The Wardman Wire

I have had an exclusive look at the new rankings for political blogs by Wikio which are coming out tomorrow, and there are some major changes.

These rankings are based on links from blog articles on monitored blogs, and that blogroll links are ignored.

There have been some changes to the algorithm to take links from blogs over the previous 9 months into account (rather than 4), and the value attached to a link gradually reduces (on a straight line basis) as it gets older. The changes this month are larger than are likely in the future.

I’m writing this offline (connection problems), so I can

These are the key changes in the UK Top Political Blog rankings (full list is below):

• Liberal Conspiracy is now number 3 (which puts it at no 11 in the rankings for “All Blogs”).
• LibDem Voice is now ahead of Labour Home.
• Nick Robinson’s BBC Politics Blog has dropped (just) out of the Top 20 behind some Independents.
• Dizzy Thinks is at number 18, having appeared from nowhere in the politics rankings last time.
• The Wardman Wire is now number 14 (18 under the previous system). Chicken Yoghurt has also advanced.
• If Normblog were in the “Politics” not the “Other” category it would be in the Top 5 in this list.

By my reckoning almost half of these top 20 are group blogs or blogs with multiple regular contributors (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15 in the list below).

With Wikio the real benefit is to be in the Top 10, then a link is displayed in the sidebar of some pages on the Wikio site, which helps visibility and traffic.

It is almost five months since I retired George Gallohasbeen from the role on this blog equivalent to the Fool in a Morris Dancing Troup (OK: “side”), who adds to general mirth by simply making an appearance.

I have been looking for a replacement, and I think I have found one in the person of Paul Flynn, MP for Newport West.

Paul has come out with the following:

J.K Rowling has sprinkled some stardust over the Labour’s campaign and a very useful £1million. For once we have got the presentation right. Here is the authentic voice of a struggling single mother who benefited from Labour’s policies. Her gift also highlights the vindictive spiteful moralising of the Tories.

Betsan Powys has an update to the Christopher Glamorganshire sacking (a pseudonymous blogger sacked in Autumn 2007 for “violating the Civil Service Code”).

Betsan has had sight of some letters and emails, and says:

Who is Christopher? He is - or was - a civil servant of many years, employed by the Welsh Assembly Government and who was sacked as a result of publishing an anonymous blog.

Then (I have put direct quotes in bold):

Why was he sacked?

His thoughts on “Who would be a leader in a wicked, wicked world” drew the attention of someone in Cathays Park in July of last year. A flurry of confidential Emails started:

“This is the blog I mentioned earlier - reading it all and the profile places the individual in the Bay picking up plenty of insider stuff on WAG“.

The then Permanent Secretary, Sir Jon Shortridge, gets involved.

“The Permanent Secretary has asked me to check if any emails have gone out to this blog site (or if people apart from … have browsed). The site has contained some detail which may have links with leak enquiries“.

He was sacked and and as things stand is taking his case to tribunal, despite his union, the PCS, heeding advice they’ve been given that he has some mountain to climb, such a mountain, carrying the threat of such a big bill at the end, that they’ve decided he must climb it alone.

Solicitors acting for the government don’t mince their words. In letters I’ve had sight of they sum up the conclusions of the Employment Judge * (and bear in mind I’m quoting their own summing up here, not quotes from a transcript) like this:

the “claim has little reasonable prospect of success“, the blog was “contrary to the civil service code” and “has the potential to cause an embarrassment to the Welsh Assembly Government”, therefore breaking the code. Had ‘Christopher Glamorgan’ been guilty of “excessive internet abuse and potential copyright infringement” alone the judge seems to conclude that a final written warning would have been enough. However the blog, “the most serious of the issues”, means dismissal “would fall within the band of reasonable responses available to a reasonable employer”.

Policy Exchange have called one wrong and are proposing (to give a - slightly - bald summary) that the North should be closed down and that we should all go and live with Inspector Morse in Oxford or in Polly Toynbee’s capacious attic in London somewhere:

“The key recommendations from the report are to increase the size of London by allowing landowners the right to convert industrial land into residential land in areas of above average employment; expand Oxford and Cambridge dramatically”

The assertion about Northern and Western decline is probably 25 years too late, anyway (Leeds, Manchester, Cardiff anyone?); some of the resurgence is even based on real businesses as well as moving public subsidies out of London (I’m not even going near the Barnett Formula in this post).

In Wales, for one, public sector legal advice business is booming:

…we have already been informed that this blog is being monitored hourly by a large Cardiff legal firm on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government.

I already welcomed all Legal Eagles, so I’m happy to welcome a large Cardiff Legal Firm who have been visiting here as well.

There’s a nasty little trolling campaign going on against Pippa Wagstaff, of Miss Wagstaff presents. That’s the second contributor here coming under different attacks in about 3 weeks from completely different sources - hence my decision to comment here.

These trolls are always ironic; this one meets their own charges far better than Miss W. But it raises two questions:

1. What should our attitude be to people who don’t reveal their full identity on their blog?
2. How do libel laws apply to blogs?

My view of Anonymity

My position on pseudonymity in blogs is this:

1. Exactly the same standards should apply in the blogosphere as elsewhere in the media.
2. There are certain reasonable grounds for anonymity.
3. It is perfectly possible to maintain a consistent pseudonymous identity, using tools such as OpenID logins that cannot be easily faked by third parties. That is sufficient to present and maintain a coherent and consistent argument.
4. If anonymity in the blogosphere is to be removed, then the same must be done across the media.

The Monday Morning Team Meeting at the Lawyers’ Office

Credit: www.weblogcartoons.com

Bearing in mind that we have been visited by M’Learned Friends from bplaw.com, I thought I would help with the research by stating clearly what the policies are here with respect to Cease and Desist letters, and explain how you can question points of fact on this site.

After all, I wouldn’t want to cause excessive expenditure on legal fees - especially if the enquiries ever happen to be paid for from taxpayers’ money.

Our terms and conditions page is here, linked from the top menus of every page on the site to make sure that no one can miss it.