Unfortunately John, the prize would have to be split so many ways that if it were one of Iain’s books, we’d be lucky to get a paragraph each.

This section is headed MEMORABLE SPEECHES. Are you saying those three aren’t memorable? You also omit to point out that the other four speeches in the section are by JFK, Martin Luther King, FDR and Lincoln.

The whole database is very much work in progress.

Do try taking your blinkers off. It is meant to be a valuable resource for people of all political persuasions.

If Total Politics is non-partisan, then how come it reckons that the best 3 political speeches of all time were 2 by Regan and Powell’s rivers of blood?

Dale is not in any way impartial and seems incapable of being so.

Dale even has the requisite climate change deniers viewpoint, the sort that APCO have a history of throwing good money at for their climate wrecking and health wrecking clients.

http://www.truthout.org/article/george-monbiot-the-denial-industry

Heh BenSix.

They won’t – they’re always in the dark*.

* Only snickering.

“How many Liberal Conspiracy readers does it take to change a light bulb?”

Leon is right to say 1000, but wrong about their division of labour:

200 left wing bloggers to set up a Light Bulb-Changing Committee (LBCC) to assess the scope of light bulb-changing activities, and the various sub-committees to monitor whether or not diversity targets and other relevant legislation is being complied with.

50 for an independent LBC appeals panel (OffBulb), in case anyone disagrees with the LBCC’s decision.

10 needed to become full-time trade union officials, to ensure that LBCC employees are properly represented.

50 bloggers must make up the External Representation Committee (ERC), which liaises with other departments and represents the LBCC at EU and UN levels.

100 will become revenue officers, who are tasked with taxing the local population to provide this vital service. Non-payment of the light bulb tax is a criminal offence.

20 bloggers to form the environmental sub-group in order to ensure that the light bulbs are environmentally friendly. This will be achieved by going on a fact-finding mission to the Bahamas.

400 administrators are necessary, in order to administer the other administrators.

The remaining 170 bloggers will sit around complaining about how Iain Dale and Guido Fawkes think that they are the only ones who can change light bulbs, and how the left can change light bulbs just as well, if only they wanted to. At this juncture, someone will point out that the only reason Conservative Home has bloggers who can change light bulbs is because the site is externally funded.

The light bulb will remain unchanged.

And of course, the right-wing blogosphere being Westminster-centric is another thing that endears it to the MSM. Basically, you could say the MSM’s take is “Hey! These bloggers write about the same stuff we do! They must be the really important bloggers.”

I read an interesting interview with him a little while ago, can’t remember what paper I’m afraid. In it he said left-wing (I think; it may have been broader than that) blogs weren’t moving on or being innovative, and suggested that much of the blogging in the MSM is now as good as a lot of political blogging. These are both opinions, and I for one would differ from both of them.* But the fact that they are shared opinions between ID and the MSM means they come to accept them as a sort of truth.

So the 100 best political blah just continues this confirmation process. The MSM aren’t interested in indie stuff (broadly conceived) in the first place, so it’s not like we’re missing out on a window of opportunity to get left-lib blogs more widely read as a result of ID’s views. The window was never open, never will be. I’ll submit nominations just because it’s a fun and neighbourly thing to do. I textvote in Strictly Come Dancing as well sometimes; doesn’t mean I give a toss.

*(because (1) I couldn’t give a toss who embeds/polls/liveblogs, I just want to read good, thoughtful, liberal writing, and frankly I’d be just as happy with a pencil and paper if it was as easily transmittable; (2) none of my, ooh, thirty or forty odd favourite blogs, from across the political/non-political spectrum, are MSM with the sole except of Bad Science. The overwhelming majority of what the MSM produces is mindless shit. That’s why we spend so much of our time deconstructing it on our blogs. This must be catching, because when I write for the MSM I am myself overwhelmingly shit.)

Bob Piper above is spot on. I wouldn’t have a problem with Iain Dale’s thing if he wasn’t so disparaging of left blogs without even linking to them!
I’m disparaging of right-blogs but most of the time I link to them when pointing out who I’m attacking and why.

Iain Dale constantly tells his readers left blogs are crap and then wants to set up a poll to determine the state of the blogosphere. I just wanted to make a point, which I have.

1 to change it and the other 999 to boycott the way it was changed.

Not Sunny’s posts, but mine – this is a group blog – and as you can see I’ve not commented on this issue here, nor do I intend to.

I have my own thoughts on this, but if I choose to air them then it’ll be over at the Ministry.