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Archive for March, 2008
Shhhh … wait until nearly midnight
Today has been a little quiet for blogging - I have been working on this, which turns into a public beta test at 11.00pm.
There are a couple of glitches, but comments are welcome.
I will be writing an explanation of what is what and how it all fits together during the day tomorrow.
Tags: wardman wire, politics in a nutshell, totally political[tags]wardman wire, politics in a nutshell, totally political[/tags]
Britblog Roundup 163: Philobiblon
This week’s Britblog Roundup is at Philobiblon.
Come back on Wednesday morning for the podcast, which is a short interview about the roundup on Radio 5’s “Pods and Blogs” programme.
As a bonus, here is a promo that Chris Vallance has just put out for the programme:
Tags: pods and blogs, britblog roundup, bbru, philobiblon, natalie bennett
Berks in Burkhas: Cartoon: Jesus and Mo
A cartoon from Jesus and Mo.
Tags: cartoon, jesus and mo, jesusandmo.net
[tags]cartoon, jesus and mo, jesusandmo.net[/tags]
Growing Pains: What happens when your blog becomes a little bigger?
There’s an excellent short interview with a “Blog Producer” from Weblogs Inc. by Darren Rowse over at Problogger. It points up a few of the issues that arise and skills that are needed to take a blog from being the “voice of one person” to being a slightly larger enterprise - with a range of voices, or covering a range of niches.
Blog Support Staff?
In Weblogs Inc. I’d define the role of Blog Producer like this:
“The back room bod responsible for ensuring that everything is in place to make sure that those writing for one or more blogs can do their jobs as easily and as well as possible”.
or - to put it another way - the person who lets the other people do their jobs.
I’ll quote one question and answer here, but you’ll have to follow the link below to read the whole interview:
Darren: Do you have any advice or tips for smaller to medium sized blogs that want to step up in terms of professionalism and growth?
Victor: Building a team is crucial, always. Once you grow beyond just yourself, it is important to have a talent pool who can bring a variety of skills to the table. This usually means a level of tech-savvy (people shouldn’t be afraid of wikis or simple HTML) plus a certain level of management ability. There also gets a point where you need someone focusing on sales!
Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni: Why no heels?
Ellee remarks:
The outfits were elegant and demure imageand deliberately understated to accommodate the renowned British reserve. But one thing stood out and disappointed me about Carla Sarkozy’s carefully planned wardrobe during her visit to the UK last week -where were the heels?
I’m the biggest fashion ignoramus in the world, but it must be the height, surely?
After having crawled through the soft focus shots, the Mick Jagger shots, the seductress with a guitar pics, the “Me Tarzan You Jane” Sarko-the-hero photos, the “trimmest bottom in the world that you cannot quite see” photos, and the rest (i.e., the first few pages of Google image search) - I found this one:
(via Random Citations)
The BBC has recorded Mr Sarkozy as being 1.65m (5′ 6″ for traditionalists) tall:
I read recently that the French Prime Minister, the aristocratically tall Dominique de Villepin, has been privately making fun of his small but perfectly formed party boss and interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy.
But after the 6ft 5in (1.96m) De Gaulle and 6ft 1in (1.87m) Chirac, could Sarko, at a mere 5ft 5in (1.65m), make it to the Elysee Palace?
Yes, we all know about the French and small men, but according to my sources Napoleon was slightly taller at 5ft 6.5in (1.69m).
Senedd Circular: Easter Recess Catch-Up
This week, Pippa Wagstaff writes her first column for the Wardman Wire about events at the National Assembly for Wales (the Senedd) in Cardiff.
It has been held over from last week. Usually the column will appear on Thursdays.
Why we are talking about the “Senedd”?
[Editor’s note from Matt]
I decided to go for “Senedd” as the name for the “Welsh Assembly Report” on the advice of Sanddef a couple of months ago, because I needed a term least likely to change:
- “Welsh Assembly” has a feel of “this is likely to change if the constitutional relationshop changes”. I can imagine it becoming “Parliament” if Plaid gets its way, and there’s no point in choosing a name that may become obsolete.
- Change is the enemy of profile on the internet. When the name changes, your site vanishes from the search results.
- “Senedd” is meaningful in both Welsh and English.
- The building is also called the Senedd. That won’t change.
- www.senedd.me.uk was available as a home for my aggregator for blogs by Senedd members, and feeds.feedburner.com/senedd was available for the corresponding RSS feed.
OK. Back to you, Miss Wagstaff.
Cranking the Starting Handle
The Assembly is currently in the middle of its Easter Recess, so I’ve taken the opportunity to bring us up-to-date on what’s hot on the political agenda at the run up to the Assembly’s return to Cardiff Bay.
You can take it as read that there are more important things to life. In my life, at least, there’s family and a new career opportunity that’s taking up so much of my time at the moment. I’ve recently taken a short break away from blogging – part work, part pleasure, part nightmare! Now I’ve found my way back to Cardiff, and eventually back to what lurks down the bay – Welsh politics, or beneath, in the darker areas - the politics of coalition.
I don’t sleep deeply these days, and this can be partly blamed (in equal proportions) on having ‘a little one’ and having ‘a big one’. The little one is self-explanatory. The big one being ‘Miss Wagstaff Presents’, which has always concerned itself with the Government of Wales being more of a ‘first-to-do’ or ‘freebie’ government, that has become affectionately known as a gimmick government. Whether the cause is good or bad, it’s a government that concerns itself with headlines rather than getting down to the bread and butter issues of devolution. Whether it’s the first to appoint a Children’s Commissioner; an Older People’s Commissioner; the introduction of free NHS prescriptions; or even its recent attempt – capturing the attention of the UK public (and probably for the first time) – in starting the ball rolling for free parking at hospitals. You can always rely on the Welsh Government to grab some attention seeking headlines in the name of progress. More will be made of this in future columns.
Senedd Snippets:
- Assembly Members trying to buy their way into heaven
- Senedd proved to be a success.
- Possible referendum rift between the cohabiting coalition partners
- History in the making and laws for the taking.
- Plaid/Labour coalition – keep your enemies close.
Three Score Years and Ten: A Blog to Enjoy
Via Bob Piper’s post “Never Mind the Width” I (memo to self: spend an hour a week “wasting time” surfing new blog), I found a new and interesting blog from Dronfield, which is in my area, Three Score Years and Ten - with the excellent tag-line:
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards” - Søren Kierkegaard
Harry Barnes was Labour MP for North-East Derbyshire for the years 1987-2005. He writes about local life (especially Sheffield Football Club - the world’s oldest club founded in 1857), Iraqi and Iranian events. Here are some a quantity of posts that I enjoyed reading from the last couple of months years. You have to navigate the blog via the archives or search facility, as Harry does not use labels or categories.
The Understanding Iranian Politics Series:
- Regional Context : Part 1 of “Understanding Iran”
- Internal Make-Up : Part 2 of “Understanding Iran”
- Democratic Sham? : Part 3 of “Understanding Iran”
- Factors Shaping Politics : Part 4 Of “Understanding Iran”
Sheffield FC:
- (sort of) Abramovich: Eat Your Heart Out
- Football’s Coach and Horses (Sheffield FC owns a pub)
- Eat Your Heart Out (on Sheffield FC arriving down the road)
- 150 years and 2 days old.
- When is second best? Anniversary of the oldest football fixture in the world (1860) on the same ground as the original.
- Official: the Best Team in FIFA. Visit of Sepp Blatter.
- Signing Pele. What it says on the tin.
And a selection of others:
- The Female Chartists of Iran.
- Baghdad’s Picasso.
- On the Thinking Person’s Thoughts (book review of The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes (Yale Nota Bene)
A gent for whom I would gladly buy a home made pie and a beer in a village pub somewhere in Derbyshire for the pleasure of the conversation.
Enough. A feed of political blogs awaits compilation. If my new alternative blog front page beta version is not out today it is half Harry’s fault.
Tags: Harry Barnes, three score years and ten, labour, bob piper
