News - Tips For The Technically Terrified
Political gossip blogs are the ones which are currently attracting the most readers, which shouldn’t be a surprise. They’re among the funniest of the sites on offer, and there’s always been a market for the scurrilous end of political coverage. And scurrilous is what you get at sites like Order Order, which is run by a libertarian troublemaker under the name “Guido Fawkes”. Political junkies may find Guido’s tittle-tattle irresistible, but for those of a shockable disposition, the BBC caveat about not being responsible for external websites applies double. Guido has also branched out into podcasting with another gossip blogger, Recess Monkey, where the sympathies are with New Labour, but the tone is hardly reverent. A recent new source of gossip is the splendidly-named Iain Dale’s Diary, where the former Tory candidate offers podcasts, newsletters and traditional blogging, and one post states the philosophy of many weblogs: “It’s Up to the Blogs to Make it Hit the Fan.”
Commentary is another avenue taken by a lot of blogs. Bloggers can find it hard to do traditional journalism, since they lack the hours, contacts and access of their cousins in print and broadcast. But political commentary is open to anyone who can write. (Most can’t, of course, but then the same applies to the papers.) Some good places to start would be ConservativeHome, which gives a better picture of the state of the Tory party than any of the official sites; the site it inspired, LabourHome (strapline: “back to the roots”); Post Political Times, where former Lib Dem MP Richard Allan has the time to be thoughtful and the Adam Smith Institute Blog, your one-stop shop for free market snippets.
Campaigning blogs keep appearing on the scene. Make My Vote Count has electoral reform in its sights, but offers a good overview of British politics; LibDem Blogs does what it says on the banner, aggregating from dozens of yellow-liveried campaign sites and Backing Blair does the opposite of what it says on the banner, offering news and campaigning tools in the hope that you’ll get “Labour in - Blair out”.
Linkblogs are one the oldest and snappiest uses of the technology. If you find a blog like this that you enjoy, it’s a good way of getting a daily digest of articles and stories from other blogs and from the papers. The bewilderingly prolific Tim Worstall has a sometime focus on economics, but covers the gamut with élan; the same applies to Europhobia with regard to the EU and The Virtual Stoa keeps the blogosphere’s brainy Marxist wing up to speed.
Satirical blogs are where lampooners do the same as the above. Computers have let bloggers do what would have needed an edit suite or developing studio not so long ago. In the world of satirical manipulation of photos and images, the best are Beau Bo D’Or and Bloggerheads, there are animations at Eclectech, and tasteless text at Chase Me, Ladies, I’m In The Cavalry.
Finally, there are the opinion blogs, which do much the same job as newspaper columnists - sometimes better; sometimes worse. The writing you enjoy the most may not be from bloggers whose politics you share: the easiest way is to dive in, try a few, follow the links from their “blogrolls”, and remember the ones you’ve liked. In no particular order, then, have a peek at Dodgeblogium, Councillor Bob Piper, A Big Stick & A Small Carrot,Chicken Yoghurt, Blithering Bunny, Harry’s Place, Samizdata and Blood & Treasure.
If you’re overwhelmed with bookmarks, the best thing you can do is read about how RSS can help you manage your new reading. And no round-up of UK political blogs would be complete without a tip of the hat to the BBC’s own bloggers, including Nick Robinson’s Newslog, Newsnight’s Idle Scrawl and Martin Rosenbaum’s Freedom of Information blog Open Secrets. Click here to return to the top |
Political cybersquatting reaches the UK
It can be difficult trying to find political information online. To find the Labour Party’s manifesto, do you go to Labour Dot Com? Maybe New Hyphen Labour Dot Co Dot UK?
And making matters more frustrating are the annoying pranks played by political parties pretending to be each other online.
So we’ve been through all the spoof sites and dead ends so that you don’t have to: here’s a long list of political parties. And do help us keep it up to date by emailing any changes you’ve noticed to alan.connor@bbc.co.uk.
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How is the net changing politics?