Much is made of the power of a blogger.

Some feel bloggers have undue influence on the political scene…others discount bloggers with contempt as a niche group of over opinionated zealous Party hacks with grandiose personal ambitions!

It is interesting to look at both sides of the story.  Some bloggers do yield  ‘power & influence’.  No-one can doubt the ’power’ that Guido and Order-Order.com yields, with, at times, the ability to shape the news agenda.  Effectively removing one of the PM’s most trusted and closest aides in Damien McBride was a real success for the bloggersphere.  The story dominated ‘Fleet street’ for weeks to come.  Guido certainly ups the paranoia factor in Westminster.  When he says a news story is about to break….MP’s look over their shoulder and quake.

Iain Dale is another great example.  Iain, in many ways does not shape the news agenda as much as a Guido exclusive does, but his grasp of PR and perceptive commentary on an issue for the media is nonetheless mightily impressive.  Iain is a trusted authority, whether on NewsNight or Sky News and is a talisman for the blogging community on how to master gaining media coverage, (sometimes he does not get the credit he deserves for his achievements in moving blogging forward).  Others now are starting to follow in his media shes, Shane Greer is a classic example and of course the up & coming Tory Bear himself.

However, not every blogger is a Guido or an Iain Dale. 

Getting to the crux of the question, will bloggers win the next election?  Nope is the clear answer if you are looking at their readership.  Let’s be honest, blogs are generally read by ‘politico’s', those in the Westminster village, eager party supporters.  A blog reader will either be a supporter ie Conservative reading a Conservative blog, or a mischief maker, eg Labour supporters commenting on a Tory blog to torpedo any argument / have a little fun.  However, this does not sway or change votes.  Blog readers I would guess have 99% made up their mind on their voting intention, hence blogs generally don’t reach new readers and sway mass opinion.  Hence blogs wont sway an election…..not by their current readership…..how can they make an effect then and can they impact an election campaign?

Key here is that a blog story can quickly be picked up in the media and escalate into a national news story, hence then reaching the ears of the wider electorate. Therefore the job of bloggers is to help find and highlight those issues which deserve national news coverage.  Hence when Gordon Brown makes any claim in the forthcoming campaign, it will be the Tory bloggers, more so than the media, who will research the facts, check for previous policy quotes/soundbites and then publish that.  From there, an Iain Dale, Guido, CCHQ escalates up.  That is what will impact upon an election campaign…..what will be interesting in this forthcoming campaign is which bloggers, Left or Right, will generate stories that will reach national media coverage….and impact on the election campaign….maybe influence the result!

John Prescott has just posted this image for his Facebook fans.  It is a response to Eric Pickles Tory T-Shirt Competition.    As you can see it features Iain Dale, (looking trim and tanned there Iain!), with the t-shirt slogan, ‘I’m with Stupid’, with a road sign arrow pointing up at Iain’s face.

This really demonstrates to me that we are in for one hell of a negative campaign from Labour.  This is a former Deputy Prime Minister delving into the gutter to gain cheap laughs by rude,  juventile attacks on a much loved blogger.  This was a personal attack and offensive to modern politics. 

Prescott should be shamed at such smear tactics.

Even one of his supporters, wrote on Prescott’s Facebook page:  James Delargy:  ‘JP – it’s funny – but childish and negative! Go forth should be a positive debate … look up my surname you’ll see my family of MPs and councillors are as red as red can be! Mud slinging isn’t the answer to getting votes, mate! Remember the Tory’s devil eyes campaign? That disgusted me beyond words – please stick to what you’re going to do and leave the infantile stuff to the others’!

Iain, if you are reading this, at least that Prescott sees you as a threat.

McBride and Draper may be gone but the principles of smear and gutter politics remain in the veins of the Labour Leadership and grandees.  Disgusting!

Total Politics have just published their results for the Top 100 ‘Conservative blogs.  TrueBlueBlood, hits in at number 19.  YAY.  Again, absolutely delighted, especially since the site has been online only since the beginning of  May, (3.5months).  Again THANK YOU for all who took time out and voted.  I really appreciate it.

Here are the top twenty Conservative blogs.  Congrats to Iain Dale for heading the poll.  Iain’s is a phenomenal site.  For the full list of the 100 voted for please click here. http://tinyurl.com/ogul62

1. Iain Dale
2. Conservative Home
3. Dizzy Thinks
4. Daniel Hannan MEP
5. Tory Bear
6. Archbishop Cranmer
7. John Redwood MP
8. Douglas Carswell MP
9. Letters from a Tory
10. Burning our Money
11. Donal Blaney
12. Mr Eugenides
13. Shane Greer
14. Nadine Dorries MP
15. Tory Radio
16. Working Class Tory
17. Raedwald
18. A Very British Dude
19. TrueBlueBlood
20. Richard Willis

This list is the result of more than 1,500 people who voted in the Total Politics Annual Blog Poll during the second half of July.

Next year the goal is Top 10

Again.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.

The best is yet to come…….

Total Politics have just published their results for the Top 100 ‘Right of Centre’ blogs.  Despite only going since the beginning of May, (3.5months), thanks to you, TrueBlueBlood has been voted straight in at number 41.  This is a huge honour.  Thank you all for supporting this new blog.

Looking forward to seeing how TrueBlueBlood performs in the top Conservative blogs.

Next year the goal is Top 10….help me raise the bar of this site with your suggestions.  Again, thank for for voting for TBB.

This list is the result of more than 1,500 people who voted in the Total Politics Annual Blog Poll during the second half of July.  Take a look at the top 100 list & click HERE.

All these lists, together with articles from leading blog commentators, will be published in the TOTAL POLITICS GUIDE TO POLITICAL BLOGGING, which will be published in mid September at £12.99. You can preorder your copy HERE.