Gavin’s Gaily Gigest

I feel so dirty – let’s get this out of the way quickly:

In early September Total Politics, in association with APCO Worldwide, will publish the 2008-09 Guide to Political Blogging in the UK. It will contain articles on blogging by some of Britain’s leading bloggers, together with a directory of UK political blogs, and a series of Top 20s and Top 10s. The book will be available at the Green Party, TUC, Labour, LibDem and Tory Conferences, where Total Politics will have exhibition stands [and I'm being forced to go unarmed].

We’re asking for your votes to decide the Top 100 UK Political Blogs. Simply email your Top Ten (ranked from 1 to 10) to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com. Just order them from 1 to 10. Your top blog gets 10 points and your tenth gets 1 point.

The deadline for submitting your Top 10 is Friday August 15th. Please type Top 10 in the subject line. Once all the entries are in a lucky dip draw will take place and the winner will be sent £100 worth of political books! [Shoot me, shoot me now]

The rules are simple:

1. Please only vote once
2. Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents are eligible or based on UK politics are eligible
3. Votes must be cast before Friday 15 August
4. Blogs chosen must be listed in the Total Politics Blog Directory.
5. You must send a list of TEN blogs, ranked. Any entry containing fewer than ten blogs will not count.
6. Anonymous votes left in the comments will not count. You must give a name.

I need to shower now, to stop this whorish feeling engulfing me further, but before I do here’s my top ten (ordered in the normal 1 – 10 way, which I’ll reverse when sending off):

1. Lib Dem Voice: Fuck off, you know it’s true.
2. Alix Mortimer: Damn her for being so good so quickly. It’s taken me years to reach this level of mediocrity and young upstarts like this leapfrog over me.
3. Beau Bo D’Or: Still going strong and sailing funny.
4. James Graham: Because there’s a rule against not including him in any “best of the blogs” list.
5. Paul Walter: Stamina. He has that in spades. Possibly the most prolific Lib Dem blogger out there.
6. Jo’s Jottings: Not as much stamina as Paul Walter, but she holds her own.
7. The Wardman Wire: A group blog with an impressively eclectic range of writers.
8. Spy Blog: Digging away at the surveillance state.
9. A Very British Dude: An often-overlooked gem of a right-wing / libertarian blog.
10. Recess Monkey: Not as good as it once was, but still worth a read.

Now excuse me whilst I go get wet.