Number 4 With A Bullet!

Woo hoo!

I begged; you humoured me.

UK's Top 50 Worst Political Blogs 2013

10. Spiked
9. Underdogs Bite Upwards
8. The Commentator
7. Frank Davis
6. Velvet Glove, Iron Fist
5. Comment is Free
4. Dick Puddlecote
3. Harry's Place
2. Guido
1  Socialist Unity Blog 

I must get me a sidebar badge for this noteworthy achievement. Anyone good with graphics?

Vote Dick

For some reason, a lefty blogger seems to be sufficiently bored to have resurrected a snap poll he last ran in 2010.

Back then, your humble jewel robbing tabloid host reached the heady heights of being rated the 21st worst blog on the internet. Coming from the 'progressive' ban-all-and-everything side of the fence, this made me incredibly proud - I nearly shed a tear, so I did - especially considering competition was intensely fierce at the time.

Three years on, I reckon your support could get me into the top ten. So please do wander over here and indulge the guy's quest to boost his visitor numbers by voting for me.

You have to nominate three blogs and rank them, so spread the, err, hate around wisely.

Enjoy.

Onwards And Upwards

Now that Total Politics have finished milking the hits for their blog poll results this year, we've snaffled a couple more jewels for the sidebar.

I was particularly chuffed to see this humble abode make 5th Libertarian Blog, and for my tabloid guff to be placed 6th. Looking at those placed higher in both sections, it's about the very best that could have been expected short of packing in the business, selling the family, and writing full time (hmmm, now there's a thought).

While in the overall poll ...

... a rise on even last year's lofty position to 23rd top blog and 27th top blogger.

It was also very heartening to see other blogs tackling the same themes doing very well. There's obviously quite an appetite for this stuff amongst a growing section of the population who are sick to the back teeth of being ordered around.

I am indebted to those who took the time to vote for this regular slice of prohibitionist gloom and correspondent unstructured ranting, and am as grateful for your support as I am in admiration of your stamina in returning here, day after day, to wade through the clutter.

Here's to the next twelve months where - if current trends continue - there is going to be even more health-obsessed bullcrap to pour scorn on. Please continue to pop in, comment (I read every one), and hold my hand as we manoeuvre our way through the denormalisation process that is over-weening big government.

We'll try not to let the buggers grind us down without a rare old scrap first, eh?

Annual Begging Bowl Post For 2011

Still catching up here at Puddlecote Towers and have only picked up on this with just two days left! So here's the blogging equivalent of an activist offering you a lift to the polling station at 8:30pm on election day.

I'd assumed that once Iain Dale went all nuclear that the Total Politics Blog Poll was going to be forgotten. However - via excellent bloggers far more on the ball than me - it's still happening this year, albeit a bit later than usual.

In fact, if anything they've made the whole shebang easier this time round. Here's the instruction manual.

The rules are simple.

1.Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. The higher you rank a blog or author, the higher up they will appear in the aggregated results. You must enter a minimum of five names for your vote to count. If you don't want to enter more than five, just write 'blank' in the remaining boxes. Every box must have some text in for the vote to be submitted successfully.

2.Only submit your vote once. If you vote more than once, it won’t be counted.

3.Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents and based on UK politics are eligible. However, this does not mean blogs hosted outside the UK, or blogs with contributors who don't live in the UK aren't eligible.

4.Anonymous votes left in the comments on the Total Politics website or emailed to members of staff will not count. You must submit your vote via the survey and you must enter a valid email address when you do so.

To have a bash, just click this link and make your selections by midnight on Friday 19th August (see? Told you I was playing catch-up). And if you could see your way to including a certain jewel robber in your list, that'd be right dandy.

If you're not sure which blogs to choose, there is a comprehensive selection here, as well as the 'Daily Reads' to the right.

By way of background, this humble drivel made 78th and 42nd in the past two years.

Here endeth Operation Get-The-Vote-Out.

Slartibartfast In Disguise?

So Jeeves has been having trouble with a few questions, eh?

Internet search engine Ask Jeeves has compiled what it called a top 10 of "unanswerables" in the past decade.

JEEVES' UNANSWERABLES

1. What is the meaning of life?

Jeeves' processors are obviously not powerful enough, so let's try the Magrathean supercomputer, Deep Thought, instead.

And thus does it become clear. Your jewel robbing host has been installed at number 42 in the Total Politics blog poll 2010.

QED. You may find the answer to life, the universe and everything ... here.

I always felt that there must be a point to all this waffle.

Come In Number Nine ...

Thanks to everyone who voted for this blog in the Total Politics poll. It came as a surprise to be placed in the top ten of the incredibly competitive Libertarian category last time around, so it's very encouraging to be installed at number 9 again this year. Especially considering the inexorable rise of Anna Raccoon, and Charlotte Gore's wise decision to stop kidding herself she was a Lib Dem.

It's interesting to note that TP have decided to increase the Libertarian results to 30 as opposed to 20 in 2009. One hopes that this can be attributed to a stronger showing from bloggers of our persuasion, and perusal of the full top 30 list would seem to confirm this. Blogs like the ASI, BBW, VGIF & Wallace, amongst others, can only boost Libertarian ideas in the future (and knock me out of the top ten no doubt, the bastards).

The acid test, though, may come when the full blog list is released. Currently, eight of the TP poll's top ten Libertarians are ranked in Wikio's top 30. Five were listed as top 30 in last year's TP poll. Some have claimed that Libertarian blogging has lost its bite since the election, so it will be interesting to see if the general movement has been up or down in 2010.

To mark your card, third round FA cup draw stylee, this blog was 78th last year.

Parking And Polls

It's going to be busy at Puddlecote Inc in the next few days. The signs described here went up last week, and now - four hand-delivered letters, the invocation of an MP, and a trip to our solicitor later - we have everything set up nicely for a good old ruck. We're quite looking forward to it, to be honest - any run-in with a council always shows up laughable procedures and jaw-dropping incompetence, so it's tantalising as to what this particular one will bring.

We fired off our first line of attack today (we have four in all) so if things go quiet here later this week, it'll be because we are enjoying our mischievous fun and games.

Talking of which, Iain Dale's Total Politics mag is playing its annual counting game, in which this blog, surprisingly, did quite well last year.

If you are taking part, please try to remember one of the good posts here (no, I mean really try) and hold it in your mind as you make your list.

The rules are as follows:

1. You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and ranks them from 1 (your favourite) to 10 (your tenth favourite).
2. Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. Any votes which do not have rankings will not be counted.
3. You MUST include at least FIVE blogs in your list, but please list ten if you can. If you include fewer than five, your vote will not count.
4. Email your vote to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com
5. Only vote once.
6. Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents or based on UK politics are eligible. No blog will be excluded from voting.
7. Anonymous votes left in the comments will not count. You must give a name
8. All votes must be received by midnight on 31 July 2010. Any votes received after that date will not count.

Don't know who to vote for? There are tons of 'em here and, of course, on the blogroll to the right.

Lows And Highs

I've been suffering my bi-annual one day cold today (unhealthy hedonist that I am).

It started yesterday afternoon and I have followed the same rigmarole as usual. Assault the virus with an inhumane dose of alcohol the night before, do the minimum of work in the morning, before donning three thick jumpers and wrapping up tightly in two 16 tog duvets with the heating on high**. Getting to sleep is a tad difficult to start with once the sauna-like conditions kick in, but boy do those germs bloody hate it.

Surfacing in a sticky thermidor mess at around 3pm, all was almost back to normal after an obligatory bath, though still a mite groggy. However, a quick schlepp around my RSS reader pulled up the fact that I made 8th in a list which shook off the residual lethargy. Just beaten by the blog written by two people (which is quite obviously cheating) to whom I gave high points with my vote. D'oh!

Thanks to all who voted for this stuff. I think I'll celebrate by popping up to the big city for a silicon top-up at inflated prices. Just after I've popped outside and brained the kid who has been sounding his Dad's car's horn intermittently for the past 20 minutes.

** A police jellycopter was hovering over here for a while earlier. Hope their thermal imaging cams don't lead them to believe I've got a hydroponic operation going on.

Shameless

One of the best bloggers out there is Costigan Quist at the Himmelgarten Cafe. He was long overdue for being added to my blogroll, but then he went and posted this!

Total Politics is running its best blog of 2009 poll and, shallow person that I am, I'll measure my success not from the wisdom I impart or the good that I do, but instead on how well I rank on a series of fairly random polls, competitions and link counts.

So please consider sending in a vote and ranking the Cafe highly

Here are the rules:

1. You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and ranks them from 1 (your favourite) to 10 (your tenth favourite).
2. Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. Any votes which do not have rankings will not be counted.
3. You MUST include ten blogs. If you include fewer than ten your vote will not count.
4. Email your vote to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com
5. Only vote once.
6. Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents are eligible or based on UK politics are eligible.
7. Anonymous votes left in the comments will not count. You must give a name
8. All votes must be received by midnight on 31 July 2009. Any votes received after that date will not count.

I find this quite shameless.

There is no way in a million years that I would ever consider pointing out such a poll. Much less highlight full instructions on how to register your vote.

Costigan, you have let yourself down badly, mate.