Blogging for change!

There is a short, but interesting, exchange of views on one of Simon's Plaid Conf post.

Simon says:

From my experience, whether we're talking about blogs or twitter accounts, it's clear that online Welsh politics is very much an in-crowd of professional and amateur anoraks. Sure, anybody can blog (or leave a comment) on Welsh politics, but in reality anyone interested enough in the subject to do so pretty much falls into the anorak category anyway.

Al Iguana responds:

But WHY is it the preserve of anoraks? Surely everyone who votes should be discussing and dissecting? Why doesn't mainstream politics fire people up?

What Simon says is true. I suspect that 99% of the people who read my musings on a regular basis are people who write their own political blogs. My readers are those who are dyed in the wool supporters of their own political persuasion who will never be influenced by even the most passionate of debates in the comments section. Most of us who blog politics and/or comment on political blogs do so because we enjoy the sport, not because we believe that our pearls of wisdom will change opinion.

But Al's question is an interesting one. Politics does fire people up. Even people who claim not to be interested in politics usually have an opinion on the matters of the day. The difference between them and us anoraks is that politics isn't their prime passion, so they are not going to read blogs that are exclusively or mainly political, like mine, like Simon's or like Al's.

I was in Blaenau Ffestiniog yesterday afternoon, waiting for a train, where I overheard a conversation about the local football team. The footy conversation ended when one participant said I don't like Gwilym Euros' politics, but his blog always has the team's latest result the conversation then developed into a discussion about the merits of Gwilym's politics.

Gwilym is not the only poli-blogger to throw in the "aside interest" amongst his political posts, many others do so. But the starting point of his blog is the politics of being a local councilor; he is as much of an anorak as the rest of us.

But overhearing this conversation makes me wonder if the "trick" of influencing people is not to write a political blog at all!


If you really want to influence people the best way might be to write a general blog / a community blog etc where most of the posts are of general or local interest but only a few push a particular political line. A blog dedicated to Llaregub, which mainly does the local gossip; the hatched, matched and dispatched; the happy birthday, the get well soon, John Jones passed his driving test etc; but noted that the parish would be better off in an independent / socialist / liberal / conservative Wales in an irregular political comment!

Nobody buys the Sun because of its political coverage! People buy the Sun because of page three, the crossword, the sport, the celeb gossip etc. The shitty political influence just seeps through as an aside.

If Plaid really wants to influence the Welsh blogosphere it doesn't need a Welsh Iain Dale. What it needs is hundreds of community bloggers who can subliminally slip its message in between posts about the church organ fund and the village show!

Getting the revenge in first

Apparently the Ukanian King of Blogging, Mr Iain Dale is going to write a critique of Welsh blogging on his site later on today. Because of my nocturnal hours I won't see it before most of the rest of the Welsh blogosphere has either torn it to shreds or praised it to the hilt! So I'm going to follow my great grand dad's advice about possible conflict and get the revenge in first.

The first point is, of course, that the opinion of an outsider, is to some extent unimportant. A lot of the Welsh blogs discuss Welsh issues and are only of internal interest, their interest and appeal to the wider world may be minimal - but so what? Wales needs and deserves a forum in which Welsh issues are disseminated.

The population of Wales is only 3 Million, just 5% of the population of the UK. Wales has more blogs and more readers per capita than any other part of the UK! Simon and I may be sliding down the list on the Wikio rankings, for personal reasons, but Wales based blogs still have more than 5% of the top 100 rankings. So Wales, as Chanticleer, notes is punching above its weight in the blogging ring.

Of course there are certain areas of the blogging scene in Wales that Mr Dale can not access. Thankfully he doesn't see Welsh blogging at it's bitchiest!!!

When I started to get an interest in party politics in the 1960's and 1970's I use to attend public meetings arranged by the different parties. OK I might leave them unpersuaded but at least I heard their argument and considered it before rejecting it.

During the Thatcher-Blair era that element of politics disappeared.

I think that blogging has bought the era of listening to your opponent's point of view back into politics because polibloggers tend to read and respect each other, even when we disagree! We hear what the other side has to say.

Whatever Iain has to say about Welsh blogging, I am proud of being a part of the Welsh political bolgging scene. I doubt if many votes are won or lost by Welsh political blogging, BUT the respect that people of differing parties and opinioins gain for each other through our on line debates must be for the common good!

Iain Dale causes Plague of the Cornflakes!

Last year if you wanted to see your blog name in Print you would have to pay out a whopping £15 for a copy of Iain Dale's Guide to political blogging.

This year, if you have attended the Liberal Party Conference or the TUC you will already have been given one gratis. Something for those who are about to attend the Labour and Tory conferences to look forward to.

Those of you who attend other conferences (Plaid, SNP, MK, etc) and us sad souls who don't do conferencing need not despair. The publication is available as a PDF for free HERE.

The publication contains many more lists of the best than were published on Iain's blog. For instance the top 30 blogs by councillors, which has two Welsh entrants:

Blog Dogfael, a Plaid Councillor on Aberystwyth Parish Council at number 14 - Llongyfarchiadau Dogfael.

And at 29 Gwilym Euros Roberts who is also described by the guide as a Plaid Cymru Councillor .

Look out for multiple by-elections in Gwynedd, as half the council members choke to death on their cornflakes by the news that Gwilym is a Plaid Councillor. It's difficult to work out which party will suffer the most from the plague of the cornflakes, Plaid or Llais!

Iain Dale's ignorance of Gwynedd politics may have a lot to answer for!

Top of the Blogs

I am not keen on awards for opinions.

I have a fear that opinions might change in order to win awards!

I'm sure that if this blog wasn't such an opinionated nationalist blog, and didn't express an abject hatred of the evils of socialism, it might be more popular and gain more votes in blog awards.

If I thought that awards were important, I might be tempted to change my views in order to gain more votes next time around.

Having said that I am grateful to all who kindly voted for my blogs in Iain Dale's blog awards. Apparently I have the sixth and seventeenth most popular Welsh blogs (and I am the only blogger to have two blogs in one category, so far). I am also the 10th most popular non aligned blog.

So thanks for your support, but don't expect me to mellow my opinions in order to get a higher position next year!

Mr Dales Diarrhea

Apparently this blog is mentioned in dispatches seven times in Iain Dales new book about British Blogs.

Sorry, I'm not impressed. I won't buy the book, I wont push the book, basically I couldn't give a sh**t.

This isn't the 2nd best Welsh Nationalist blog in Britain or the 26th non aligned British blog and it doesn't fit in to any other rubbish British category that Iain tries to force it into.

This is an independent Welsh Blog that doesn't give a sh*t about being categorised into Mr Dale's Best of British categories, because this blog isn't British it's Welsh, Mr Dale, totally Welsh and has F..k all to do with your UKainian imperialism.

Can I borrow your pen please Mr Dale?

Are there really people in the world who write with biros that cost nearly three hundred quid?

The thought of it is enough to turn one into a raging commie!