Why I Blog and the Blogs I Read

I started reading blogs in 2005 when I first worked for a Member of Parliament. Iain Dale's Diary is for me the gold standard of blogging. It has certainly gone off the boil in the last 12 months but I think his genuine personality comes through and the decline in the political incisiveness of his blog is indicative of a wider malaise in the right wing blogosphere. Frankly it's easier to be pissing all over the tent than it is to piss out of it when it comes to political blogging. 


In five years I predict the UK political blogosphere will be much more balanced in favour of the left of centre blog community. Not that I currently read many left-wing blogs! Spectator Coffee House and Guido Fawkes, both of which I've read for years, have also suffered since the change in Government. I think Guido's recent focus on deficit analysis and commentary is to his credit but no-one can deny that the quality and quantity of his tittle-tattle, the thing that made his blog great, has declined. Doubt he will have a bigger story this year than Hague and even that was grubby. Coffee House's occasional blind eye to political faux pas by the Coalition Government is disappointing. 


So why do I blog? Well, this blog serves separate audiences. It's partly a method to keep in touch with a lot of people that I can't individually email at the moment. It's also a chance to put into writing some thoughts and opinions on the wide variety of topics that I am interested in. Blogging is also a chance to occasionally pause and effectively reflect on changes in my life.


One of the first things I did when I came to Poland was to go to Church and pray. I'm not an overtly religious person but I found that afterwards, by reflecting on the forthcoming months in this particularly singular way, that I had agreed in myself on the principles by which I hope to achieve my goals in the next 12 months. This blog is an attempt to complement that. It's also an opportunity to forge a written testimony to, and a personal story of, a country both infuriating and infatuating. I'm blogging a fairly well-trodden path but I hope to offer something new that keeps you coming back.


In my humble opinion the best blogs are the ones that mix the professional and personal. Nick Robinson's blog lacks the latter and suffers for it. It's that personal openness that I find most admirable about Alastair Campbell's blog - even though in his professional work(especially over the election period) he like all those involved in high politics spends plenty of time honing obfuscation into a razor wire intensity. There you go Alastair, that was a very nice way to put it....you lying bastard. (joke).


So here's my blog roll, on both Polish and English politics and culture, in no particular order:


Charles Crawford's Blogoir Funny, incisive, prolific and sarcastic (bordering on the cynical). I don't always agree with everything he says, but I certainly admire his written style and the structure of his arguments. Particularly good for those looking for views on European politics. As a former civil servant, I find his analysis of the civil service and British politics particularly telling.
Polish Londoner by Wiktor Moszczynski. A thoughtful and periodically updated blog, I find Wiktor's writing style particularly affecting as he really gets to the core of a subject, whether it's prospects for the Chilean miners or the ramifications of the death of President Kaczynski. The recent tribute to his deceased friend Wlodek Lesiecki was very moving.
Polandian. A group blog which doesn't always get updated as regularly as this greedy reader would want, Polandian's irreverent style was addictive for me when I started reading English language blogs about Poland. Unusually for blogs going through the archives is just as good as reading the latest posts. Highly recommended. 
Iain Martin at the Wall Street Journal. Just great. 
Paul Waugh at the Evening Standard. The quality and quantity of the Evening Standard's politics stories would nosedive if Waugh left, very well connected. Good sense of humour and a forensic political eye. 
FT Blog Great collective blog. Particularly good for daily aggregates of top blog stories. 
Guardian Andrew Sparrow's Politics Live Funny and covers a huge amount of ground during "breaking news stories."
W Wa Jeziorki A blog that was partly the inspiration for the creation of Pozdrowienia Z Ursynowa. I particularly like the photos and descriptions of the Polish  urban environment and countryside. Covers a wide variety of subjects and always thoughtful. 
Political Betting by Mike Smithson. In the last 24 months has got well ahead of the curve in setting opinion. Highly recommended.
Boulton & Co. Has got better over the last 18 months but has an irritating format and varies in quality of analysis. Good for occasional irreverent look at politics. Ultimately like Robinson's blog largely serves as a platform for TV output. 
Hopi Sen.  A former Labour bag carrier like myself but far more experienced and interesting. I don't read his blog as much as I used to and I can't decide why. Blogs very well on granular local politics and state of the Labour party. Should be more influential than he appears to now be. If I was in the Labour Party I would read him daily. 
Ben Brogan waxes and wanes in terms of his output, I am sure his blog was better when he was at the Daily Mail. Nevertheless highly connected and a Conservative political weathervane.


Some other blogs that I've recently been reading and would recommend: 
 Politics, Economics and Society, Mlochow,  20 East, Eastern Approaches, 

I read the Telegraph, Guardian, Independent, The Sun and Daily Mail on a daily basis. I also read CNN and the Wall Street Journal, and a number of scurrilous Sierra Leonean newspapers for reasons I'll go into on another occasion.  I refuse to read any newspaper behind a paywall because I just don't think it's a long term viable way for newspapers to survive the change in declining print readership to an online readership.


Aside from that I mainly listen to BBC Radio 5 Live when I'm not working. I do dearly miss listening to the Today Programme on a radio in the shower but the days when I needed to know what the morning's UK political news brought are long gone.