Monday, September 24, 2007

Spot The Bloggers

Via Iain Dale's Diary comes news of the Top 100 Left of Centre UK Blogs (2007).

I know I'm stateside, but I haven't heard of three quarters of them. Part of the reason that I'm blogging about the list is so that I have an easy accesible link to the list in what might be a coming election period, and 'cos I want to name and shame some of the bloggers listed in the Red Hot Top 100:

  • 9 - Dave's Part Should be top five, at least. Somebody has been interfering with the ballot.
  • 21 - Three Score Years & Ten The blog of Harry Barnes. Who thought someone could be a MP for 18 years, and come out the other end a decent person? Always had a soft spot for HB, because of his columns in the old ILP magazine.
  • 29 - A General Theory of Rubbish He swears a lot, and has been known to send me contraband Irn Bru flavoured rock candy through the mail. Good man.
  • 31 - Austin Mitchell MP Refused to buy a Socialist Standard off of me one time. Known as a wit in the House of Commons, because it was rumoured he once told a funny joke thirty years ago.
  • 35 - Shiraz Socialist I knew one half of the Shiraz's - Volty - when he was a cadre member of the 'tha matgamnite wing of old man 1904'ery'.
  • 38 - Hak Mao The acceptable face of the Drink Sot Toon Blogging Army.
  • 63 - Gauche Paul Anderson's blog. He doesn't blog enough. He doesn't gossip enough about his nefarious ultra-left past in his posts.
  • 81 - Random Pottins Always readable, always fucks up his hyperlinks.
  • But no room on the list for Socialist Unity Blog; The Scottish Patient or, it has to be said, Lenny's Blog? Strange omissions, IMHO.

    I'm not a fan of Lenny or his politics, but you can't deny that the bloke gets the hits. Socialist Unity Blog and the Scottish Patient are always readable and, in SUP's case, has played a central role in publicising the current Galloway/SWP shakedown within Respect. The SWP's Central Committee goes to bed at night cursing Al Gore for inventing the t'internet.

    Last Word

    And of course the SPGB blog, Socialism Or Your Money Back, isn't on the list. That would mean that we acknowledge that we are part of the left . . . and we can't have that.

    No, This Is The Last Word

    Andy N. over at the Socialist Unity Blog has compiled his own list of Top 101 Left Blogs. Honorable mentions to:

  • 31 - Another Green World Derek Wall's blog. Totally unreadable, IMHO, but come the Green Revolution, it's handy to have a former subscriber to the Socialist Standard with his hands on the levers of power.
  • 33 - Socialism Or Your Money Back The SPGB momentarily think of doing a Marlon Brando, but at the last minute bottle it and do a Sally Field instead.
  • 80 - Spaces of Hope Its placing in the top 101 adds another five years to the life of the World in Common collective.
  • 81 - Reasons To Be Possible Highly literate blogger who refuses to use spellchecker. If he wanted to, he could produce one of the best blogs out there. Bastard.
  • 95 - From Despair To Where Maybe Andy included FDTW as an afterthought in a hastily constructed top 101. A shame if that's the case, 'cos Stuart and Dave's blog pisses over the majority of blogs on the list. No offence to the offended blogs, but it's always got something original to say, and says it with good grace and humility. So why the fuck they're blogging is anyone's guess.
  • 8 comments:

    Organized Rage. said...

    Most of these blogs could be described as centre left, not left of centre, not all but most. Try this Irish republican left blog.

    http://organizedrage.blogspot.com/

    Will said...

    Hey darren!

    Look at this!

    http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=757

    what a load of fucking toss!

    Imposs1904 said...

    How many arses do I have to lick before I merit a mention?

    Don't they know who I am? (sotto voce "No, who the hell are you?")

    Will said...

    Badge of honour not being mentioned if you ask me mate.

    Bit disappointed I even made onto Newman's stupid link-whoreing exercise.

    Imposs1904 said...

    You understand that the purpose of this post is nothing more than an exercise in link-whoring?

    And it didn't even work.

    I hate my sitemeter sometimes. It refuses to lie to me.

    Anonymous said...

    Darren, you're very kind, and your approval means more to us than anyone else's.
    All the best

    Jools said...

    "80 - Spaces of Hope Its placing in the top 101 adds another five years to the life of the World in Common collective."

    ouch! :-)

    I think Andy's being generous in the extreme in including us. Probably something to do with the fact that we're fellow Swindonites.

    Will, I may have differences with Andy politically but he's extremely hard-working locally and a top bloke to boot. I can only think his omission of the Ingrate was an oversight, perhaps there's too much footy on here for his liking?

    Imposs1904 said...

    Jools,

    Let's be honest. This isn't really a political blog.

    There's little or no actual original political contributions from myself on here, but I'm more than happy to link to political articles, websites and such like, alongside my ramblings on footy, music and that visual gag that I posted on the blog back in 2006.

    That, and the fact that Andy has a pathological hatred of Celtic supporters living in Brooklyn who happen to think that Haircut 100 were seriously underrated, is the real reason that Commisar Newman decided to write me out of blogging history.