Political blogging in the UK

NightHawk has been described as a political blog, but I think of it as a personal blog that reflects the fact that politics – both national and international – is a major interest of mine.
There are only four political blogs in the UK that have a really large readership:

One way of looking at these blogs is that they have a strong Right of Centre position; another way of looking at it is that they are essentially critical of the government of the day which – for 11 years now – happens to be Labour. I hope that Labour supporters like me won’t wait for the party to lose office before they correct the political bias in UK blogging.
Too much of the blogosphere seems to be oppositional – but blogging should involves positive messages as well as challenging ones.


3 Comments

  • Morus

    Without wanting to open a can of worms that was opened only a week ago on the site, I don’t think pb.com can genuinely be described as right of centre. I’m not sure *it* has any allegiance, except to finding good value bets.
    The commenters on the right are louder at the moment, but even 9 months ago the opposite was the case.
    The articles are almost entirely written by a Lib Dem (Mike Smithson) or by non-partisan centrists on non-UK topics. The only Tories who have had more than one article published are Sean Fear and Andy Cooke, who are both very moderate, and wrote analytical pieces that almost all would agree are free of overt bias.
    I’d expect the left to re-ignite once in opposition, but they’ll be hard pushed in the next couple of years, because they will have to take traffic away from established blogs of the right – difficult to change people’s habits overnight, even if they are Left wing but regulars at Guido’s or Dale’s blogs.
    Good luck with that massive task – I’m going to read through your posts now.

  • Roger Darlington

    As I blogged here, the opposite situation applies in the United States where Democrats seem to have embraced blogging more than Republicans – but this could be because a Republican has been in the White House for almost eight years which would tend to validate my thesis that currently at least political blogging tends to be an oppositional tool and that political bloggers find it easier to oppose than propose.

  • UK Voter

    I wouldn’t disagree that much of the political commentary is negative, but I think this has less do with which party you support as you suggest, but far more to do with the fact that many people are frustrated with the government, which yes, just happens to be Labour.
    I suspect once the Conservatives get is, as I am sure they will at the next election and they have benefited from their honeymoon period, we will see some very tough criticism of them as well. Particularly given I doubt they will tell the electorate too much about what they stand for prior to the election.
    I truly believe that the electorate is becoming increasing disconnected with the government and worst still, politicians in general. Truth be told, very few politicians seem to talk like us, speak like us or act like us. They all need to engage with the public, not once every 5 years, but every day, of every week, that they are supposed to be representing us!