Funny things these blogs. The sharp eyed or technically savvy among you will have figured out that this whole site is based around blogging software. In this case WordPress - which is also a pretty neat small scale web development tool. But that doesn’t make this site a Blog.

So when is a Blog a Blog and when is a Blog not a Blog?

We could get technical, we could get philosophical but actually, in the end, nobody cares. The thing that distinguishes a blog, in my humble opinion, is that it is published on the web, for the web and with a degree of regularity, maybe. Or not.

So the pieces on this site outside this section are not blogs and are not intended as such - they are articles primarily published elsewhere and reproduced here.

Most blogs, particularly in the political sphere, are ‘interactive’ - ‘participatory journalism’. They are also mostly entirely worthless - both as news and as political debate:

• Worthless because participatory though they may be, journalism they generally are not with scant regard for facts, truth or any kind of reality whatsoever.
• Worthless because a depressing number of political blogs do little to promote debate and merely reproduce a party line of one kind or another.
• Worthless because despite their multiplying exponentially their readership, I suspect, is very largely drawn from the choir within which the authors themselves sing and to a lesser extend from choristers of the rival churches.
• Worthless because the ‘participation’ that takes place on many of the sites is little more than abuse at best and libellous abuse at worst.

No doubt were I now a bright young thing fresh from university and keen to make my mark in political life, or life of any sort, I would be blogging away with the best of them, I like to think avoiding some of the worst excesses of the medium, but hand on heart, to be honest I couldn’t guarantee it.

I’ve come across a couple of people who, having written some interesting and entertaining stuff, have closed down their blogs despairing of the pressure, perceived or real, to conform to a humourless party-imposed template of opinions.

So why write a blog at all?

In the political sphere partly to prove that it doesn’t HAVE to be pushing a line. That is is possible to discuss issues and events without the outpourings of vitriol and bile that might be mildly amusing for the writer but are unlikely ever to appeal to anyone who hasn’t long since decided what they think. And this is the problem. Party political blogging is, to all intents and purposes, preaching to the choir. The reader has long since made up their mind what they think and are either reading to have their own opinions confirmed, to glean arguments to use in their own campaigning or to see what they might be up against from their opponents. It will be a long time, if ever; before an election is ‘won’ on the web, but there will be a few battles lost there in the meantime.

So like I said, why write a blog at all?

Partly to entertain. Away from politics there is a whole world of amusement to be had making ‘fair comment’ about the world in general and the media in particular. There is knowledge to be expanded and debate to be provoked. Too much gimmick and too little thought too much of the time. Too many delusions of making a fortune out of nothing on the web - funny, heard that before sometime around 2001.

But if it makes people smile, even for a couple of seconds, it can’t be too bad a thing.