I forgot / didn’t have the time to mention it at the time, but a couple of weeks back Scottish Roundup turned one year old.

But it wasn’t the only one — Tartan Hero, Scots and Independent, North to Leith and Granite City were all celebrating last week — mere days after I was bemoaning the lack of SNP blogs. That’ll teach me!

Is it a coincidence that so many great blogs started just after I began Scottish Roundup? Of course not! Unfortunately for me ego, it seems as though an SNP press officer was more influential than me. Pah!

A few weeks ago Grant Thoms drew up a list of the best Scottish political blogs out there. Inevitably, eyebrows were raised.

On the back of that, Holyrood Watcher said:

As far as I can determine, his league table was not based on objective criteria (but it was none the worse for that). I have been musing on how to introduce an element of rationality into the assessment.

Holyrood Watcher’s approach was to use Bloglines subscriptions to try and figure out which blogs were the most read. It’s quite a common method, although not without its faults — as I pointed out in my comment at Holyrood Chronicles.

Another popular method of ranking blogs is to look at Technorati Authority. Unfortunately, Technorati is more unreliable than the Red Bull Formula 1 car. Some of the stats it generates are clearly wrong. I have come across blogs that have an authority of 0, but still have dozens of ‘reactions’.

In case you’re not au fait with Technorati’s terminology, here is how it works. Authority measures how many different blogs have linked to your blog over the past 180 days. Reactions count the number of links in total that go to your blog.

I have actually gone and done it. I thought it would make a quick and easy post, but I spent hours trawling through Technorati to work out how the Scottish blogs line up. I have not even begun to form a comprehensive list. I have looked at around 60 or 70 different blogs. Of course, most of them are the ones that I am most familiar with. They are not all about politics, but they are all Scottish.

But whenever I thought I was finished, I caught sight of an obvious one that I had missed out. So no doubt I have still missed out quite a lot. If you think I’ve missed something out, leave a comment.

There are all sorts of reasons why you should take this with a pinch of salt. For one thing, there are the technical issues that I have already alluded to. Technorati is perennially broken. I could not get any information whatsoever on three major blogs — Mr Eugenides, A Place to Stand and Blether with Brian. (I think it is safe to assume that under normal circumstances at least two of these blogs would be right at the top.) I am certain that there are several other errors. I simply cannot believe some of these results.

Also, the recent link-fest in the wake of the Alisher Usmanov affair has inflated a lot of people’s authority. I reckon mine went up by 50 or 60! This extra authority will disappear almost completely once 180 days have passed.

Also, it is worth remembering that this method only measures links, and is no reflection of how many people are reading the blog. But there are a number of interesting things that come out from this. Think about the ratio of reactions to authority score. If the ratio is quite high, that means that the blog generates a high amount of conversation on a small number of blogs. This suggests to me that these are really good blogs that, for whatever reason, haven’t got the wider attention they deserve.

As with Holyrood Watcher, I am not a big fan of lists like this. As he says, blogging is not a competition. But I was intrigued to see the lie of the land, as far as Technorati is concerned at least. It is a bit of fun. But it’s nothing more than that — a bit of fun.

The first number is authority. The number in brackets is the number of reactions.

1. Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe — 253 (671)
2. doctorvee — 157 (534)
3. Freedom and Whisky — 147 (452)
4. Musings of a Reactionary Snob — 141 (483)
5. rhetorically speaking.. — 131 (309)
6. A Big Stick and a Small Carrot — 127 (699)
7. Scots and Independent — 126 (306)*
8. Mike Power’s Website – Not A Blog — 115 (1,199)
9. Clairwil — 114 (331)
10. 1820 — 114 (302)
11. J Arthur MacNumpty — 108 (302)
12. Bill’s Comment Page — 105 (201)
13. The Select Society — 100 (266)
14. Amused Cynicism — 90 (138)
15. Love and Garbage — 89 (171)
16. Tartan Hero – 83 (289)
17. Scottish Blogs — 81 (245)
18. Shuggy’s Blog — 79 (391)
19. Backword — 77 (211)
20. Informationally Overloaded — 71 (286)
21. Silversprite — 71 (146)
22. Michael Greenwell — 59 (124)
23. Rolled-up Trousers — 58 (861)
24. Colcam.Image — 53 (137)
25. Havering On — 50 (217)
26. Scottish Roundup — 50 (139)
27. Bloodbus — 47 (127)
28. The Scottish Patient — 43 (129)
29. Councillor Terry Kelly — 40 (476)
30. Islay Blog — 39 (91)
31. Right for Scotland — 36 (257)
32. Ridiculous Politics — 34 (116)
33. Naked Blog — 32 (251)
34. North to Leith — 25 (96)
35. Scottish Tory Boy — 25 (40)
36. Terry Watch — 24 (92)
37. SNP Tactical Voting — 24 (90)
38. Granite City — 23 (76)
39. North East Scotland Nationalists — 23 (50)
40. Indygal — 22 (48)
41. Edinburgh Sucks! — 20 (49)
42. Ian Hamilton QC — 19 (42)
43. leyton.org — 17 (81)
44. Surreptitious Evil — 16 (62)
45. Kezia Dugdale’s Soap Box — 16 (50)
46. Councillor Andrew Burns’ Really Bad Blog — 15 (63)
47. Whoopdedoo — 14 (66)
48. Scottish Futures — 14 (36)
49. Adam Smith Was A Socialist — 14 (24)
50. Holyrood Chronicles — 13 (132)

• Scottish Political News – 36 (74) – listed separately because it is a blog aggregator

Data gathered on Sunday 14^th October evening.

*Scots and Independent recently changed URL. I calculated its ranking by aggregating the scores of the two URLs.

As I said, there are a lot of surprises in there. And it is radically different to the top 20 that Holyrood Watcher posted last week. It goes to show that there is no relationship between the number of readers and the number of links. And neither of these are a measure of importance anyway. No-one in their right mind would objectively rank Holyrood Chronicles as low as 50^th.

At least Holyrood Chronicles is the ninth most-read. As they say, there’s only one thing worse than not being talked about, and that’s being talked about (I got that the right way round, right?).

Something else interesting about this list? As far as I am aware, there are no Lib Dem members on it (although there are a number of Lib Dem voters there I reckon). The highest, that I can make out, is Anything Caron can do… in 55^th. Actually, Caron herself would be higher, but still misses out (just) on the top 50. Should really have checked that before I published this post.

In the wake of the Alisher Usmanov affair, bloggers have been talking a lot about British libel laws. I won’t write much about this, because I know as much about the law as an ass.

David Farrer wrote a letter to the First Minister noting that Scotland has a separate legal system. He suggests:

Scotland can gain a competitive advantage by introducing robust laws that protect freedom of speech for both individuals and companies.

Possibly not to do with libel, but I remember one strange instance from around ten years ago when, bizarrely, the only way to get access to a particular UK politics story was to watch Reporting Scotland. For several days, nobody knew the identity of the cabinet minister whose son had been caught in possession of cannabis.

Then one day (I can’t remember why, and my web search skills have failed me here too) Scottish newspapers began to write about it freely. That day Reporting Scotland carried the story that the person was Jack Straw’s son. This is despite the fact that the story was nothing to do with Scotland. Meanwhile the UK-wide news still had to skirt around the edges. A couple of days later the game was up and people in Englandandwales were allowed to publish the story as well.

This is interesting then. Perhaps one day we could find ourselves in a situation where webhosts based in Scotland will not feel under pressure when they are bullied by dodgy billionaires with pushy lawyers. British bloggers who are perhaps not so keen to sign up to a United States-based webhost may find they can get as much freedom of speech right here in Britain, just north of the border.

I’m a bit late with this one, but I feel as though I should mention it.

Bloggerheads has been taken down by a bullying Uzbek billionaire and his bullying lawyers. Craig Murray’s website was apparently the one that upset Alisher Usmanov so much. But Tim Ireland’s ISP decided to take down a whole cluster of websites that he is associated with (but which didn’t contain the allegations) — including The UK Today, Bob Piper and some bloke called Boris Johnson (never heard of him).

Alisher Usmanov is the latest dodgy foreign oligarch with a murky past to express an interest in buying a football club. Usmanov is currently lining himself up to take over Arsenal. A few weeks ago he had already begun threatening Arsenal bloggers.

Now he is throwing his weight around at other bloggers who are shining a spotlight on his past. It is disappointing that Tim Ireland’s web host would react in this way to cowardly bully-boy tactics like this.

I should point out that Tim Ireland’s Bloggerheads was one of the blogs that originally got me interested in blogging. I think he is one of the most important bloggers in the country, and it is quite awful to think that these blogs can just be taken down at the say-so of a bullying arsehole with a few billion to spare. It’s a sobering thought. The threat to free speech does not just come from the government.

It’s quite funny because, of course, Usmanov and his law firm Schillings’s actions have only made people more interested in the issue. It’s publicised the allegations far more than even Craig Murray could have done alone. *sarcastic applause*

The best place to get more information will be Chicken Yoghurt, where there is also a list of the bloggers who have now written about this.

Matt Wardman also has a good overview and also wonders about the implications of censoring Boris Johnson, who is currently campaigning to become Mayor of London. Obsolete is the place to go for information on Alisher Usmanov in general. More also from Mr Eugenides.

Tim Ireland has an unlikely ally in Iain Dale. Nosemonkey looks at the libel laws surrounding this. Blood & Treasure provides clues as to where you can find more information.

Update: The blogosphere’s reaction has been strong. A couple of other things to point out.

Mike Power is quite good on this. As is Tim Worstall. But best of all, the original posts that caused Usmanov to throw a hissy-fit are now all over the internet. Check out, for instance, Lard Arsed (an apt title, don’t you think?).

Meanwhile, The Nether World points out:

The list of bloggers expressing their disgust at the antics of Alisher Usmanov and his pack of Rotweillers is growing at a fantastic rate with many of the posts including Craig Murray’s original comments about this (alleged) Uzbek gangster. Now, bearing this in mind, how successful does this intimidation campaign against bloggers look? Has it protected the reputation of Alisher Usmanov or confirmed it? Here’s another question: Do Schillings look like the “Leading Law Firm” they say they are, or do they more closely resemble a bunch of second rate ambulance chasers? If I was Alisher Usmanov I’d sack them.

Also join the Facebook group, Craig Murray’s blog should return.

And since this seems to be the thing that bloggers are doing (and why not?), here is the full list of bloggers that have expressed their disgust at the situation.

Curious Hamster, Pickled Politics, Harry’s Place, Tim Worstall, Dizzy, Iain Dale, Ten Percent, Blairwatch, Davide Simonetti, Earthquake Cove, Turbulent Cleric (who suggests dropping a line to the FA about Mr Usmanov), Mike Power, Jailhouse Lawyer, Suesam, Devil’s Kitchen, The Cartoonist, Falco, Casualty Monitor, Forever Expat, Arseblog, Drink-soaked Trots (and another), Pitch Invasion, Wonko’s World, Roll A Monkey, Caroline Hunt, Westminster Wisdom, Chris K, Anorak, Mediawatchwatch, Norfolk Blogger, Chris Paul, Indymedia (with a list of Craig Murray’s articles that are currently unavailable), Obsolete, Tom Watson, Cynical Chatter, Reactionary Snob, Mr Eugenides, Matthew Sinclair, The Select Society, Liberal England, Davblog, Peter Gasston Pitch Perfect, Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe, Lunartalks, Tygerland, The Crossed Pond, Our Kingdom, Big Daddy Merk, Daily Mail Watch, Graeme’s, Random Thoughts, Nosemonkey, Matt Wardman, Politics in the Zeros, Love and Garbage, The Huntsman, Conservative Party Reptile, Ellee Seymour, Sabretache, Not A Sheep, Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, The People’s Republic Of Newport, Life, the Universe & Everything, Arsenal Transfer Rumour Mill, The Green Ribbon, Blood & Treasure, The Last Ditch, Areopagitica, Football in Finland, An Englishman’s Castle, Freeborn John, Eursoc, The Back Four, Rebellion Suck!, Ministry of Truth, ModernityBlog, Beau Bo D’Or, Scots and Independent, The Splund, Bill Cameron, Podnosh, Dodgeblogium, Moving Target, Serious Golmal, Goonerholic, The Spine, Zero Point Nine, Lenin’s Tomb, The Durruti Column, The Bristol Blogger, ArseNews, David Lindsay, Quaequam Blog!, On A Quiet Day…, Kathz’s Blog, England Expects, Theo Spark, Duncan Borrowman, Senn’s Blog, Katykins, Jewcy, Kevin Maguire, Stumbling and Mumbling, Famous for 15 megapixels, Ordovicius, Tom Morris, AOL Fanhouse, Doctor Vee, The Curmudgeonly, The Poor Mouth, 1820, Hangbitch, Crooked Timber, ArseNole, Identity Unknown, Liberty Alone, Amused Cynicism, Clairwil, The Lone Voice, Tampon Teabag, Unoriginalname38, Special/Blown It, The Remittance Man, 18 Doughty Street (121).