These are the the overall Wikio blog rankings for the start of July, based on June data.
For politicos, Anna Raccoon has the preview of the political rankings.
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Post from: The Wardman Wire
Wikio Overall Blog Rankings Preview for July 2010
Read it allA new study of MPs on Facebook shows widespread use of the social network by Parliamentarians, but also a range of curious choices about how to use the medium which may in part reflect a failure to change default settings.
The study, carried out by Woodnewton Associates and based on evidence gathered in May this year, [...]
> In the last year or so there have been a number of new blog / news sites developing which provide commentary for a geographically identified area, covering politics but also giving a more rounded view of life in the area.
The site which has drawn my attention recently is The Lichfield Blog, which I mention on the Wardman Wire or on Twitter (follow me to keep up to date) from time to time. There are examples of sites with a similar ethos established for some time, including some personal blogs, and I’d mention Londonist and Dave Hill’s Clapton Pond Blog but also sites such as Created in Birmingham and Curley’s Corner Shop (South Tyneside).
Some areas have a range of local blogs. The tiny Isle of Thanet, for example, has Big News Thanet, Thanet Life and Thanet Online, in addition to the more idiosyncratic Thanet Coast Life, Eastcliff Richard and even Naked in Thanet.
Some of those sites have political stances, and some don’t. The common factor is that they provide coverage of local life and grounded politics.
As an enthusiast for the rejuvenation of local politics, I think a more varied local media is an excellent trend.
I’m developing a list of sites aiming to rounded provide coverage of a defined local area, town, or community. If you run a good one, or know of one, please could you drop me a line via the Contact Form on the Wardman Wire.
Read it allHuman Rights Watch have alerted many to the anti-gay pogrom in Iraq, but the group saving LGBT there are chronically short of funds
Read it allThese are the the overall Wikio blog rankings for the start of July, based on June data.
For politicos, Anna Raccoon has the preview of the political rankings.
|
Post from: The Wardman Wire
Wikio Overall Blog Rankings Preview for July 2010
Read it allIt appears that the Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill is likely to announce today the release on compassionate grounds of the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi. British justice ministers are obviously feeling quite compassionate this summer. If the decision is part of a deal with Libya, perhaps relating partly to oil, then of course it would be disgraceful and shameful. But it’s disgraceful and shameful anyway. Had all those 270 dead been Scottish, does anyone think Kenny MacAskill would be doing this?
Read it allThe Britblog Roundup from Jackart is out.
Good morning and welcome to the two hundred and thirty-third edition of the roundup of all that is good and wholesome in the British Blogosphere. Because we’re all just navel Gazers, let’s start with the great debate: Which is best?
Here’s a Taster.
Newspapers, Blogs or Books?
The Bracknell blog enters the debate about which is better, newspapers or blogs. He still maintains an optimism that the newspaper
“…Columnist are respected professionals who have a background in their subjects and the newspapers they work for have the power of investigative journalism and resource they can bring to bear on a story plus…”
He obviously doesn’t read la Toynbee. Meanwhile Himmelgarden Cafe lays into the Daily Mail and other tabloids for hypocrisy, which is a bit like saying “That crack… It’s a bit moreish”, but it is nevertheless a thoughtful post on the New Atheists, and one which demonstrates the superiority of the Blogosphere to the Newspaper columnist. So while Bracknell blogger is unsure, most readers here will have already decided that Blogs are best. Whilst we’re on the subject of new vs old technology, Max Atkinson explains why, for some leaders, the teleprompter is a mixed blessing.
Papers, blogs, teleprompters… they’re ephemera. Books as a medium are here to stay, and Elizabeth Chadwick gives us the low-down on some of her favourite historical bodice ripprers.
Post from: The Wardman Wire
Britblog Roundup #233 : The British Summertime Edition
Read it allThese are the the overall Wikio blog rankings for the start of July, based on June data.
For politicos, Anna Raccoon has the preview of the political rankings.
|
Post from: The Wardman Wire
This evening’s Salon Sunday interview is with Jon Bartley of the Ekklesia thinktank.
We will be talking about website publicity, promotion and sponsorship.
Ekklesia raises approximately £15k per year from it’s website, in addition to using the site as a promotional tool, and further raises around £250k per year for charitable causes.
Post from: The Wardman Wire
Jonathan Bartley of Ekklesia. Interview for Salon Sunday #onlinepolitics
A High Court judgement has been passed to evict the Parliament Square protestors from their so-called “Democracy Village” encampment. The action, brought by Mayor of London Boris Johnson, means that the squatters have until 4pm Friday to leave.
Predictably, this is being called “a bad day for democracy” and that this decision has been made “at [...]
Post from: The Wardman Wire
Writing the other day, Garbo called Osborne’s emergency Budget the “no-one wins” Budget. That is true. But it was also the “no-one could win” Budget.
This was an emergency Budget in so many ways and for so many reasons. This wasn’t an emergency Budget just because there was a general election and a change of government [...]
Post from: The Wardman Wire
Apart from a retrospective 150% tax on fiddled political expenses and gains made therefrom in the last decade, there are one or two items which deserve to be taxed slightly more in the upcoming budget.
Higher tax on bottled beer
To raise significant revenue, and provide a break for the pub industry. I’d consider the same rebalancing adjustment for a number of other alcoholic drinks.
50p per litre duty on Bottled Water
I want to see a larger tax on bottled (as opposed to tap) water, which is a largely pointless product and also environmentally damaging due to the unnecessary energy spent producing, bottling, packaging and distributing the product. The UK market, according to the industry, is a full 1.626 billion litres:
In 2009 1,626 million litres of UK-produced bottled water were consumed here in the UK.
and is set for longer term growth after a couple of years of decline:
UK bottled water consumption per person reached almost 34 litres in 2009, up from 26.9 litres in 2001. Zenith International estimates that longer-term growth will continue, with bottled water consumption projected to reach 40 litres per person by 2018. However, compare this with Italian bottled water consumption rates, which have grown from 194 litres per head in 2002 to an estimated 200 litres in 2008. US citizens drank an average 67 litres per head in 2002 with an estimated 100 litres in 2008. There is clearly considerable room for growth in the UK market.
50p per litre would yield more than £500m, even allowing for significant shrinkage in the market.
Personally, I’d make that a £1 per litre tax on bottled water brands with the chutzpah to claim that they are “ethical” because they give a small skimming from the top of their unnecessary turnover to development projects.
And compel pubs, clubs and restaurants to offer tap water
This is the other half of that Bottled Water proposal; a duty on “consume on the premises” food and drink outlets to serve tap water on request, perhaps at a maximum price of 10p per glass to prevent people deliberately provoking proprietors. If it needs a comparison, 10p is more than the wholesale price of a disposable glass.
And a small levy on shopping centre parking
I’d also suggest a levy of £1 per visit on parking spaces at out of town shopping centres, as a way of slightly reducing car use and providing an incentive for a boost to town centres. It’s tempting to suggest that this should be part of increased funding over time for local authorities as a way of reducing government grants and encouraging localism, but I think that the incentive on local authorities should be towards encouragement for town centres.
There are some hundreds of millions of such visits each year to these centres, so it would raise enough to make a difference.
It’s also tempting to apply a similar levy to parking at larger superstores – the Tesco Tax – but I’ll leave that for next year.
Post from: The Wardman Wire
Swingeing taxes on bottled water and bottled beer please, Mr Osborne
Good. The Telegraph is onto the money spent on consultants by Government:
The biggest survey of its kind has found that there are almost 20,000 temporary workers in Government departments and quangos on top of the 640,000 on the payroll.
Not good. The tabloid “let’s quote a spurious populist statistic to make a sensational story” gene breaks through:
It cost an average of £100,000 a year to employ each of them – more than three times more than the wages of the permanently employed civil servants.
The message here is that consultants are horribly expensive.
Errrr, yes Martin. If you want another comparison which is as relevant as that one, £100,000 will also buy you around 100 tons of finest bananas from a supermarket, so:
Shock! Horror ! Government consultants cost a lot more than bananas and custard !
Or, being a little less off the wall, you could you state that Tom is more obese than Dick, but fail to mention that Tom was weighed wearing a suit of armour and concrete boots, and that only Dick went to the toilet first.
That simple comparison ignores most of these aspects:
I think that a more pertinent area is likely to be money wasted on large outsourced projects, who will usually charging massively larger sums per employee. When I was running IT projects in a public sector body 10 years ago we were charged a standard rate of £900 per day for a project manager. By the time I was running IT Projects in a Local Authority 5 years later on that was roughly the rate for a network engineer from an outsourced supplier.
By comparison £100,000 per annum is around £400 a day, which sounds quite cheap – but on the other hand the Telegraph says nothing about whether the numbers relate to employees or employee-years. The usual reason for employing consultants routinely is that they are a cheaper way of achieving a particular end, and become expensive when the client fails to manage them properly by making sure that work is high quality and knowledge is transferred to the organisation.
I’m sure it can be significantly cut back, but this is small beer compared to money thrown at outsourced PFI programmes and other areas.
It’s not really very good, is it?
I’m beginning to wish for a paywall for the Telegraph too.
Post from: The Wardman Wire
Martin Beckford in The Telegraph on Consultants: an epic spurious comparison
There will not be a webchat this evening, as I am required to be out.
We will be continuing next Sunday 27th June at 8pm, with a conversation about ways of monetising blogs, unless one of the interesting interviewees I have invited requires that date.
My apologies.
Post from: The Wardman Wire
Parish Notice: NO Salon Sunday webchat this evening #onlinepolitics
