Our niche is narrower.

Chris makes the point that American liberals and conservatives constitute formidable movements not dependent on the Republican or Democratic parties. I think that’s correct. In fact, the party-affiliated blogs in the US aren’t much different from our own.

I don’t allow access to my stats so as to allow comparisons nor do I seek any. I do so because it just seemed natural to be transparent.

The only reason I asked Lynne to publish her stats is because she made assertions about them. In such instances, having boasted about your stats it seems only right to then make them widely available.

One other problem with webstats is that different systems report different measures. Mine, for example, gives visits, but not unique visitors. I guess my ‘visits’ are the equivalent of your ‘visits including reloads’.

Although I’m not sure that comparing webstats helps much because it discourages bloggers with lower readerships, I have to say that I’m quite pleased to see that my little local blog is quite comparable to yours having clocked up 11,000 visits last month.

I’d actually be a bit worried if displaying visitor rates became the norm for blogs. Many of us are aiming at quite small audiences, such as our wards, and we don’t need to be competitive about readership. What matters is that it is being read by the right people; in my case that means some of my electors plus the media.

I tend to avoid blogging on introspective Liberal Democrat subjects if I can and concentrate on what is going on in the real world. I also use my blog as a database for campaigning material so, if I see a good campaign angle or useful statistic I will put it on the blog and then use the search engine to find it again if and when I need it. I can also refer others to it as well.

I find that my blog is well-read by journalists and that occasionally they will pick up on a story from it. Often it will be used as background research by myself, my researchers or even by the media, and in some instances because I tend to adopt themes such as social justice issues in my posts, a journalist will think of using me for a story because he or she is aware that I have an interest/strong view on it, a fact he/she has picked up from reading the blog.

Only? That is a vast audience which — forgive me — none of you have yet cracked. Not even Guido.

Most of the political blogs in the UK are far too focused on what I would classify as big-P Politics — ie, Parliament, the Parties, the Policies. Institutional politics. Frankly, it’s the easy stuff, because the mainstream media cover it. All you need is a URL or two, a pithy observation, and you’re done. PMQs, the latest poll, a leader speech….whatever the MSM have covered or are likely to cover.

I don’t think one needs to be especially populist, in the tabloid sense, but finding a distinctive mission and putting passion into it surely is step one. I find a certain bloodlessness in the UK blogosphere, together with a good deal of cynicism.

Guido is monitored because he’s a bit of fun, and because politicians are afraid he’ll mention them. But Iain Dale is watched because he’s human and humane, not because he outdoes the Sun or the Express.

And, for what’s it’s worth, my vote for best political blog in the UK would have to go to a blog which isn’t very political at all – Rachel North’s blog. Just look at this: http://rachelnorthlondon.blogspot.com/2008/03/blackstock-road-raids.html

Intensely personal, filled with tangible detail, her posts contain authentic emotion and experience with which people can identify.

Difficult for an MP, I realize. Your experiences are bound to be different. But perhaps that’s the opportunity – to share what you see behind the scenes at Westminster in ways us ordinary folks can connect with. Could you have gotten away with disclosing ambiguous feelings, assuming you had some, when told to sit out the EU treaty vote?

For instance, I read and linked to your blog post on the embryology bill the other day, Lynne. My friend Debi read my post, and thereby your post, and then went to the recording of the Now Show, in which she saw Mitch Benn perform a song which pretty much paraphrased your post (see her post here). You to me to Debi to Mitch Benn is not a big leap, but it’s still four separate audiences for your original post (even if, as seems likely, Mitch Benn’s song does not end up being broadcast).

If every Lib Demmer had an audience of non Lib Dems, even if it was just friends and family, that would help enormously.

Not quite would be my answer. For a start, the blogosphere is just too fragmented. Very few people can realistically own a high traffic blog. The rest of us, in my view, should club together on a site such as Lib Dem Voice and thereby exert a greater collective influence. (You would think that a pro-European party would get this instantly.) I’ve lost count of the number of times people have asked me why I have not set up my own blog. The answer is that I have never been more determined not to do so, for the reasons just given. And I’m not sure that politics is quite so boring as Guido makes out. Though I certainly think that Guido can be a bit of a bore himself sometimes.

If you want to reach out to those disaffected then my advice would be to produce a more rounded culture. I think political blogs in America often are more newspaperish in that there is consistent diet of politics but also more what you might call lifestyle content too (though this isnt really true of Daily Kos). After all part of the problem with political engagement is that it is seen as elitist, the preserve of a rather weird species of human being who possibly come from another planet. Of course this isnt true but I think it is certainly a preception out there….

In reality although people may abhor poilitics, they almost certainly hold political views of some sort although they may not think so. If you want to connect to people then you have to start showing that politicians and activists are people too who just happen to take an active role in politics….

I think the danger in politics is to be inward looking but the internet can be a place where we cure that…that doesnt mean diluting politics in anyway….then the other thing is to have everything in its place…quite frankly id rather blog on LDV than have a blog on my own with minimal visitors but when I write on it I am primarily expecting to address fellow Liberal Democrats who are already in the process and the party…however I think LDV does synthasise opinion well with news…a LDV like approach in a more outward facing blog addressed to people not currently engaged with politics would work wonders to my mind…

@gudo – blogs have a potentially wider audience than just people who read them or are directly interested in politics via google, especially if MPs are blogging about every day issues that matter to their constituents.

I’d say the measure of esteem politics is held in is a direct reflection of the level of informed awareness of the population, while the level of interest reflects the relevance the political process has to any specific individual.

I also support an increased non-politicised space in culture and society, but we should know and be conscious that doesn’t mean anything is de-politicised or disengaged from the social mix (except in the abstract). Less group-state is concomitant with increased individual engagement and responsibility – politics and government are unavoidable.

Blogs are one further step towards providing the full means for personal government, but I think there is still a long way to go.