Ego Rank

A special number for us: the age of the editor, the house number of the author, and our recent ranking place

WHY AREN’T I one of those interesting people,
Who always has something to say?
To not be contrived and to feel so alive,
And to never have wasted a day.
To go for long walks, have well informed talks,
In a non-confrontational way.
Why aren’t I one of these interesting people,
And why won’t you stay?

So sings Lily Allen in a B-side track called “Why” that really should have made it on to an album. Bizarrely enough – and bear with me on this - these lyrics on first hearing made me think about the nature of blogging: the blogger’s block, the need to entertain, the narrow line between engagement and confrontation, the avoidance of “contrived” opinion,  the demand for daily output, and the dangers of a too transient audience.

All of which were concerns that had been raised about blogging, or any other form of writing, on many occasions. They had been well discussed in an event at the Assembly almost a year ago which posed the question “To Blog or Not to Blog?” Hosted through the Bevan Foundation and chaired by myself, that particular evening saw passionate opinion from both sides on the value of the medium and posed some challenging questions about its nature and nurture. A collection of the outcomes and observations on the night can be found either on or linked to this page on the Bevan Foundation website. It was also a theme that illustrated my contribution to the blog site Welsh Bloggers in the Pub,  which reflects on the reasons why this non-blogger would never keep a blog. It was on the back of that article that the Higgitt brothers contacted me and my involvement with WalesHome began. Evidently my aversion to contributing to an online medium was mostly synthetic. Contrived, even.

But it was a step taken with the full knowledge that blogging or any form of online writing is a minority pastime. Let’s all just accept that first. The clearest proof? Just 1,500 people across the UK voted in the recent Total Politics poll for the best political blogs in the UK. That is not a huge number, especially bearing in mind the total number of blogs Total Politics lists is well in excess of that. But for those that did vote, you can bet the majority thought very carefully about how they cast their ballots.

Therefore the publication of the latest Total Politics poll of Welsh blogs is worth a viewing – and not just on the grounds of the vanity of the bloggers themselves. Although the outcomes of the poll have been roundly and comedically denounced in some quarters, others were quick off the mark in displaying their newly acquired badge of achievement online or to thank their legions of devoted fans for their support.

If you get past the back slapping and dig deeper, there are some interesting trends within the results. As befits the Number One ranking blog in Wales, Guerrilla Welsh-Fare has already had a stab at this. Allow me to take his (presuming a masculine identity) thoughts further and add a few of my own. Having tweeted some similar ones on the night the poll came out, my credentials for doing so are probably sound enough.

Like the Guerrilla, to me the tumbling down the rankings of several established politicians was quite striking. Thus Adam Price now remains the only politician of senior elected office in the Top Ten. Without a doubt some of the old stagers will make a recovery – and new politicos will emerge – but it does seem that the blog reading public has to an extent got over the novelty of reading the thoughts of our elected representatives. Perhaps it may be the spikiness of the posts, or maybe it’s just a reflection of a changing blogosphere in which other voices are able to more distinctive, radical or challenging. Yet there is only one thing worse than being ranked lowly in the top 60 for Wales, and that is not being ranked at all. Surely others must have noticed that neither Welsh Conservative group leader Nick Bourne nor possible future Welsh Labour leader Carwyn Jones appear? Neither deserves such ignominy.

And the media bloggers fared little better. Vaughan Roderick was the only established media blogger to make the Top 10 (not counting Cambria Politico, which is more of a small chorus or barber shop quartet). Other media people, often with strong and distinctive voices, seem not to be being rated on what they are saying. Is there some sort of anti-establishment rebellion going on? Not entirely if we take Vaughan as a case in point. Indeed, the impact of Welsh language blogs, despite their more restricted readership numbers, is powerful indeed. Alwyn ap Huw summarises their position very effectively in a post which you don’t need to be able to read fully to understand.

Among the political organisations it is clearly Plaid Cymru which is the dominant party of the Welsh blogosphere. There are now 31 Plaid-identified blogs in Wales, and two thirds of them made the top 60. Without a doubt they are the masters or mistresses of the current turf war. Last March was a critical point for this. At the same time that Plaid mainstreamed online content at its boldest conference of recent years, Labour launched the Aneurin Glyndwr project. As one of those who felt the Labour site was not as much of a failure as it was painted (excepting that video…), it really surprises me that the attack site has not made the 60 at all. The contrast between the two parties in March could not have been starker. And the gap between them online has widened, not lessened, since. This poll proves it conclusively, even if Paul Flynn suspects other forces at work.

Having waxed lyrical about the online war between Plaid and the Lib Dems the other week, there is little point reviving that topic again. Suffice it to say it is clear from this list which side is winning; though, as the authors of Freedom Central concede, they did not properly engage with the polling exercise. That’s a first for Lib Dems. At 35, it shows.

Mind you, we can’t say much on that front at Wales Home. Being totally oblivious to our inclusion in the contest, the editors of this daily missive didn’t even vote for ourselves, let alone encourage others to do so. Hence the accompanying visual outcome … But it would be remiss of me not to congratulate some of our occasional columnists, Heledd Fychan, Bethan Jenkins and Marcus Warner, on their ranking so well in advance of our collective achievement. At least one of them voted for WalesHome, even if such an opportunity passed the editorial team by…

Another interesting aspect from the poll would be the continued rise of the “thinking blog”. There is clearly an appetite for ideas out there, coupled with the need for alternative viewpoints or perspectives to be taken. Adam Price leads the way here, but others like Valleys Mam, Syniadau, and Borthlas, have much to say too. (Notice the Plaid bias emerging here too?) In future we can expect other new entrants like This Is My Truth to make some headway up the list; and, if we survive the grind of producing over a thousand words on a virtually daily basis, then WalesHome too would hope to progress in our ranking.

It is possible for any blog to make a breakthrough. Looking at the list of 60, it is the huge churn which is the thing which leaps out most clearly of all. Over half the list are new entries, and others who held sway last year are clearly spiralling down. Even ones achieving a strong readership and a positive ranking can lose it quickly. If you don’t post for a few months, then your perusers move on, as the once ground-breaking Miss Wagstaff Presents is finding out. Unless Welsh Ramblings rescues itself soon, the same fate will befall it in next year’s poll. Just ask Ordovicius how it feels to be ignored. Yet there is something satisfying and positive about the churn. It is a sign of life and vibrancy.

And what is more, the size of our Welsh political blogosphere also needs to be respected. Total Politics lists 105 such blogs in Wales, compared with the 118 in Scotland and 30 in Northern Ireland. Bearing in mind our population, it is clear that we are doing better in terms of proportional numbers than the other devolved parts of the UK.

All in all, the Welsh political blogosphere annual healthcheck has gone pretty well. Some parts of the body politic have declined, and others are drooping so badly they could fall off, but overall the physique is in good shape. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the vision or the brain.

It’s a shame this only matters to a few thousand people here isn’t it?