brown! I hope your comment moderation can stand the strain!
In fact, it is a WordPress blog (like this one) that uses a FREE theme called Network-10 (Ha Ha) which is an old but trusty theme that has been around for some time. It will be interesting to find out how much this has cost, since we at Cambria Politico could probably knock something similar up in a day or so. My charge would only be £0.5 million. Cheap bach cheap.
Needless to say the UK bloggers Dizzy and Guido are well into this. Also Devil’s Kitchen and Ordovicius. Even the geeks and uberwebgeeks are aroused.
According to Mike Rouse this website/wordpress blog cost the taxpayer in the region of £100,000 . He states that he would charge around £500-2000 for the same work. Somebody is on a nice little earner here.
RT @TheCommentator To followers of #Forex and wider implications, major battle for #euro/dollar over $1.27: Key ... http://t.co/XptNgkLo
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