Iain Dale’s annual listing of Welsh blogs is welcome in that it shows where there is political activity on the blogosphere and by which party. Whilst Conservative blogs seem to do well across the UK, the same cannot be said of Wales.
Congrats to Cardiff Blogger, the top-rated “Conservative” blog in Wales. I hate to admit that I haven’t been a regular visitor to this site but it will go on the blogroll later this week.
However, apart from the usual suspects such as David Jones, Glyn Davies and yours truly, there was no other Conservative presence in the top 30. Perhaps I should have voted!
More seriously, such a weak presence is unacceptable, especially as little seems to have changed since last year, when I commented that the Welsh Conservative Party really has to do more regarding its presence on the Welsh blogosphere, although this evidence from Mr Dale shows that the call has fallen on stony ground, especially amongst the vast majority of the three MPs, twelve Assembly Members and the 174 local councillors which make up the Conservative Party within Wales.
Maybe I should be making more effort on behalf of the party to drum up support for a proper Conservative web presence in Wales but I do have a full time job, two newspaper columns to write every week and a new business that I am developing, never mind two young sons!
We'll see.
In the meantime, I repeat what I said last year
“Many will say that they don't have the time to do this but we are all busy people and one of our hardest working shadow ministers, David Jones MP, makes the effort to blog nearly every day.
Others will say that there is nothing to write about, so why do I get at least ten press releases every day from the Welsh party? Some have told me that it is a waste of time because the blogosphere is not read by locals i.e. voters and yet blogs such as Oscar's Thoughts in Conwy are regularly commented upon by local Tories.
More importantly, the press - both local and national - will do regular trawls of blogs to look for new stories. It is time for every councillor, candidate, AM and MP to reconsider their presence on the web in Wales.
David Cameron has led the way with innovations such as webcameron and I would argue that, at a UK level, we are the best advocate of the use of the web as a communications tool and there is no reason not to do the same in Wales.
C'mon, Welsh Conservatives, we can do better than this!”
Comments
Plaid really make an issue of getting supportters to vote for them.
Its the ones who are non aligned that I look at as real "winners" and the Conservatives who ahve little on line support havent done so bad.
Plaid love awards.
"ANEURIN Glyndwr is a brand new political website launched by Peter Hain MP, Eluned Morgan MEP and Alun Davies AM.
"Its logo depicts Welsh Labour hero Aneurin Bevan and Welsh warrior Owain Glyndwr, together representing the authentic voice of Wales.
"With regular updates, AneurinGlyndwr.com promises to be a daily must-check website for anyone who wants to know what’s really going on in Wales."
"This brand new political website is definitely one to watch!"
- Rt Hon Rhodri Morgan AM, First Minister for Wales
"I welcome this important new initiative. We must not surrender the internet to our opponents."
- Rt Hon Paul Murphy MP, Secretary of State for Wales and Minister for Digital Inclusion
""With regular updates, AneurinGlyndwr.com promises to be a daily must-check website for anyone who wants to know what’s really going on in Wales."
Do you really call four postings in August regular updates?
Looks like David Taylor has got bored again.
I've added you to our blogroll.
Thanks.
In N.Ireland 2 out of the top 3 blogs, 8 out of the top 20 classify ourselves as Conservatives and Unionists. Most of us take that second part of our title as serious as the first and as a result we post about events affecting the UK not only in our own small part of the UK, but also England, Scotland and Wales.
We've built up contacts and links with various like-minded bloggers in England and Scotland...but Wales? Nope, none of you seem that interested in the wider UK picture. Is it a conscious decision on the part of the very few of you Conservative/Unionists(?)who do blog to restrict yourselves to Wales-only matters and links?