Based on the amount of traffic they’ve passed on to www.libdems.org.uk during 2008, the top five blogs were (with changes in brackets from last year’s top five):

1. Liberal Democrat Voice (no change)
2. Iain Dale (no change)
3. Lynne Featherstone (+1)
4. Liberal England (+1)
5. Jo Christie-Smith (NEW)

Iain will, I’m sure, be flattered as ever to know he is so nice to the Liberal Democrats 🙂

(For the list of the top five local sites, see yesterday’s post.)

No great surprise that Ming Campbell’s site dropped out of the top five after he stepped down from being leader. Nick Clegg’s new national site, www.nickclegg.com, came too late in the year to get in the top five, but based on its performance in the few months since it was launched, it looks a strong runner to top the list in 2008 – depending on whether or not the judges (viz, me) decide to count it as a blog (it runs on WordPress) or not (it isn’t in the first person).

Jonathan Calder’s presence in the top five is a tribute once again to the popularity of his blog. He by no means is a slavish linker to party stories; his presence in the top five rather I think shows the number of readers he attracts and the interest they show in links he provides (a good sign of trust in a site’s author’s judgement!).

Congratulations to Jo Christie-Smith for her appearance in the top five too – beating Guido Fawkes for the last slot.

The top five in 2007 were:

1. Liberal Democrat Voice
2. Iain Dale
3. Ming Campbell
4. Lynne Featherstone
5. Liberal England