I don’t like to dwell on Iain Dale’s poll. As Longrider pointed out in the comments, it is of no real importance anyway. However, the first of Iain Dale’s category lists — media blogs — got me thinking. Why are there so few Scottish media blogs?

As far as I can make out, the list contains two blogs based on Scottish politics run by mainstream media organisations. One is the rather good Blether with Brian from the BBC’s Brian Taylor. The other is The Herald’s politics blog (though going by Iain Dale’s list it is only Douglas Fraser’s entries that meet with approval). I have to say that while I was very aware of Brian Taylor’s blog, I was only vaguely aware that The Herald had a political blog.

You might think that two entries in the top 30 of Iain Dale’s poll is not too bad. But when you look more closely at some of the other entries, things don’t look so good for the Scottish media. Wales has no fewer than four blogs in the list: David Cornock, Betsan Powys, Vaughan Roderick and 07:25 to Paddington.

Three of those come from the BBC Wales politics department. In Scotland, Brian Taylor is the only BBC political journalist that I know of that has a blog. Even then, I suspect that Brian Taylor was asked by BBC News Online to start his blog. Blogs by the political editors of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all started within a very short period of time of each other, as I recall.

What interests me more though is the poor showing of commercial media outlets. Wales is represented by a blog from WalesOnline. Also on Iain Dale’s list is a local blog run by David Ottewell of the Manchester Evening News.

So where are the Scottish media blogs? I don’t think I would be alone in saying that I think The Herald’s blogs are rather limp and half-hearted. Of late, Douglas Fraser has only updated once every fortnight or so (although, yes, I know it’s the summer — but there have been a lot of Scottish political stories too). Robbie Dinwoodie is much the same.

Scotsman.com is even worse. It has no proper blogs. It does, from time to time, call articles blogs, but they have no permalinks and no comments — just a normal page with some date headings. Worse still, many opinion pieces are behind a paywall, which means that bloggers — even if they can be bothered to fork out to read it in the first place — will seldom link to them and engage in the debate.

I doubt things will improve in this area. Ever since Johnston Press took it over, they have seemed determined to treat Scotsman.com like it is the website for a tiny local newspaper. The perfectly good website was replaced with Johnston Press’s own template which is used for all of their local papers, just with content from The Scotsman shoehorned in. This kind of approach to the web, which will be an increasingly important part of The Scotsman’s business in the future, does not bode well.

I am sure the Sunday Herald used to have a separate site for blogging and comments. I don’t think I imagined it, but I can’t find any sign of it now. Mind you, I’m not surprised — it wasn’t very good.

It needn’t be like this. Despite claims from some that bloggers and the MSM are competing, this is simply not true. Blogs and the MSM are complementing. There are plenty of excellent, high-profile blogs run by media outlets based in London. The Spectator’s Coffee House, The Times’s Comment Central, The Telegraph’s suite of politics blogs, The Guardian’s politics blog and Comment is free, Nick Robinson and many other blogs from the BBC.

And Iain Dale’s list shows that they don’t have to be based in London, with respected blogs coming from other parts of the country. Why is there not more coming from Scotland?

It has to be said that the honourable exception is Brian Taylor. He seems to enjoy blogging and it is certainly a great place to catch up with recent political shenanigans. But what about everyone else?

Sorry, this is all navel-gazing stuff. But since I mentioned it already, I should probably point out that the results are up.

If this happened on the train I would probably be complaining quite vociferously. As it is, I lie between the Brian Taylor and Calum Cashley in Iain Dale’s top 40 Scottish political blogs, as voted for by readers.

More to the point, this list is definitive proof that this blog is the second best non-aligned non-MSM Scottish political blog (behind Ideas of Civilisation). I always knew it. (Any way to make the result sound more impressive, huh?)

Overall this blog is 16th, which is a dramatic fall of fourteen places from my previous position in this list. Still, I got off lightly. The person who was number 1 in that previous poll is nowhere to be seen in the top 40 now. Just goes to show what a fickle world this popularity malarkey can be.

I’m actually quite pleased for this blog to be up there still in 16th place given the increasingly sporadic nature of my blogging. I certainly can’t complain about the blogs above mine in the list, nor a few below mine. So thanks if you voted!

Another point to note is that Scottish Roundup is number 31 (in the week that it celebrates its 100th roundup too). Not bad for a blog that has next to no original content. Scottish Roundup is run by me, but it is a thoroughly collaborative effort with many people chipping in. So if you have contributed to Scottish Roundup before, give yourself a pat on the back.

Well it seems as though everyone else has been doing it, especially on the Scottish blogs. It’s all in aid of the 2008-9 Guide to Political Blogging in the UK by Iain Dale. He’s asking everyone to vote you see.

Last year, quite incredibly, this blog was named as the number 2 Scottish political blog thanks to Grant Thoms of Tartan Hero fame. Some will say that this blog is indeed a load of number 2, so the position is pretty apt. But I would be amazed if I repeated the feat this year.

So vote for me now!

As a few other bloggers have done, I will reveal my top ten political blogs. If nothing else, it fills a bit of space here. You might also be interested in my recent post on ten excellent blogs.

It’s not easy choosing just ten great blogs — and choosing the order of them is even harder. But you probably know that. I tend to go through love / hate (or at least ‘love / indifferent’) relationships with most blogs. No doubt this list would look very different if I compiled it next week.

1. Stumbling and Mumbling
2. SNP Tactical Voting
3. UK Polling Report
4. Political Betting
5. Mr Eugenides
6. J. Arthur MacNumpty
7. Ideas of Civilisation
8. Holyrood Chronicles
9. Freedom and Whisky
10. Liberal England

Several weeks ago Shane Richmond of the Telegraph included this among ten excellent blogs.

This is a meme which means I have been tagged. I didn’t do it at the time because I was busy dealing with the best laxative nature has to offer, exams. It’s quite convenient though because I’ve been meaning to point out some of my favourite blogs for years now but I have never got round to it. This is the perfect opportunity.

So here, belatedly, are ten blogs which I think are excellent, presented in no particular order except for the alphabetical one. These aren’t necessarily my ten favourite blogs, but they are the ones I felt like writing about.

• currybetdotnet

  It’s always interesting to read Martin Belam’s take on elements of web design. Everyone responsible for designing news websites should take heed of his analysis.

• F1Fanatic

  The best F1 blog going. I am always amazed by the amount Keith Collantine manages to post, even in the slowest of F1 news weeks. The quality is top notch as well, and I’ve noticed recently that some big hitting F1 news sites have been behind F1Fanatic once or twice as well. The comments are also often a good read. A must for all F1 fans.

• Freedom and Whisky

  This blog about politics and life in Scotland is well worth a read. David Farrer genuinely knows his libertarianism and is not just riding on the bandwagon since it became more fashionable. So it’s always interesting to read his perspective.

• James O’Malley… Living Legend

  James O’Malley: blogger, winner of an episode of The Weakest Link, columnist for the Northamptonshire Herald & Post and all-round Living Legend. He has his own Facebook fan page for crying out loud. He does deserve the plaudits. This is a man who exposed the Coke habit that so many MPs have. I also couldn’t stop laughing at his review of The God Delusion.

• Pigeon Blog

  A blog written by the slightly bad-tempered Brian Pigeon as he makes his way through life in bustling London. Very amusing.

• Sleevage

  A beautifully designed blog about beautiful (and sometimes not-so-beautiful) album artwork. A must read for fans of music and album artwork.

• Sniff Petrol

  A hilarious Formula 1 / motoring humour site. I can’t get enough of Crazy Dave Coulthard, and laughed like a drain when I read about Michael Schumacher’s latest blocking tactics.

• SNP Tactical Voting

  I would say this has become one of the best Scottish political blogs going — despite the fact that Jeff is an SNP supporter! He’s always there with some thoughtful opinions on the political stories of the day. Gone a bit quiet over the past week though. I hope this is temporary!

• spEak You’re bRanes

  A blog dedicated to ridiculing the more knuckle-dragging comments found on websites like the BBC’s Have Your Say.

• Stumbling and Mumbling

  A fascinating blog by Chris Dillow. An economist’s take on current events that often makes you look at issues from an angle you perhaps did not expect.

Here is a list of the top 1000 albums according to those folks at At Ease. I discovered a lot of good music from my days posting on At Ease, and this list makes for interesting reading. Some funny choices though (‘OK Computer’ better than ‘Kid A’ — yeah right)! Via DJ Martian.